I have never been much for reading in my life. However I never really gave reading a chance. I am the type of reader that the piece of literature has to really grab me in the beginning or I can never complete reading the piece. I would read a few paragraphs then the next thing I know I am waking up. Dang, did I just fall asleep? For many years I felt I just hated to read. I couldn't do it. I had to read a book for a class and it was so dull reading the first chapter took be two weeks. One day one of my friends brought me the audiobook so I could listen to it since I kept falling asleep. I listened to the audiobook and wondered to myself. Is listening the book the same as reading it? I felt quilty like I just cheated on a test. Can listening help me to read words I would normally not know what is was? Am I getting the same benefit as I would if I read the book? Would my interpretation be different while hearing it as it would be reading it? A million questions ran through my mind so I decided to read up on it.
What I found was that some experts believe that the use of reading your literature aloud to be one of the most important factors in proficicient reading skills. They believe that hearing the stories read aloud is one of the right steps to becoming a better reader. I found this interesting because you don' t see the words when you hear it read to you opposed to if you read it yourself, however if you have an understanding of the alphabet it would make since then that hearing the words would make these words easier to identify. My cousin Jennifer read to her daughter frequently as a child. Jourdan was one of the first in her class to read. She also excelled in many other subjects compared to the other students in her class. My children did not get read to as often. My youngest son and daughter struggled with reading for a while until we started going to the library and getting books and reading them together. It appears to me that when you read to the children there is more going on at that moment then just hearing a story. My children lit up when we did these activities. They were so happy and really felt as though this was our time together a moment for mother and children. Our bond always seemed to be stronger during these times. When I took the time to read with the kids and help them to see the words. In some cases I would have them read to me and we would sound out words together. They were always so excited to go back to school and show their teachers what they learned or read about. At this time you realize how important it is to help the teachers by helping the children at home. With this little bit of time this can help a teacher save much needed time to help the child excel in otehr subjects.
I also found in my studies that some experts believe that reading to the children allows a greater chance of that child fostering phonemic awareness processes by introducing the sounds of written language along with allowing access to the structure of liturature. This also allows the child to appropriate intonation and helps to provide a model for fluent reading. One Physician states that reading allowed also helsp develop vocabulary growth and language expansion; when this is present ti increases the development of receptive and expressive language capabilies. —G. Reid Lyon, <I>The Keys to Literacy: Overview of Reading and Literacy
Research<I>
When I first read thought of this topic I did not believe you could gain good literacy by hearing the words and not reading them. After doing a little research I understood literacy to be more than just reading words and understanding them. I no longer feel guilty for listening to an audiobook instead of reading the book if it puts me to sleep. On that note I found that some books started off slow but while listening to them I could actually get through the novel and later found I could read along with the audiobook and gain more insight to what I just read.
most my information came from http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/RHI/
- Cassa Arnold
For children, early reading has immense and lifelong benefits. Early reading fosters "emergent literacy," which involves the literacy skills the child develops before he or she is able to read, write, or even speak. It is similar to the concept of emergent language and social skills. We talk to our babies because they are developing emergent language skills way before they are ever able to speak. Early learning can improve a child's reading comprehension and literacy skills thereby providing for greater success in all areas of academia later in life; however, it also helps with many other facets of learning. Reading helps children develop problem-solving skills and grasp basic and complex concepts such as cause and effect, idea, and principle. Reading also helps children develop social models and enhanced critical thinking skills. I just recently wrote a grant to purchase books for our outpatient library at work because we encourage our families to read every day with their children. The children we serve face great developmental delays and disabilities and reading really helps them establish so many of these benefits. Sorry to go off on this a bit, but it's just something that is important to me and relevant.
