{Resource} Audiobooks for School Leaders

Samantha Reichard/ October 26, 2020/ Audiobooks, School Leaders/ 0 comments

Why School Leaders and Instructional Coaches use Audiobooks in PD, PLC and Staff meetings

Audiobooks provide teachers with:

Accessibility: audiobooks provide teachers with access to literature by overcoming barriers in the voice, content, timing, place, and condition in which teachers are able to engage with their reading. Teachers can engage in the reading anytime, anywhere, anyhow!
Exposure to Knowledge: Teachers that struggle with a new concept often leave themselves out of meetings and conversations, forfeiting their ideas to those that have the knowledge. Audiobooks empower teachers by growing their knowledge, and therefore confidence around new ways of teaching. Teachers can empower themselves by being a knowledgeable voice at any table.
Modeling of Exemplar Reader: Audiobooks allow all readers to listen to voices that are clearly spoken, fluent, animated, professional readers that use expression, appropriate intonations, and play with rhythm and speed depending on the context. Teachers can listen to the text so they can be confident when pronouncing unknown names, terms, and themes before they teach the text to students.

Ways to proactively incorporate audiobooks into PD, PLC, and Staff meetings:

Determine what levers you want to pull this school year and find aligned audiobooks
Provide teachers with access to audiobook platform and selected literature
Create and follow up with school-wide reading groups
Facilitate learning by timestamping audiobook sections and providing teachers opportunity to practice and receive feedback on a new skill learned
During meetings, provide teachers the option to listen to the text as they follow along

How to incorporate into staff meetings, PD, district training

Things to consider:

Your mindset matters. If you believe audiobooks are a powerful tool for teacher empowerment, teachers will be more likely to include audiobooks as a part of their reading repertoire
When rolling out audiobooks, take time to teach how to search, find, and add audiobooks to the bookshelf, as well as how to navigate and use audiobook toolbar
Allow teachers time to reflect on their audiobook often and embed time within your schedule to review those reflections to assess school-wide trends
Recommend the audiobooks on your shelf with staff while sharing how they have impacted your practice

Glose for Education offers a collaborative and personalized digital reading platform for use in classrooms, schools, libraries, and at home. Offering access to more than one million ebooks and 1000s of Audiobooks, Glose for Education fosters a social, fun, and engaging reading experience. Drawing on the familiarity and benefits of safe social networking, the platform empowers students to read and comprehend both on their own and with their peers. They can read, discover, annotate and share text with other students. For instance, students can provide responses to reading passages with emojis, highlight their favorite parts, and pose questions to their peers and teachers.

Educators can create virtual book clubs and leveled reading groups, provide an engaging, adaptive reading experience with writing prompts and discussion starters, and see precisely how each student is interacting with the text. With access to real-time, meaningful data, school leaders can make informed decisions while creating a curated digital library that their students can access anytime, anywhere.

Glose for Education is available on iOS, Android, and the web, while also allowing for offline usage in order to ensure equitable access for all.