Teacher Discussion Forums

Is anyone using recorded materials to aid bilingual students in reading? What I'm wondering is this: I'm teaching science in English to 8th graders with very low reading ability. It's an immersion class so everything (text, lecture, notes, quiz and exams) is in English. Would an audio copy of the text book be of any help to them? And if possible, where could I find info on the net to support this.

Thanks

Yes it would be very helpful. I also like turning a text into an illustrated text by having them summarize the text readings and including their own drawings. For example, summarize one paragraph into one sentence and draw a picture illustrating the sentence.
I don´t know where you could get audio cassettes of textbooks. You might try different ways for them to digest the text like having them all write questions for one another based off one small section of text.

There is an audio edition of the student text, but my school says it is for visually impaired and would do our students any good. If it will help, I'll record it myself. I just don't want to be doing something unproductive.

Can you get your school to let you try it as a test? Perhaps you can ask the students what they think about it afterwards. It makes sense to me that students whose listening skills are better than their reading skills might be able to learn something this way--it hits at students who have a different learning style as well. (Auditory instead of visual, or whatever the current buzz words are.)

I couldn't site what I thought for sure would happen. My school said money was a problem and when I said I would tape my own, they said they would rather I not do something that the parents would lock onto, but that might not be effective. If teh parents like it, everyone will have to make recordings.

sounds like you are in a very frustrating situation. I would do the best you can with what you have.