TeachersFirst's Audio Books with Text
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These educator-reviewed resources from TeachersFirst offer audio books with accompanying text so all students, including emerging readers and ESL/ELL learners, can experience literature and other reading selections in audio form as they reinforce and inspire literacy skills and enjoyment. Be sure to explore each site, as many include multiple types of activities, including the audio books and texts. The helpful reviews suggest ideas for ways to use the books in the classroom or outside of school to reinforce literacy skills, improve English skills, or study literature in new ways. See TeachersFirst's full collection of audio book resources and interactive audio book resources for other options.
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Crawford the Cat - Perennial Pictures Film Cooperation
Grades
K to 2tag(s): dental health (15), hygiene (11), preK (258), social skills (24)
In the Classroom
This site works really well with an interactive whiteboard or projector. Students can view the videos on the board and then play the games on the interactive board. The printables can be used by an entire class or for individual students who need skills reinforcement, and the books can be used as a center. The students have the choice of having the books read to them or reading on their own, so the site addresses the abilities of all students. During times of remote or distance learning, put a link to this site on your class web page for parents and students to use at home, with directions for what you want them to do, of course. Then ask students to create a video response about what they learned using Flipgrid, reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Unite for Literacy Library - Unite for Literacy
Grades
K to 8tag(s): audio books (22), independent reading (103), preK (258)
In the Classroom
This site is one you must bookmark if you work with young readers! Create a link to the site on classroom computers for students to explore and listen to books on their own. Unite for Literacy is perfect for use with ESL/ELL students for reading and hearing books in both English and their native language. Share a link to the site on your website or newsletter for use at home or use during remote learning. During remote learning, consider assigning your elementary students reading and follow up activities using Symbaloo, reviewed here. Symbaloo is an excellent bookmarking tool to use with elementary students due to the easy to use design and use of icons for identifying information readily. World language teachers can use this site to have students listen to books in the language they are learning.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Open Culture - Open Culture
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): audio books (22), independent reading (103), listening (77)
In the Classroom
Students could download independent reading books onto their portable devices. This is perfect for a BYOD or 1:1 classroom. Remind students of this great collection before breaks and summer vacations! Provide this link on your class website. Begin a classroom review magazine. Have students create mindmaps about characters or the plot. Challenge students to write summaries and other types of responses to the books they read. Have the students use a tool like Zoho Show (similar to Powerpoint, but easier and free) - reviewed here. ESL and special education students may find it useful to listen to books they are reading in class, if those titles are available.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Listen and Read: Reading Activities for Early Learners - Scholastic
Grades
K to 3tag(s): audio books (22), guided reading (39), preK (258), vocabulary development (94)
In the Classroom
Use this site in early elementary grades to help students begin to read and interpret informational text (a key piece of Common Core). Because of its multiple levels, you can easily use this site to differentiate. Share the stories on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Assign each student a different community worker to learn about. Have the students learn three new facts about their community worker to share with the class during a social studies lesson on communities. Have your ESL/ELL or learning support students write their own comprehension questions and answers based on the information to check their own comprehension and to exchange with their classmates.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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We Do Listen Foundation - We Do Listen Foundation
Grades
K to 3This site includes advertising.