ReplyDeleteHaving said all that, I think that listening can have these same types of benefits for adults. My friend also falls asleep when she reads because she's (like you seem to be) a mom and she's employed full-time and has a lot of balls in the air. However, she loves listening to books on tape and they allow her to experience the great things about literature. I definitely think you can capture all the benefits of reading- experiencing imagery, exploring complex theme, and looking for interesting literary devices while listening. Storytelling began with voice and listening so in a way, even though you're doing something that may seem nontraditional, you're kind of going back to basics when you experience a work as a listener instead of a reader. I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!
Lindsey Mattingly
P.S. Sorry this is posting under my company's name; it has to do with the blog I write for them, but I can't make it go away!
My parents used to read to me all the time when I was little. Before we could really read the words, my little sister and I would act out play versions of the bible stories they read to us. I would say that my love for literature definitely began orally. Also, I think combining the two obviously helps: looking at the page while hearing it read.
ReplyDeleteI observed recently at a local high school and the teacher had students following along in their textbooks as she played an audio version. It really seemed to help the students with comprehension.
I would not be an aspiring English teacher today if my mother had not read to me and eagerly devoured any book she could get her hands on. These experiences really influence you, and you're right, I believe it helped my literacy skills as well. I am not one for books on tape; simply because my mind processes words too quickly and it frustrates me because the narrators tend to clip at a much slower pace than I read (I've been told that I read at the speed of light).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that any exposure to literature in any format is beneficial and can only enhance a reader’s/listener’s literacy and language skills. So many of my college professors have told me (and other experts would agree, I’m sure) that the best way to expand your vocabulary is to open a book. Keep reading to your children, Cassa. I speak from experience when I say that they’ll never forget it, and it will impact their future in ways they’ll never even realize.
I love this topic. I think it is important to understand that there are people who are readers by hearing a book rather than reading it. However, I do not use audiobooks. I am a very slow reader and must admit that I’ve considered using them to quicken my reading pace so I could get on to the actual assignment. I haven’t actually gone so far as to do this yet though. I have a slightly photographic memory and actually reading the book helps me to remember more about it. I was taking a quiz in eng. 200 last year and couldn’t remember the name of a town. I closed my eyes and thought really hard and because I’d read the book I could see the word and answered the question correctly on the quiz. I was also a musical theater major before becoming an English major which makes me a theater person. I am able to come up with different voices and exact images for the people and places in the books and reading helps me do that. I find that my mind wonders if I try to listen to a book and I don’t get much out of it.
ReplyDeleteI think that audio books do help literacy. For many who have yet to learn to read words and phrases, hearing the story can better help with their comprehension. The enunciation of the words when someone is speaking them is definitely more clear than if you were to read them yourself. Also listening to the book in audio format is definitely less time consuming than if you were to read the book. There are alot of childrens' literacy programs that still use cassettes and the book to teach the children the story, for those who cannot read yet and those who dont read well.
ReplyDeleteI agree that audio books are very beneficial to literacy. I have seen my 6-year-old son over the last year go from being read to, to learning how to read on his own and now he reads a dinosaur encyclopedia for fun! I think schools are using audio books more now, especially at lower grade levels, in order to help more students connect with the books they are reading and to increase comprehension.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't use audio books because like someone else said, they tend to move too slowly for me, and like Kelly, I have a photographic memory :)
I really love your blog! It is much different from the others in both theme and lay out. It has a very reflective and artistic feel and is interesting to peruse through. What I appreciate in your posts are all of the resources you've analyzed alongside the texts in order to gain a more in-depth look at what we're studying. I found these posts to be really helpful.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the comments. I found all of them very insightful. I found this to be a very interesting topic and one of which I had never given much thought to until recently. I do not use audio books most of the time but for the one book I had trouble getting through it really helped me out. I can say there have been books have just could not put down. The ones you want to hide under the covers and read with a flashlight and count down how many hours left before you have to get up to work. I love reading during these times. I guess the best thing I can say to increase literacy is to read what you like. I will say that before I started taking these classes I just read books. I have never analyzed them. Thought about how it was written or narrated and now when I read I get a whole new experience. Reading can be a beautiful thing. Now if I can just feel that way reading text books I will be good.
