Listening to Learn: Auditory Strategies for Literacy and Education Success October 29, 2015

1. Listening to Learn:Auditory Strategies for Literacy and Education SuccessOctober 29, 2015

2. Welcome! Karen Narvol Private Assistive Technology Consultant and Trainer

3. Purpose of Today’s Webinar • Begin a conversation about how educators are integrating Bookshare into students’ curriculum (using the Bookshare Mentor Teachers’ Google Group). • How are educators teaching and supporting students as they read, listen, view, and interact with Bookshare’s digital media using assistive reading tools? • How are educators supporting students in attaining literacy goals and meeting academic standards through the use of Bookshare books and reading tools? • To get us started, we will talk about the importance of listening as a critical component of literacy.

4. Bookshare Mentor Teachers’ Google Group • Discuss specific topics regarding implementation of Bookshare with students in the classroom • Enhance our professional practice by asking questions and sharing ideas, strategies, techniques, experiences, and resources regarding literacy and the use of Bookshare by our students • Join the conversation! • http://communications.bookshare.org/mentor-teachers/

5. Your Students I am currently working with students who have…..

6. What is Listening? • Listening is the act of assigning meaning to what is heard (Deshler, Ellis & Lenz, 1996, Teaching Adolescents with Learning Disabilities, as cited in Barclay, 2002) • Listening is understanding and assigning meaning by reacting, selecting meaning, remembering, attending, analyzing, and incorporating previous experience (Hirsch, 1986, On Defining Listening, as cited in Barclay, 2002) • An “active cognitive process” (Petress, 1999, Listening: A Vital Skill, as cited in Barclay, 2002) • Most students use visual cues to help them process what they are hearing (Ratey, 2001, A User’s Guide to the Brain, as cited in Barclay, 2002) • Students with visual impairments must make a conscious effort to help compensate for visual information that is missing (Barclay, 2002)

7. What is Listening? • Listening: • Requires effort on the part of the individual • It is intentional • It is strategic • It requires self-monitoring • Individuals must hold information in memory, compare it to background knowledge, predict what is ahead, and sustain attention (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

8. How do Listening Skills Support the Development of Literacy Skills? • Hears the sounds of the language (phonemes) • Applies phonics and word-analysis skills in decoding • Asks and answers questions about key details in text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media • Selects the main idea, summarizes, relates one idea to another, makes inferences • Recounts or describes key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media • Connects literary texts to personal experiences and previously encountered texts to enhance understanding (Barclay, 2002)

9. Correlation between Listening Comprehension and Reading Comprehension • Learning to listen is fundamental in learning to read (Hyslop & Tone, 1988) • Reading comprehension is strongly related to oral language comprehension (Rose and Dalton, 2006) • When students are engaged in active, strategic listening, they use the same executive functions used during active, strategic reading (Rose and Dalton, 2006) • Listening and reading require the same skills, processes, and strategies (Pearson & Fielding, 1983, as cited by Hyslop & Tone, 1988) • Between 65-90% of one’s time is spent listening (Gilbert, 2004, p. 20, as cited in Brady-Myerov, 2015)

10. What are the Domains of Listening? • Elementary • Phonemic and phonological skills • Listening and literacy skills • Listening comprehension of information that is orally presented or read • Active listening • Critical listening during oral instruction • Listening and technology • Listening and social skills (Barclay, 2002)

11. What are the Domains of Listening? • Middle School and High School • Active and critical listening • Listening and organizing information • Listening and technology • Listening during social interaction (Barclay, 2002)

12. How does “Listening” fit into the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)? • Students must meet standards for reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language. • CCSS permit appropriate accommodations so that students with special education needs can participate fully in the curriculum. • Students can use braille, screen reader technology, text-to-speech technology, and other assistive technologies for learning in the subject areas. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)

13. Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Language Standards • They use technology and digital media strategically and capably. • Students employ technology thoughtfully to enhance their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language use. • They tailor their searches online to acquire useful information efficiently, and they integrate what they learn using technology with what they learn offline. • They are familiar with the strengths and limitations of various technological tools and mediums and can select and use those best suited to their communication needs. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)

