5 Ways to Use Audiobooks in the Classroom
Some of my favorite book memories come from listening to my mom read to me over my breakfast or listening to my dad fall asleep as he read me a bedtime story. Listening to books absolutely counts as reading, so how can we use them in our classrooms to spark a lifelong love of reading? Here are 5 ways you can use audiobooks in your classroom:
Independent Reading
Some of our students have such a hard time focusing on a quiet activity in a classroom full of their peers. Every little sound derails their reading, and they truly struggle to keep their eyes on the page. They’re not “bad” readers; they’re just distracted! Audiobooks work wonders for these students. I have an extra iPad in my classroom with several engaging audiobooks pre-loaded. If a student is having a hard time with distractions during reading time, they can grab my iPad, pop in some earbuds, and listen to their book instead. (It doesn’t hurt that the earbuds block out all of those other distracting noises, too.) If you don’t have an extra device in your classroom, your students can download Libby for free and use their library cards to checkout audiobooks themselves. This is an idea you can start as early as tomorrow!
Centers
If you use centers in your classroom, consider adding an audiobook center! You can grab a five-way audio splitter for cheap on Amazon, so all you need is one device to make this center a success. If you want, you can have a few coloring sheets available for students to color in as they listen. If your other centers are noisy and active, this can be a really nice “quiet zone” in your room.
Whole Class Read-alouds
I have six class periods each day, and by the time I have read the same chapter out loud SIX times, I am exhausted. I love to read to my students, but when my voice starts squeaking or going out completely, I just want a little break! If you’ve ever felt the same way, you might want to try playing a chapter of your book on your classroom speaker system. It will give you a chance to drink some water or pop a cough drop in your mouth, and then you can jump back in with your reading whenever you’re up for it.
Fluency Assessment
I wrote all about how I use audiobook projects to assess my students’ fluency in this blog post, but the short version is that my students record themselves reading their favorite books, and I assess their recordings for pronunciation, enunciation, speed, and expression. If you’re ready to say goodbye to popcorn reading and other humiliating oral-reading practices, I highly recommend it! Check out my audiobook assessment resources here.
Audio Book Clubs
These are perfect for a day when you need to get caught up on grading or emails. Divide your class into groups of 4 or 5 and give each group a device with a five-way audio splitter. Have each group listen to an audiobook on their device. You can have them look for signposts as they listen (I wrote about how I introduce the signposts in this blog post), or you can give them specific questions to answer. With earbuds in everyone’s ears, this makes for a quiet and productive day!
And if you haven’t already downloaded my free pdf of 144 teaching ideas for every 7th-grade ELA standard, you can find that here!
