Future Telemarketers?

Audio enhancements seem to be a trend of late in schools and the reading field. My classroom is located in the audio enhancement section of the building, and I have witnessed the effectiveness that enhanced audio can bring to a lesson. So, it should come as no surprise that devices like Whisper Phone and Toobaloo are –ehem- making noise in the reading world these days.
                These devices are really low-tech but deliver what they promise. (They’re also wonderfully cheap, and can be cloned using PVC.) Made from simple plastics, each item is used by students when reading aloud. These audio tools help in several ways.

• students are able to sub-vocalize their reading, yet hear it themselves as if they were speaking fairly loudly
• classroom “noise” during activities like rereading a rough draft are nearly eliminated
• student focus is improved as typical background sounds lose out to the reader’s voice
• finally, and best, the chance for student understanding rises significantly as their reading is ported accurately into their ear canals. 

                I had the opportunity to test these tools this week and found myself smiling at how simple and effective they are. The Toobaloo claims to amplify a sub-vocalized voice as much as 10 times. Having no way to measure this, I’ll buy it. The Toobaloo was indeed the more effective of the two tools for enhancing my voice. The drawback is that it has to be held, like one would hold a phone. The Whisper Phone is hands free, which was great when I needed to hold a book open to read. It was, however, not as loud as the Toobaloo. This often led to me reading a little louder than I might have wished. It also seemed to have a seashell effect. It allowed a steady tone similar to when we put a seashell to our ears to occur. It wasn’t terrible, but something I did notice. Still, it’s hard to not want to have the hands-free set for longer reading.       
                I’m going to work on purchasing a few of these in the coming months to pilot them with my students during certain activities. Unable to decide which device is the best, I’m simply going to buy both. So, if you walk by the room and see kids wearing these then the answer to your likely question is “No, I am not training our youth of today to become tomorrow’s telemarketers!”

If you decide to purchase one of these for home use, I would highly recommend that you have your child place the device up to his/her right ear. Sounds entering the right ear canal access the left side of the brain, which is where much of a child’s understanding of language is developed. This does beg a question, for me at least: If a child is using these devices to review the steps of a math problem, should they wear it over the left ear? Anyone?

My Absolute Favorite Book Evaluator...for the Moment

     Well, it's official. Scholastic Books has finally broken through with a quality application. The Book Wizard is an extremely friendly and, I'm finding, reliable tool for determining some of the vitals about books. For too many years I felt frustrated by the density and improper categorization of the Scholastic website. It was always a fine place to buy books and then not much more useful beyond that. Finally, it's changed.
     Want to know the reading and interest level of Gary Paulsen's book Lawn Boy? Plug in the title and up pops a succinct window of information. (Lawn Boy comes out with an interest level of grades 3-5 and a reading level of 4.5.) Or, maybe you're curious about all of Gary Paulsen's written works. Place his name in the Book Wizard window and presto! All 100 of his works arise. By scanning the page anyone can see that he writes within a fair range of reading levels from grades 3-8. Yes, other sites do this in a similar manner, but what they don't have are some of the additional, useful, bells and whistles that follow:
     Along with interest and reading levels, each book is categorized by genre and topic. This is a very relevant item which many other book sites either do not offer or do not do particularly well. Again, examining Lawn Boy we learn that it falls under the genre of realistic fiction as well as comedy and humor. The latter description is a pleasant bonus many sites won't bother to give. The topics associated with Lawn Boy are jobs, careers, work resourcefulness, and sports. Now, that is a feature I can truly appreciate when I do not have a familiarity with a book.
     Scholastic Books also adds a if-you-like-this-book-then-you'll-enjoy-this-book search window common to movies and music sites. Amazon rose to power with its ability to cross-compare books and make decent suggestions of other titles that could interest its customers. Now Scholastic has done the same also allowing its users to adjust the grade level difficulty at the same time. Was Lawn Boy fun but too easy? Push that meter up a grade or two and new suggestions arise. Nice!
     So, if you're not quite clear about the nature, difficulty, or how well a book might match with your child, run it through the Book Wizard and enjoy the magic. This site can easily be used by your child independently, which is another great approach to satisfying the customer.
     This is without a doubt my favorite tool for checking out the appropriateness of books for particular students by age and interest...until the next best thing comes along.