[etni] Re: Extensive Reading

 
  Patricia wrote:
   
  <Hi Rivka and all other folks, <SNIP>
   
  I actually had nothing to do with the original posting about dyslectic kids - 
Batya just happened to mention the readers I sell that also have audio discs 
with the story read aloud - but I'll add my two cents here anyway...

<SNIP> As far as I know there is no special rule about dyslectic kids and 
extensive reading.    However, they do not need simplified books just because 
they can't read.   If they understand the language at class level there are 
several things a teacher can do. <SNIP>
   
  Simplified books have nothing to do with dyslectic kids, IMO. Most of the 
students in our school read graded readers, simply because they're easier (not 
everyone can deal with books written for native speakers) and shorter (reading 
a full-length book is hard for many students). I certainly encourage my 
higher-level 11th and 12th grade students to read full-length original books, 
but I don't force them to do that, either. There are plenty of high-level 
graded readers, as well, and I'd rather they read a book that doesn't overwhelm 
them and enjoy it than read an original book.

<SNIP>1.   Get the student to watch a movie without subtitles - but don't 
forget that you should watch it first!  The student should give the DVD/video 
to you first for checking. <SNIP>
   
  Audio books are all text, albeit spoken, so it makes sense to use those 
instead of books for those who can't read. However, movies are a different 
story, IMO. You can watch a whole movie without understanding a word of what's 
being said, and still understand most of it just by what's going on on the 
screen. So I'm not crazy about that idea.
  
<SNIP> 2.  Which is what I do!    Get a computer literate student in the class 
to 
download a spoken book (there are lots of sites out there for free that the 
kids use) and burn it onto a CD for his/her LD friend.   Then the LD kid can 
both read and listen to the book (in silent reading classes as well.)    
One of my grade 10 students just finished Harry Potter this way. <SNIP>
   
  Great idea, so long as the student can deal with texts on that level. BTW, if 
your student got a free Harry Potter, audio book, it was an illegal version. 
Legally, only books in the public domain can be freely downloaded (unless the 
copyright holder decides to give away his or her book, which is definitely not 
the case with HP). 

<SNIP>3.    Download any free ebook onto the student's computer (your 
recommendation?) and have him/her listen to the text with Readplease, a free 
download from www.readplease.com <SNIP>
   
  Great idea, again only if there are books on the students' level.

<SNIP>4.   Get a friend to scan a book onto the computer and do one of the  
above. <SNIP>
   
  Other than the copyright issue, that is...
   
  Obviously the readers Batya mentioned are not for everyone. Most of them are 
meant for lower-level students, which is the level Batya is teaching. The free 
solutions you suggested are wonderful for those students who can't deal with 
reading but have a high level of English. Unfortunately, not all of our 
dyslectic students are at that stage...
   
  All the best,
  Rivka

 
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