14. Examples of CCSS Literacy Standards • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.2Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010)

15. How do State Listening Standards Align with CCSS Listening Standards? • Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. 1.6.8 Grade 8 • Listen to others • Ask probing questions • Analyze information, ideas, and opinions to determine relevancy • Take notes when needed • Listen to selections of literature (fiction and nonfiction) • Relate them to previous knowledge • Predict content/events • Summarize events and identify the significant points • Identify and define new words and concepts • Analyze the selections (PA Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening, September 2013)

16. What is the Importance of the Speaking and Listening Standards? • By adding the standard of Speaking and Listening, the CCSS and many state academic standards recognize that listening is crucial to a student’s success and readiness for college and career. • CCSS elevates listening to an anchor skill, which cuts across curriculum and is applicable in K-12th grade. • The CCSS Speaking and Listening standard requires students to interpret information from diverse media formats and to delineate specific arguments and claims. (Brady-Myerov, 2015)

17. Legal Provisions • Provisions within IDEA 2004 • Require state and local education agencies to ensure that textbooks and related core instructional materials are provided to students with print disabilities in specialized formats in a timely manner. • Some students served under Chapter 15 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 may also qualify as persons with print disabilities and need AEM. (Section 300. 172, Final Regulations of IDEA 2004)

18. Specialized Formats IDEA describes four specialized formats of Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) that can be used by and with learners with print disabilities. (Section 300. 172, Final Regulations of IDEA 2004)

19. How Does AEM Help? • Specialized formats enable students with print disabilities to gain access to curricular content, master IEP goals, and achieve academic standards. • Accessible educational materials provide students with the same curricular content as print-based text. The use of specialized formats is an accommodation for access to curricular content. (The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials)

20. Oral Literacies and Listening • For millennia, oral literacy was the means of acquiring and passing on information • Invention of writing changed the status of oral literacies and listening • In the digital era, traditional literacies are being blended, redefined, and replaced by new media and communication technologies (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

21. Broader Palette for Literacy • Literacy is being redefined as reading, writing, oral, and visual literacies • New technologies are raising the importance of listening • Speech can now be made permanent, transportable, viewable, and recordable • Digital natives “listen to learn” • Learning to listen and listening to learn are critical to literacy (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

22. Broader Palette of Literacy • Technology allows the storing and manipulation of language • Speech can be captured in digital formats • Speech can be transformed in multiple ways to support students’ learning • Listening experiences can be designed to provide alternative learning opportunities for diverse learners • New technologies are redefining what it means to be literate (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

23. Your Students My greatest challenge right now for serving my students with print disabilities is….

24. What are the Challenges for Students with Print Disabilities? • Sensory and motor limitations of blind and visually impaired students can negatively impact fluency and adequacy of reading rate. (Barclay, 2002) • Students who are blind, visually impaired, or have physical disabilities often struggle to navigate through and interact with text. (Barclay, 2002) • Students with dyslexia struggle with the skills required to break the code for reading. (Barclay, 2002) • Students with print disabilities may process information contained in text more slowly and are more likely to experience cognitive overload.(Sherman, D., Kleinman, G., Peterson, K., 2007)

25. How is Listening an Alternative to the Limits of Print? • Benefits students with print disabilities, whose disabilities significantly interfere with the fluent use of printed text • Lessens barriers to accessing the general education curriculum and meeting academic standards • Allows students to keep pace with their peers in building knowledge • In the modern era, every student needs to learn to listen and listen to learn in order to be literate (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

26. Using Audio Formats • Supplement braille with speech • Integrate large print with speech output • Digital text with computer software and synthetic speech (Text to Speech -TTS) • Digital audio with DAISY playback devices (TTS or human narrated voice) • MP3

27. What is Audio Supported Reading (ASR)? • A technology-based approach for reading • Student simultaneously reads text displayed on computer screen, device, or with refreshable braille while listening to an auditory version of the text • Goal is to increase the rate that students move through texts (AEM Navigator – http://aem.cast.org/navigator)

