Is an audio book a book? Is it “reading”? {Neil Gaiman alert}
Monday, December 14th, 2009
I think so, and so does Neil Gaiman, who took the mic at NPR last month and filed a story on audio books, featuring audio book emperors David Sedaris and Martin Jarvis, no less.
Listen to it here (and, for fun, read the text transcript at the same time to see where NPR made edits).
Our students love audio. While I initially purchased Audible.com subscriptions and iPod Shuffles with an eye on our special education students, they are wildly popular with all students. I don’t mandate that they also check out the book; I leave it to the students to decide. I figure that if I really want to develop passionate readers, I’ve got to make room for those who might not read if it required sitting down with the book in one’s hands but who might consider it if they could do their chores and rake the leaves while reading.
I’d love to hear from you. How are you using audio books in your school? Can students “just listen”? Do they (or must they) follow along with the text? Do kids listen to audio books for pleasure, or merely to keep pace with classroom reading assignments?
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I think so, and so does Neil Gaiman, who took the mic at NPR last month and filed a story on audio books, featuring audio book emperors David Sedaris and Martin Jarvis, no less.
Listen to it here (and, for fun, read the text transcript at the same time to see where NPR made edits).
Our students love audio. While I initially purchased Audible.com subscriptions and iPod Shuffles with an eye on our special education students, they are wildly popular with all students. I don’t mandate that they also check out the book; I leave it to the students to decide. I figure that if I really want to develop passionate readers, I’ve got to make room for those who might not read if it required sitting down with the book in one’s hands but who might consider it if they could do their chores and rake the leaves while reading.
I’d love to hear from you. How are you using audio books in your school? Can students “just listen”? Do they (or must they) follow along with the text? Do kids listen to audio books for pleasure, or merely to keep pace with classroom reading assignments?