[CALIBK12] Audio Books Justification?

[Blanche Woolls]

About this time of year teachers realize they still have a long way to go 
before summer arrives, and they take their angst out on the earliest 
person to come along. For all you know, the teacher just remembered the 
credit card bill was lying on the kitchen sink and was now going to be 
late arriving at the office. Anger at the size of the credit card bill and 
the added interest was hidden under accusing you of subverting assignments 
in the classroom.

Seriously, you might give the teachers a list of the books you have on 
Playaway so that they didn't assign those books. Now, how you are going to 
get around those students who have a parent who reads to children who get 
tired of reading or for whom reading is a challenge, parents who buy books 
on tape to play on vacation, etc. etc.?

Please, just write a gentle note (e-mail) to the teacher and list your 
Playaways so the teacher is aware of those and won't assign them, and then 
list all the other ways children might listen (in car on vacation) while 
they read along, always a lot of fun, what books teachers might be 
reading aloud to students (my English teacher my Freshman year read us a 
couple of chapters from a classic on Friday because we were to squirrely 
to learn anything last period on Friday afternoon. It seemed pretty great 
to me at that time, and pretty smart today.)

Finally, it seems a wonderful opportunity for you to volunteer to help 
this teacher create assignments what require more than reading the book 
and answering questions about the plot and characters which might make it 
important for students to read more than one or two books in a semester.

Blanche

On Wed, 1 Oct 2008, Douglas Dilts wrote:

> 
> Whoa, what just happened? I probably should wait to write this because
> I?m a bit shaken but I just got out of an English department meeting. I
> took along one of our new Playaways, which I think are way cool, to show
> the department. One of the teachers jumped all over me, saying I was
> facilitating students listening to books they are supposed to report on,
> rather than reading them. In other words, students would listen to them,
> claim they read it and then get credit for a book report. Maybe I
> shouldn?t have taken this personally but the teacher was pretty
> accusatory, as if this was some vast conspiracy to circumvent the
> department?s reading requirements. I was so taken aback that I just
> stammered out a lame answer about how some RSP students could benefit
> from them.  In fact, I don?t remember what I really said.
> 
>  
> 
> I?ve always believed we have to justify every purchase we make, so I am a
> little embarrassed that I couldn?t come up with a good answer. How can I
> redeem myself with this teacher?
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Doug Dilts
> 
> Library Media Teacher
> 
> South Tahoe High School
> 
> 530-541-4111 x240
> 
> http://www.ltusd.org/sths/library
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 
>