28. What are the Benefits of Assistive Reading Tools? • Level the playing field for students who need AEM for their literacy needs. • Benefits • Improve fluency • Expand vocabulary • Activate prior knowledge • Develop comprehension • Increase motivation (Gene Wolfson, 2008)

29. How do Auditory Features of AT Tools Enhance Literacy Skills? • Current technologies enable ASR, including tablets, smartphones, netbooks. • Students can switch between modes of access: visual, tactile, audio, or a combination • TTS software programs offer powerful scaffolds • Online dictionaries • Choice of reading voice, rate, mode, and unit • Ability to annotate and bookmark • Tools for reading web pages and locked text • Pause to reflect on or replay a segment • Skip to various sections of text using navigation tools (AEM Navigator – http://aem.cast.org/navigator)

30. How do Auditory Features of AT Tools Enhance Literacy Skills? • Students using braille devices with voice output receive reinforcement of literacy skills • Control speech output by customizing voice, volume, pitch, rate • Multi-sensory access • Some books contain audio only, others contain text only, and others contain both audio and text. Braille PDAs can read multiple formats. • Quick and easy navigation (AEM Navigator – http://aem.cast.org/navigator)

31. How do Auditory Features of AT Tools Enhance Literacy Skills? • Students accessing large print through software programs that integrate large print with speech output benefit from a multi-modal approach. • Control speech output by customizing voice, volume, rate, mouse/typing/program echo settings, and verbosity • Multi-sensory access provides flexibility needed to sustain reading for an extended period of time (AEM Navigator – http://aem.cast.org/navigator)

32. How do Auditory Features of AT Tools Enhance Literacy Skills? • Students using DAISY book players • Customize speech output • Quick and easy navigation • Bookmarking • Players read multiple audio formats (AEM Navigator – http://aem.cast.org/navigator)

33. How does Listening to Learn fit within UDL? • Listening to learn in the classroom is an essential component of a Universal Design for Learning approach to literacy. • Providing multiple means of representation, expression and engagement are key principles for supporting diverse learners. • UDL promotes flexible materials, techniques, and strategies so instruction can be individualized for all students. • UDL increases the likelihood that diverse learners will have access to standards-based literacy and learning strategies needed to master that literacy. (Rose and Dalton, 2006)

34. Human Voice and Synthetic Speech • Advantages of human voice • Superior in ability to convey emotion, tone, pronounce words correctly • Uses appropriate phrasing and pausing • Offers strong model for oral language usage • Advantages of synthetic speech • Many TTS tools are available • Not linked to a specific text • Can slow down the rate of speech: the user has control over linguistic input for word recognition and learning vocabulary • Can change voice and language • No large audio files to store • Synchronized highlighting of text (Rose and Dalton, 2006, and Learning Ally: How New Technologies are Changing What a Literacy Program Should Be)

35. What are the Benefits of Using Audio? • Can enhance the way a student with a print disability interacts with text and augments the speed with which a reader can acquire information • The task of reading and comprehending text can occur with greater efficiency • Audio formats bypass sensory and motor skills associated with decoding and rapid word naming • Allows the student to use his full capacity of working memory to comprehend meaning • Students can read books at their comprehension level, which helps to maintain grade-level proficiency (Barclay, 2006)

36. Conclusion • Listening can play an essential role in supporting learners with print disabilities. • New technologies have restored the importance of listening for acquiring literacy. • Tools, such as digital text with screen reading technology and digital audio, offer powerful alternatives to traditional classroom print-based materials. • Implementing strategies for the use of assistive reading tools can mitigate the effects of a student’s disability on his or her academic performance.

37. Your Interests In the Google Mentors Group, I would like to share ideas about….

38. Sample Questions for Google Group Discussions • What strategies or techniques do you use to teach the use of audio formats to students with print disabilities? • If you have students who are using audio with other formats (e.g., digital text, braille, enlarged print), are they having any challenges using two formats simultaneously? • How do you incorporate audiobooks and digital books into your students’ educational programs?