ReplyDelete- Cassa Arnold
I love love love loooooove audio books. I have close to 200, some on CD, others on cassette. I paid extra to have a cassette player in my car, in addition to the CD, because I would only have been able to play half my audio books. I mainly listen to them on the road. I hate to listen to people talk on the radio; If they would just play music I would be fine, but they seem to go on and on about nonsense. Whenever I lesson plan of a longer text, I always make sure that students are independently reading, whole-group reading, and following along with an audio book. There are so many different ways to read, that I think a responsible teacher gives as many different opportunities as possible.
ReplyDeleteYour blog does indeed look and feel different than the other blogs (as someone else said). Rather than discussing the texts specifically, your blog pulls in different themes and ideas. I like that.
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question, I like audiobooks, as long as they are not abridged. I hate abridged books, and I double hate abridged audiobooks, because most of the time those are the only "edition" available at libraries. I have listened to several audiobooks when I took roadtrips back and forth to and from Kansas. Another thing that's important with the audiobooks is that they have to have a good narrator. I tried listening to Bram Stoker's Dracula one time, but I couldn't get into it because the narrator was monotone and so quiet I could barely hear him, even with the volume all the way up. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky has a great narrator. I've listened to that one probably five or six times.
Audiobooks are also a great way for really busy people to culture themselves. They may not have time to read a book, but they might have time to listen during a long commute.
I just wish my car's tapedeck worked. :(
Great post Cassa!
ReplyDeleteI love audio books and always have one going in addition to the books I am currently reading. As Amanda Walker said, I hate talk radio. I also drive through the country where the stations don't exist and change. I had to get past the cheating feeling that 'cheating' feeling that Cassa mentioned and when I spoke about the book to a friend, it invariably sounded like this. "Oh man, I just finished this great book! Well, a book on CD so I didn't actually read it." Now, I don't care and just say "Yeah, I read that."
I read at a good pace as some of the others mentioned, but that doesn't stop me from loving the audio books. I found that the boring narrators, like the ones that Laura Sullivan mentioned (Thanks for complementing our blog, everyone.), do come off as slow and boring. Let me say that Beowulf is one of my all time favorite stories. I actually fell asleep listening to audio book Beowulf...while driving. It was not good. I almost went the way of those poor drunken thanes of his. Anyway, the audio books that I get now are mostly sci-fi and they have the best productions. They are basically radio dramas (a nearly dead art that I love and miss). They usually have different narrators for each character and read the lines with real emotion. It is great, because when I read I usually subvocalize accents and speach patterns appropriate to the characters so I get a similar experience.
The effects of reading aloud that Cassa mentioned are interesting to me and I think I will read a bit more about he science of it (after classes are finished).
- Japheth
Japheth, would you mind sharing the titles and authors of some of the cool radio drama style sci-fi books on tape? (I like sci-fi...) Thanks! ^_^
ReplyDeleteMy parents and grandparents used to read to my brothers and me all the time when we were kids, and I remember long car trips where we would play "Hank the Cow dog" books on tape. I have always loved reading, but I have not listened to books on tape in a long time.
ReplyDeleteOne of my closest friends is legally blind and as a result reading was always more of a punishment for her than an enjoyment. She is a very determined student and is in fact working on her master's but she gets terrible headaches from straining to read. From her perspective audio books are another barrier between her and the normalcy that she works so hard to achieve.
Since knowing her I also have often associated audio books with those who are physically unable to enjoy a book any other way. Your post reminded me of my childhood love of "Hank the Cow dog" however, and it made me think that maybe she is viewing audio books the wrong way. I think that if she had not been so passionate and determined to be "normal" she might have actually developed a love of reading, but i admittedly cannot begin to understand the struggles she goes through each day in coping with her handicap.
So much of the world opens up through books that i cannot imagine not enjoying reading whether through my eyes or ears.
-Elizabeth