Week 5: I Thought CD Players Were Old Fashioned?

This week, I would like to discuss how my CT uses a CD player in her class to further her students' learning. Every day, students work on their "rounds" for 10-20 minutes at a time. Their rounds consist of different types of reading or writing. During this time, my CT will pull certain guided reading groups up and complete one guided reading session per "round."

These are the options the students have when they begin a "round." 

I will focus on the "listen to reading" option of the round. Students can go out in the hallway and sit at a little table with a CD player on it. They place the headphones on their ears, open the book that the teacher has in it for the week and begin listening to the story. They are supposed to follow along with the story, tracing with their finger underneath the words if they struggle following just using their eyes.

This type of media works well for the students because it is really engaging and different than reading to themselves. They can learn larger vocabulary words without struggling too much. Also, this option for a "round" is only available to a student once and then they have to wait until the entire class has had an opportunity to do it before they can do it again. This minimizes the students from using it as a scapegoat if they have a hard time reading! 

 As you can see by step number 3, the students are still practicing writing what they learned about from the story on a sheet of paper. They aren't just listening to the story but instead practicing multiple things in one sitting.