Re: [LM_NET] Audio Books: Not Really Reading?

[Lisa Hunt <lisa3moon@YAHOO.COM>]

This is a recent topic at my PreK-6 school of 450 students.  I have used grants for 
3 years to build our audio book collection and each year I consider adding novels 
instead of just picture books.  Teachers of young children love this format because 
they consider this a scaffold to emergent readers and ELL students.  
   
  I am frustrated that the teachers of "readers" balk at my suggestion to add audio 
books that are listened to over time.  Personally, I love the audio versions of 
Harry Potter and Peter and the Starcatchers!!  The reader is so talented and has 
been awarded a grammy for his work.
   
  Anyway, I agree Shonda, listening comprehension is "reading", but until I work 
with a faculty that sees that vision I would be wasting money to purchase novels in 
audio format.  Teachers don't want students to listen to a book and then take the 
AR test because "it would be like cheating."  I have learned from my own experience 
that listening comprehension requires much more attention and focus than visual 
reading comp.
   
  PS:  Yes, you can hear the punctuation, and I think you understand it better, too.

Shonda Brisco <sbrisco@FWCDS.ORG> wrote:
  I have recently had some discussions with librarians about audio 
books---primarily using audible books via an iPod for listening. While the 
technology issue is one thing that I talk with them about (basically trying to 
explain it), the issue that strikes me as being rather unbending is the idea that 
these librarians have stated: "Listening to books on tape / audible version is NOT 
reading."

While I understand the concepts of the difference between the printed page and the 
audio page, I cannot seem to grasp the idea behind their belief that a student who 
CAN read but chooses to listen to books instead is NOT reading. As a librarian for 
the blind for ten years, I helped hundreds of students who would never be able to 
read print find literary skills through listening to books on tape. When I 
presented that issue, these librarians dismissed it as being a "handicap issue" 
rather than an issue of literacy for "normal people." 

When I asked if ONLY books in print, read with the actual book in hand, were 
considered to be REAL reading, they all agreed. When I asked if books in print that 
had been digitalized for electronic reading was REAL reading, they agreed in part 
only because the information COULD be printed out (which is another issue too). But 
when I asked if the book that was in print but placed in an audio format could be 
considered "real reading" ---they said, NO.

Their comments where that "real reading" included seeing the words, the 
punctuation, the way the sentences were formed, and the relationship of the words. 
My question was whether those elements could also be understood by the auditory 
learner WITH a book in hand and a tape / audio version? They said, "ditch the tape."

I don't know if I am really sensitive to the issues of "reading" in all formats 
available to students and their learning styles or abilities, or if I am just a 
little sensitive to the complete disregard of anything that is not in a bound 
format, but my final statement to these librarians was, "Get ready for it, 
ladies.....reading formats are changing and we need to prepare our students for 
EVERY possible medium that may become available to them---or they will become 
illiterate in the modes of information transmission / reception." 

What are your ideas? Are audio books considered "real reading" for students who can 
read or who might be using them in cooperation with the print for better 
understanding of the text? I've pondered this for about a month and a recent 
discussion once again brought me back to the same place. 

Thanks for your insights!

~Shonda




Shonda Brisco, MLIS
US / Technology Librarian
Fort Worth Country Day School
Fort Worth, TX

"Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible and suddenly you are doing 
the impossible."
~St. Francis of Assisi
sbrisco@fwcds.org
http://www.fwcds.org/campus/libraries/default.asp

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      Lisa Hunt
  School Library Media Specialist
  National Board Certified
  Moore, OK




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