iPods and the Reluctant Reader

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I'm the type of person who is always on the look out for money to spend in my classroom. If there is a grant opportunity, I'm the first person to fill out an application.  In the last year I 've been fortunate enough beg, borrow and nag for enough money to purchase five iPod touches for my classroom.  What I've noticed is that the iPods have been very beneficial to many of the reluctant readers in my classroom, so I thought I would share some specifics

(1) E-books make reading an entire book seem manageable to reluctant readers.

-  Reluctant readers are often scared off by the size of a book, but in e-book for you can't really tell if it's a "thick" book.

- Font size and spacing is adjustable in e-books, doing something simple like adding a larger font with more space between lines helps make the text more visually approachable. The is especially helpful for students who are EAL learners, or have visual impairments.

- Due to the size of the iPod screen,  readers only really see one or two paragraphs at a time. My students often report less anxiety in their reading experience, as they no longer face endless pages of daunting text. On the iPod touch screen, it's just reading done one paragraph at a time.

(2) Audio books, aka adaptations in disguise.

- High school students are very reluctant to be seen as different from their peers. This means adapting for students can sometimes be a challenge. However, audio books are a seamless adaptation for really reluctant readers. During silent reading times in my classroom, most students are already wearing ear buds to listen to music. Students who are using audio books blend in with the rest of the class.

- Apps like Audibles allow the reader to change the speaking pace of the narrator.  This is especially helpful to EAL readers.

- Some kids just can't sit still.  I've had students who spend Friday's silent reading class walking laps out in the hallway while reading/listening to their book.

- Learners with tactile tendencies can listen to the book, and also keep their hands busy doing other things like playing the word games I've downloaded onto the iPod.

(3) Using the Visual Obsession

- Many students already obsess over their device screen, so why not use that visual obsession to an advantage?  Most of my student report getting lost in their devices for extended period of time. It's easy for them to fall into a Twitter rabbit hole and get lost reading tweets for the better part on an hour.  Why not transition that visual obsession into reading an e-book?

(4) Scaffolding

- I find that students use audio books to scaffold into independent reading.  The most difficult part of the reading process is starting a book.  It can be an overwhelming amount of places, names and details.  I find that students use the audio book to overcome the deluge of information, and step into independent reading by the midpoint of the book. The audio book did all the heavy lifting, and students read their way into the finish line on their own.

I've had some great success using the iPods for e-books and audio books on a individual student basis, and would really like to build on it.  Now what?  I'm a huge fan of the Lit Circle approach to the novel study and haven't done a whole class novel study in years. I'd like to expand my knowledge of e-books and audio books into that area.  At some point in the upcoming months I'd like to pilot an "E Lit Circle" with my grade nine class where all reading for the Lit Circle is done on their devices. I'm still debating some of the logistics of this, including how to go about acquiring the texts sets for project, but I think that's the content for another post!