tag(s): bullying (52), character education (66), ebooks (35), preK (258), social skills (24)
In the Classroom
All primary classrooms should take advantage of this wonderful tool. Share the interactive books and songs on your projector and interactive whiteboard. Use the songs, stories, and lesson plans to teach about various character traits: honesty, anti-bullying, good sportsmanship, courage, and more. Use these stories during class meetings to discuss issues happening in your own classroom. Share a link to the site with parents as a resource for use at home. Share the songs with your PE teacher to reinforce the concepts during movement activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SMART Technology Sites - Arlys Peterson
Grades
K to 8tag(s): alphabet (57), audio books (22), grammar (150), human body (104), iwb (27), manipulatives (20), maps (229), money (148), order of operations (35), poetry (186), preK (258), probability (117), problem solving (249), resources (91), rounding (14), states (134)
In the Classroom
These lessons are great for the new SMART Board user or the seasoned pro. Stop and think before you start about how to use them in a student centered lesson, trying some of the lesson formats that help you avoid being "Vanna." View the lessons as is or use them to help you create your own lesson. Use the training videos to help your teaching peers and new SMART Board users learn how to use the SMART Board. Many of these tools could be used on any brand of Interactive Whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Learn English Kids - British Council
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
tag(s): interactive stories (19), preK (258), songs (42), vocabulary development (94)
In the Classroom
Primary grade and preK teachers will find many useful interactives for basic skills like colors and phonics on this site, even though it is intended for learning English. Share the activities as a center or for extra practice for struggling students. Check with your administration about whether students can register individually for the site. Introduce this site to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Make a shortcut to this site on classroom computers and have your ELL/ESL students use it as one of your learning stations. Teachers can print flashcards for survival English vocabulary such as clothes, food, parts of the body, jobs etc.; accompanying activities provide reinforcement for vocabulary. Learn English Kids changes weekly, offering weekly activities, opinion polls, learning through songs, playground fun, and more. The read-aloud stories are a wonderful option for beginning readers and even non-readers. Speech/language clinicians will join ESL and primary teachers in using the many activities on this site. It even has sorting activities such as fruits/vegetables (see "Food"). Although the interface is graphically appealing, by clicking on "Topics," users can find activities, songs, and games all organized by subject. There is also a large section for parents to help their child at home. Short stories and other interactive features of the site would work well with special education students, too. Be sure to share this link with parents of your ELL students if they have Internet access at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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My Young Child - Early Parenting Foundation
Grades
K to 3tag(s): bullying (52), child development (24), literacy (87), parent conferences (22), parents (60)
In the Classroom
These short videos/audio books are perfect to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector during class meeting or lesson on honesty or other character values. Share this site on your classroom website or newsletters for students to access at home and to share reading tips with parents. Videos can be embedded on your website or blog for review. This is a winner to share at parent conferences in primary grades!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ESL Bits - Skip Reske
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): listening (77), radio (24), reading comprehension (121), short stories (16), test prep (75)
In the Classroom
Project a story or song on an interactive whiteboard or projector for group listening, reading along, and discussion. Literature teachers can use the site for a class novel, so lower readers can have audio support at home for listening and review. You could have small groups of students listen to different short stories, and make up Bloom's type questions for the next group of students to answer, or they could turn the story into a Reader's Theater piece and video tape it, or perform it live for the class. Share the videos using a tool such as SchoolTube reviewed here. This is a terrific site to list on your class website for students to use for at-home practice or enjoyment. For elementary and middle school students, you will want to provide the specific url for the selection you want them to use so they are reading articles appropriate in content for their age group. If you supervise a study hall, keep this link handy as a listening option for students who "don't have any homework."Comments
Excellent resource!alma grimaldi, , Grades: 7 - 9
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Aesops Fables Online Collection - John R Long Star Systems
Grades
1 to 10tag(s): folktales (38)
In the Classroom
Aesops Fables, comprehensive resource for fable collection is necessary for every classroom. Have a very extensive collection of life, history, morals, and fables. Use during language arts as part of a genre study or as part of literary themes. Use on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use on individual computers and include in centers. During Writing Workshop, find ways to change the morals into modern stories. Use as scripts for Readers' Theater, podcasts, or reading comprehension. During character development, challenge students to find ways to incorporate into lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ABCya - ABCYA.com, l.l.c,
Grades
K to 5tag(s): alphabet (57), decimals (114), drawing (59), fractions (205), game based learning (158), geometric shapes (153), keyboarding (30), latitude (10), literacy (87), longitude (10), number sense (80), numbers (160), operations (100), preK (258)
