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Judy Ziegler

I teach reading skills to students with reading disabilities. About five years ago, I received grant money to buy books on CD, CD players and the print book to go along. Research shows that if students read along with the books as they listen to them being read, fluency and vocabulary both increase. Another benefit is that the students are able to read the same books as their peers and talk about them. I found that this method is very helpful to students. Those who are non-readers suddenly love books and are very enthused to read in this way. I do see their fluency scores increasing as well as an increase in vocabulary. Throughout the past five years, many of the CD players have broken and need to be replaced. They are getting hard to find at a reasonable price. My goal is to gradually switch to MP3 players and download the books on them. In the meantime, I have a library of about 30-35 books on CD and only 7-8 working CD players. Not all students in two of my classes are able to use this method to read. My request is for more portable CD players to be used in my classroom during silent reading time. Thank you for your consideration of this request.