Sharon Grover - Listening to Learn: Audiobooks Supporting Literacy

Listening to Learn

Audiobooks Supporting Literacy

Sharon Grover

Lizette D. Hannegan

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Sharon Grover is a longtime audiobook listener and reviewer. She has served on and chaired Selected Audiobooks for Young Adults (now called Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults), served on the inaugural Odyssey Award Committee, and chaired the 2010 Odyssey Award Committee. Currently, she is head of the Youth Services Department at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville, Wisconsin, where she shares favorite audiobook titles with her young patrons. Fifteen years at the Arlington (Virginia) Public Library allowed her the good fortune to work with her friend and colleague Liz Hannegan, as well as a host of amazing middle school readers and listeners. Sharon has written articles and columns and presented workshopsmany of them with Liz Hanneganon using audiobooks to promote literacy. She is proud of turning Liz into an audiobook devotee and is happy to have become a curriculum junkie in return.

Lizette (Liz) Hannegan is now retired from the Arlington (Virginia) Public Schools, after working twenty-two years as an elementary and middle school librarian and as the district library media supervisor. Advocating for audiobooks has resulted in conference presentations, grants for the use of audiobooks in instructional settings, and journal and review articles. She has been an Audies judge, a 2010 Odyssey Award Committee member, and the 2012 Odyssey Award chair. Growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, she feels that the Enoch Pratt Free Library was a source for her love and support for libraries. She has used her bachelors degree in English literature and masters degree in library science to demonstrate that libraries are the place where all young people begin their journey of listening and learning. For Liz, the best part of completing this book has been working with a kindred spirit, friend and colleague Sharon Grover.

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To our husbands, Greg and K. P., who gave us steadfast interest and support, have grown used to us being connected to headphones and earbuds, and have become avid and critical listeners too! Thank you for your love and encouragement.

Contents

A working collaboration, a friendship, and an advocacy for audiobooks brought us together almost twenty years ago. The setting was a middle school library where young adolescents would come during their lunchtime for the Teen Advisory Board (TAB) book discussion. WeSharon (the public librarian) and Liz (the school librarian)worked together every two weeks as the sixth, seventh, and eighth graders came during their separate lunch periods. We discovered that we both enjoyed the students and talking about our devotion to childrens and young adult literature. The increased availability of audiobooks became a topic not only with the students but also with us. Liz was a bit behind (I cant possibly drive while listening to an audiobook!), whereas Sharon quickly became an audiobook devotee. And then a mini-breakthrough occurred (I can listen to audiobooks while driving!), and both of us found ourselves talking and advocating for the use of audiobooks in many settings, especially classrooms and in reading assignments. We rely on each others expertise, which comes from different library perspectives and experiences, and we have found a wonderful professional collaboration and a personal friendship. We have read and listened voraciously, written a number of professional articles, and presented at conferences and workshops on the topic that you are about to read. Welcome to Listening to Learn: Audiobooks Supporting Literacy.

We express our appreciation to educators, renowned authors, audiobook experts, and publishers for their contributions and comments. These quotes and contributions from them, which can be found throughout the text, reveal the increasingly broad use of audiobooks across disciplines, thus validating and enriching the central thesis of our work.

Without the support of many audiobook publishers who sent us new titles when we requested something specific for this book, many of the latest stories that you will read about would not have been available to us.

We also appreciate the guidance of our editor, Stephanie Zvirin, who has encouraged our work for years and has helped us bring this book to fruition.

How It All Begins

Those of us who work with children and teens in school and public library settings appreciate the thrill of reading a great book. Curling up with a favorite author or genre brings enormous satisfaction to book people.

But for many of the students we serve, that love of reading and the satisfaction of a well-told story just doesnt happen. Because we want students to participate in rich literature experiences, and because we know how critical reading is to future success, we are always looking for ways to engage them with the written word. Current audiobook productionswith their high production values, stellar narrators, and wide variety of formatscan be one avenue to reach these reluctant or struggling readers, as well as their proficient peers who are looking for more time to include reading in their busy schedules.

The Search Institute has created the 40 Developmental Assets list, which pulls together elements in human experience that have long-term, positive consequences for young people.reading for pleasure. A caring teacher or librarian armed with a list of exciting audiobooks can provide both of these things to students who dont read or to those who are reading, but rarely just for pleasure. Those of us who enjoy reading for pleasure, either with our eyes or with our ears, understand the importance of the diversion this experience provides.

Working with these students and their families also offers another opportunity for collaboration between schools and public libraries. Because public library materials budgets do not need to support textbooks and learning software, they are often able to include more audiobooks in their collections. Teachers and school librarians can form effective partnerships with their public library colleagues to make these materials available to students. Public librarians will be happy to see that collection circulate outside of vacation times and may even be willing to help booktalk titles in the classroom.

Katherine Kellgren, one of todays foremost narrators of audiobooks for children and teens, has recorded more than 125 audiobooks, including several Odyssey Honor titles. In 2009 Kellgren won the Audie Award for Best Solo Narration (Female), and in 2010 she was named one of