39. Sample Questions for Google Group Discussions • How do you teach students to connect listening strategies and reading strategies? • How do you teach and support students as they read, listen, view, and interact with digital media using assistive reading tools?

40. Next Steps • Join the Bookshare Mentor group • http://communications.bookshare.org/mentor-teachers/ • Watch for upcoming webinar topics: • Instructional Strategies for Audio-Supported Reading within the Context of “Listening to Learn” • How Assistive Reading Tools Can Support Literacy • Join the conversation - Google Group discussions of specific topics, starting with the “Listen to Learn” theme

41. References • Barclay, L. (2012). Learning to listen/listening to learn: Teaching listening skills to students with visual impairments. New York: AFB Press. • Brady-Myerov, M. (n.d.). Understanding Auditory Learning: Integrating Listening into the K-12 Classroom. From Learning and Teaching. Retrieved October 10, 2015, from http://ltd.edc.org/understanding-auditory-learning-integrating-listening-k-12-classroom. • Brady-Myerov, M. (2015). Teaching Listening Skills: Ready to Listen, Ready to Learn. From Edudemic. Retrieved October 11, 2015, from http://www.edudemic.com/teaching-listening-skills-ready-listen-ready-learn/.

42. References • Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). Common core state standards for English language arts and literacy in history/social studies/science, and technical subjects. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/. • Common Core State Standards Initiative. (2010). English Language Arts Standards » Introduction » Students Who are College and Career Ready in Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, & Language. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/introduction/students-who-are-college-and-career-ready-in-reading-writing-speaking-listening-language/

43. References • Grover, S. & Hannegan L. (2012). At the core: Audiobooks promote critical reading habits | Listen in. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from http://www.slj.com/2012/08/collection-development/listen-in/at-the-core-audiobooks-promote-inquiry-discussion-and-critical-reading-habits-listen-in/. • Grover, S., & Hannegan, L. (2012). Listening to learn: audiobooks supporting literacy. Chicago: American Library Association. • Hogan,T., Adlof, S., & Alonzo, C. (2014). On the importance of listening comprehension. From International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 16(3), 199-207.

44. References • Hyslop, N. & Tone, B. (1998). Listening: Are We Teaching It, and If So, How? ERIC Digest. Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-928/listening.htm. • Jackson, R. (2012). Audio-supported reading for students who are blind or visually impaired. From National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. Retrieved October 14, 2015, from http://aem.cast.org/navigating/audio-supported-reading.html#.Vihk3KKi1J8. • LearningAlly. (n.d.) How new technologies are changing what a literacy program should be. Retrieved October 2, 2015, from https://ltl.learningally.org/Listening-A-Powerful-Skill/The-Science-of-Listening/Learning-Through-Listening-in-the-Digital-World/How-New-Technologies-are-Changing-What-a-Literacy-Program-Should-Be/148/

45. References • The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials. (n.d.). Tell Me More. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://aem.cast.org/navigator/help/tellmemore/l256?wicket:pageMapName=tellmemore • Pennsylvania Standards Aligned System. (n.d.). Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from http://www.pdesas.org/Standard/StandardsDownloads. • Rose, D. & Dalton, B. (2006). Plato Revisited: Learning Through Listening in the Digital World. From National Center on Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.udlcenter.org/sites/udlcenter.org/files/Plato_Revisited.pdf

46. References • Sherman, D., Kleiman, G., and Peterson, K. (n.d.). Technology and teaching children to read. Retrieved October 13, 2015, from https://education.ucf.edu/mirc/Research/Technology and Teaching Children to Read.pdf • Sullivan, S. (n.d.) Listening, the 21st Century Learner, and the Common Core Standards. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from http://www.tulpehocken.org/Downloads/Listening%20is%20a%20skill.pdf. • Wolfson, G. (n.d.). Using audiobooks to meet the needs of adolescent readers. Retrieved October 1, 2015, from http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/file/view/EJ809473.pdf.