Assignment #1: Reading Review Blog Post #2:


I have a vision of what I want to accomplish at the school library and this vision is definitely based on an inclusive model which is an educational model that includes ALL students. The pupil population at my school is very diversified with a high percentage of ELL students and a few students with learning disabilities: dyslexia, ADHD, auditory limitation, and one student with severe motor and intellectual disabilities. Moreover, as more than half of the school enrolment is in the French Immersion program, French eBooks with audio and speech-to-text options would be very appreciated by many students who struggle with the French vocabulary.
And unfortunately, the current resources of the school library might not meet all required needs of those students.

That being said, I realize that it is impossible to satisfy all the needs at once and that priorities needed to be recognized. 
It is for this reason that I decided to talk to my colleagues and investigate to find out more about their students and their specific needs, which a teacher-librarian does not always know.

Most of them thought that access to eBooks with a text-to-speech option and audiobooks would be of great help for many students and a great addition to the school library resources.

So I first looked up at my listserve LM_NET subscription and search on the archive eBooks and also audiobooks. I was amazed to see how many comments, questions, and suggestions there were on that topic. From the answers I read, TLs were leaning more towards eBooks than audio books as the cost of the latter is much more. Here are some eBook options that stood out:
  • Overdrive eBooks (this was by far the most popular and it has a specific collection for French Immersion and ELL students
  • Overdrive Gale eBooks (more for high school students)
  • The Barnes & Noble



















Then, at my last French Immersion TL meeting the eBooks question came on and some of my colleagues had. Sora and Marketplace Overdrive were strongly suggested by one of my TL colleagues. 

Here is the info that she passed around: Feel free to have a look.


Here is a YouTube video about Sora.


Titlewave on Destiny is another option that I should consider. There are so many great books here. However, the multi-user titles are expensive. I feel the need to share the info with my colleagues before going any further.


Finally, I Googled eLibrary and got some more suggestions:
  • Blio: Here is some info.

  • Epic: An award-winning service which included unlimited digital access to fiction and non-fiction books from leading publishers such as HarperCollins, Macmillan and National Geographic.

And I also did a Google search on audiobooks and saw an amazing post on Blogger by Glenda Hampton Anderson. Mrs. Anderson is a consultant and trainer in Education and Assistive Technology. She suggests so many links to different reading support for students in need. This is a real "mine d'or" for educators and TLs.


Another Google search on audiobooks for students with disabilities brought me to  Pinterest where I found hundreds of resources references. More on Pinterest.

To finish up this second post, I would like to share with you an interesting study that I found when I searched on the UBC Library using audiobooks as my keyword. The study is comparing the reading progress of 2 groups of upper elementary students including a group of students with learning difficulties during Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) times. The treatment group, as they named it, was given audiobooks 3 to 4 times a week during the targetted reading times.
The study results clearly showed that assisted reading with digital audiobooks is highly beneficial and increase reading fluency.
The results also support the importance for teachers to provide more options for students during the time normally devoted to SSR. 
So my understanding is the more audio exposures, the better!

Now, I am more than convinced that adding eBooks and audiobooks to my library collection is the next thing to do. 

 Click here to access the UBC document. 


Sources:


Esteves, Kelli J., and Elizabeth Whitten. "Assisted Reading with Digital Audiobooks for Students with Reading Disabilities." Reading Horizons, vol. 51, no. 1, 2011, pp. 21.

Comments

  1. D.McNeeJanuary 22, 2019 at 7:32 PM

    You have curated and annotated a good list of resources to help you with your inquiry. I appreciate your narrative structure as it helps your reader understand your thinking and learning. The multimedia elements further enhanced your discussion. I am currently working with librarians from our local public library on a districtwide public library card campaign. With a public library card, our students can sign into their personal device, or one of the school computers, and sign out ebooks and audiobooks for free! This might be something to look into. Students have access to an amazing variety of titles and it is easy on my budget. Plus students are learning an important life skill. There are a few minor formatting inconsistencies in your post. This comes from copying and pasting from word processing programs or online sites. The trick is to paste without formatting (Mac: command-shift-v, Windows: ctrl-shift-v). You can also check your blog in an incognito window to ensure it looks the way you intend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mme MicheleJanuary 22, 2019 at 9:11 PM

    Thanks for the tip Darcy!
    A districtwide public library card is a very good idea. I will definitely look into that.

    ReplyDelete

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