Technology as a tool

I would like to evaluate the use of itunes in the classroom. In my 8th grade English class, students struggle with reading and they also struggle with confidence in reading out loud. My CT uses an audiobook version of The Giver to do the reading as students follow along.

I have two opinions about this strategy. I think that for my class, it really helps bring students access to the novel. Being able to follow along while someone else does the reading helps lower the pressure in the classroom and it allows myself and my CT the opportunity to pause the audiobook and make comments or check for understanding as they all listen. This also gives my CT and I the confidence that our students know what is happening in the novel, and we know exactly where they are in the novel, and we can use The Giver in order to create lessons on theme and plot and characterization. 

On the other side, I believe that sometimes students use something like listening to an audiobook as a crutch. They can tune out or literally just listen and not read along with the audiobook. This is troublesome because it gives students the ability to be lazy in their work habits. 

According to the rubric that I created with Caitlin and Riley, using audiobooks would fall under the categories of Reading and Understanding. It doesn't really transform or redefine the idea of reading, but I believe that is does in some ways make an equal playing field for students.