Audiobooks

Overview

Audiobooks allow students to hear fluent reading and to experience books above their reading skills. When listening to audiobooks, learners have Decoding support and are able to focus on their reading comprehension.

Use It in the Classroom

To support increased comprehension, teachers can provide listening challenges or guiding questions to focus Attention when listening. These tasks can then be shared in differentiated small groups, supporting Motivation and Social Awareness and Relationship Skills.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Watch how epic! has a read-to-me capability for many of their books that transforms them from e-books to audiobooks. This flexibility supports learners with diverse Visual Processing needs and promotes increased Attention.

Several digital libraries, such as epic! and Raz-Kids, include an audio function to allow for many of their e-books to be listened to. By allowing learners to listen and visually track texts, readers can develop their Decoding, Print Awareness, Phonological Awareness, and Syntax skills.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Examples

Audio Books

Teacher's First curated selection of free elementary audio books with text

Examples

Benefits of Audiobooks

Many resources on the benefits of audiobooks

Examples

Free Audiobooks

Websites that provide free audio books

Examples

Learning with Audiobooks

Finding audiobooks and tips for using them in the classroom