In the Classroom
Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector, demonstrate how to use the specific tool/activity. Create a learning center AT the whiteboard or on individual laptops and allow students to try it out on their own. List this as a student and parent resource on your classroom website. Use this site to informally assess skills to tell you which students to allow to do alternative work or go ahead. Allow your gifted students to explore new concepts while providing necessary reinforcement for those learners that need a technology-inspired method to help master learning goals. This is an excellent tool for differentiating. Provide as an anticipatory guide for new units.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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News English Lessons - Sean Banville
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
The articles are short and interesting, a perfect match for non-fiction reading comprehension. With so many different activities to choose from, it will be easy for the classroom teacher to differentiate. There is an mp3 audio version of each article so students can listen as they read. Assign small groups of students to present the news each week, using the interactive whiteboard to show others the country and city from which the article originated. Make the newscasting experience even more real by having students read scripts of these news stories or their own original stories using a Easyprompter, reviewed here. Students can then go to another news source such as 4 News Wall, reviewed here, to see what else is happening in the news. For a projecth and to enhance student learning, have the small groups create a "talking map" using a site such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. This site allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (where their article/story took place). What a fabulous way to share the article with the rest of the class!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Just Free Books - justfreebooks.info
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): book lists (121), literature (219)
In the Classroom
Offer this site to students who wish to use digital devices to read. Keep in mind that many of the selections are older, in the public domain due to the expiration of copyright. ESL/ELL and SPED students may benefit from being able to hear or see books in a different way. Use these texts as language to analyze or manipulate on your interactive whiteboard to teach reading comprehension skills, parts of speech, transition words, vocabulary study, and writing style. Allow students to copy/paste text into the whiteboard software so they can "work with words" from literary works instead of worksheets.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tar Heel Reader - University of North Caroline
Grades
K to 12** This site does contain some materials NOT suitable for all classrooms. Be sure to read the "rating" system, and contribute your own opinions (as the ratings are only as reliable as the pool of contributing voters). Books rated 'E' are meant for everyone but a 'C' means to use caution as it may not be proper material for some. Determine what titles are suitable and save them to the favorites file for students to access.
tag(s): literacy (87)
In the Classroom
Increase your big book collection ten fold by projecting Tar Heel Readers onto an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use interactive shared reading lessons to strengthen student recognition of common sight words, concepts of print, decoding skills, and use syntax cues and unlock the meaning of text. Ask students to circle known sight words, count the number of words in a sentence, trace capital letters, or point to the first letter of a word during a choral read. Help ESL/ELL students by creating books out of photos from class field trips, events, or experiments. Integrate text that uses key vocabulary words and creates reading materials that are both relevant to grade level curricular standards and match your student's readability level. All books you publish on the web site are public domain and available to all other users. Be sure to get parent permission before publishing student books on-line. In order to create a book, users will need to register. Unfortunately, this requires users to email gb@cs.unc.edu to request of an invitation code. With this code, simply create a username, submit your name, and email address. Set up a single teacher account and have all the students use that login to avoid safety concerns. Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further reading practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Signed Stories
Grades
K to 5In the Classroom
Use stories on the interactive whiteboard or projector to teach story elements - pause as the story is read to allow students to retell details to the stopping point then make predictions of what will happen next. Help students understand disabilities and adaptations to disabilities through watching the stories being told in sign language. This is also a great resource for students with deaf/hearing impaired parents or students/teachers trying to learn or practice sign language. In sign language classes, consider creating your own signed story videos for children's books and share them on a tool such as TeacherTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Online Audio Stories - Abbey Rice
Grades
K to 3tag(s): air (116), audio books (22), folktales (38)
In the Classroom
Download stories onto a mp3 player for students to listen to during reading time. Play the audio version of stories while following the written version on the interactive whiteboard. Use the stories during a fairy tale unit to compare and contrast characters. Share this link on your class web page for families to enjoy at home. These stories are worth playing over and over. Be sure to provide this link on your class website for students to explore both in and out of the classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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