Well, as I continue with the Daily Five, I have been amazed how motivating the Listen to Read center has been for students. Most curiously, the ten year olds seem to love it as much as the first graders. Though of course, the ten-year olds require different listening materials for the most part.
I have been much more able to keep my struggling readers in just right books when I let them listen to the books they want to read out of their "just-right" level, like Junie B. Jones, Magic Tree House, Amber Brown and, of course, Geronimo Stilton. I also use listen to read to familiarize students with Writer's Workshop mentor texts, like A Chair for my Mother. Many of these books on CD can be found at the library. My school happened to have bilingual funds to order a number of copies.
Right now I'm in search of more primary, easy reader books. It seems like even when I look on Amazon there is a limited number. But today I found two easy readers I'm very excited to read. Apparently, David Shannon has two easy audiobooks out that I hadn't seen yet: Alice the Fairy and The Rain Came Down. If you're anything like me, you love his illustrations and stories and can't wait to share them with your students!
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