Preventing the Summer Slide with Audiobooks

Presented by Mary Ann Scheuer, Teacher Librarian for Berkeley USD, CA
Sponsored by Tales2go

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Listening to professionally narrated audiobooks is a great way to prevent the “summer slide.” Children in low-income households fall behind an average of two months in reading during the summer. Summer learning loss accounts for two-thirds of the ninth grade achievement gap in reading between students from low-income households and their higher-income peers.

In this edWebinar, Mary Ann Scheuer, Teacher Librarian at Berkeley USD, CA, presents research findings from a 2016 study looking at the effect of adding a listening component to literacy instruction—in school and at home. She also specifically addresses its impact on student vocabulary, reading comprehension and motivation to read. The study also found that students listening to audiobooks without paired text attained 58% of their annual reading gain in just ten weeks, putting them three months ahead of the control students. Mary Ann discusses these and other key findings of the research.

Beyond the merits of the study, Mary Ann shares the benefits, excitement and engagement of students listening to high-interest audiobooks at or above their current reading level that she has experienced first-hand. With new digital technologies, it’s never been easier to support students on a year-round remote basis.

This recorded session is designed for PreK-12 librarians as well as reading coaches, ELL specialists/teachers, Title I teachers and administrators, district librarians, and classroom teachers.

About the Presenter

Mary Ann Scheuer has 20 years’ experience in California schools, as an English teacher and a librarian. She has served as an elementary teacher librarian in Berkeley USD since 2013, creating a new role in this district. As an English teacher, Mary Ann wrote a school-wide grant to fund audiobooks and regularly used these in her teaching. Now as a librarian, she has led the way providing streaming access to audiobooks for all elementary students across her school district. She is currently doing action-research to determine the impact of audiobooks on struggling readers. Mary Ann regularly reviews books at her blog, Great Kid Books. She also contributes to School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews and the Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California. She has her MLIS from San José State University, a teaching credential from U.C. Berkeley and an MSc from the London School of Economics.

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Watch the Recording

Tales2go is a partner in the fight for better literacy, making it easier and more cost-effective to add a listening component to reading instruction. The service provides instant, unlimited and simultaneous access to over 6,700 high-interest audiobooks from leading publishers to use on desktops, laptops and mobile devices in the classroom and beyond.

Listen to the Podcast

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If you would like a CE certificate for this presentation, watch the edWebinar recording and take the CE quiz.

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