CCBC-Net Archives

[CCBC-Net] Is listening to a book reading?

From: scorbett1 at aol.com <scorbett1>
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:35:25 -0500

Little experiment here with audio books last week. Am always stressing to the kids?that the way to study for anything is to absorb the material with as many of the senses as possible -- read it, say it, listen to it (should i try to eat it, mom?) if it's something you can put your hands on or around, do that too. when the time comes to regurgitate it, one of those sensory experiences may help with recall.

so my fifth grader was having a lot of trouble with -- i hate to say it aloud -- tuck everlasting. he felt it was dragging. but there was going to be a reading comprehension quiz so i got him the audiobook from the library. he read it; then listened to it. 96 on the quiz.

he may just be one of those learners who does better with the audio format than visual. he listened to eoin colfer's airman recently and has recited whole scenes, including dialogue but, still . . . i'm interested in what the neuroscientists would say about this, too.

Sue


Sue Corbett
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ www.suecorbett.com


-----Original Message----- From: LAURIE DRAUS <draus at suring.k12.wi.us> To: ccbc-net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Sent: Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:22 am Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] Is listening to a book reading?



I agree, Betty. I would love to see what research says about this. I'd imagine they both get the brain working, "lighting up" in different areas, that both increase and improve brain activity, but, I would hazard a guess, in totally different ways.

While I haven't gotten too deep into audiobooks, just a few here and there, I love old radio shows, and I think that requiring the mind to create its own visions is a valuable mental exercise the modern generation hasn't much experienced until audiobooks. So I think they are a valuable asset that can be used in many ways (as others have described), and can open new vistas of imagination, especially to today's young people, most of whom haven't been exposed to much audio-only, other than music.
  I also think that the brain activity required to read, to look at black marks on a page, correlate them to familiar words and sentence patterns, and create meaning to the brain, and also then create a mental vision of what's been written, whether of a fantasy world or of last week's board meeting minutes, is a totally different but also immensely valuable type of mental exercise. I believe that the act of doing this task intrinsically increases the power of the brain in an important way. That decoding those black squiggles as you go as a precursor to imagining the fairies or the boardroom as you go, is an amazing and unique kind of mental exercise that expands the mind.

I think both are great pluses, but my guess would be that to the mind they are very different "exercises"--like yoga and long-distance running are to the body.

Lauri S. Cahoon-Draus K-12 Library Media Specialist Suring School Libraries draus at suring.k12.wi.us
**suring
"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.

>>> Betty Tisel <tiselfar at visi.com> 3/4/2008 8:15 am >>>
It would be great to have some kind of neuroscientist step in here and talk about what happens in our brains when we read a story, and what happens in our brains when we listen to a story. It must be quite different.

I am not really invested in the debate "IS LISTENING READING?" We receive stories in many ways. I am curious though about what our brains do with the visual input vs the audio input.

Betty Tisel Minneapolis MN


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Received on Tue 04 Mar 2008 09:35:25 AM CST