Just in time for National Audiobook Month, we have some good news in regards to our beginning reader titles!
As you may already know, it’s standard industry practice to offer two versions of beginning reader audiobooks. Version 1 tells the story straight through, while version 2 includes “dings” that alert children when to turn the page if they choose to read along with the print book while listening to the audio.
Recorded Books has traditionally used two CDs for beginning readers, putting each version on its own disc. But starting with our 3rd quarter beginning reader releases, the two versions will be on different tracks of one CD instead. This will hopefully make things easier for teachers, librarians, and students using our beginning reader titles. In fact, we’ve already polled a sampling of librarians about this, and they were all for us moving to a single CD.
If you have any questions, concerns, or compliments, please let us know!
To celebrate the change, we are giving away one copy of Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola on CD (the older, 2-disc beginning reader version) along with a matching print book. Just leave a comment on this post stating why your classroom or school library would like to win! We’ll pick one winner on Friday, June 11, 2010.
Filed under: Audiobooks and Education | Tagged: audiobooks, recorded books |
Recorded Books Blog 
I would love to win this because Tomie dePaola is one of my favorite authors and I work with struggling readers. I do an author’s study each year and it would be so wonderful to provide them the opportunity to hear the story being read aloud while following along with the text.
“Sharing with many” is the reason I would like to win this book set for my organization. I supply support services to 24 school district’s libraries. I am charged with assisting them in finding materials for special needs clients (from Learning Disabled to Gifted including students with English as a Second Language – ESL). Doing workshops with Toamie dePaola’s book would be a wonderful way to demonstrate the use of these resources to librarians and administrators.
Mamma mia! As an Italian-American, Tomie DePaola’s books have resonated with me for years, and inspired my teaching units. My ELL students easily connect with his family stories and colorful characters. The tone and purpose of his stories shine through his sensitive approach to human frailty and have fostered deeply purposeful conversations in my class. I would be honored to share this particular book in honor of my mom who came yearly to read it to my classes in her brilliant Italian accent.
I would be thrilled to win this CD to use with my second grade students. We love Tomie dePaola and just recently finished an author study. We read Strega Nona and watched a video in which Tomie DePaola shows how to draw Strega Nona. The CD would be a great addition to the materials I have collected.
I work with students in middle school who are learning to read. We do a service project at the end ofg the year where we read to younger students. In order to prepare, my middle school students need to read and re-read these picture books in order to be fluent with the story. Having an audio book of this type would allow the students to have repeated practice with reading and hearing a book read with proper phrasing and fluency. What a gift to be able to read to a child half your age for the first time!
Thanks! Joelle Nappi
We have recently been labeled a Tier 1 school by the US Dept. of Education. Our test scores have been very low and we’d love a chance to try one of these books with our struggling readers. DePaola would be a great choice. We also partner read with 5th grade and kindergarten, so this would be a great way for the kids to familiarize themselves with a story to share with their little partners.
All of our students have special needs and reading instruction is my focus. We are just now beginning to add recorded books to our school library. This selection will be of interest to over 1/3 of our students and will provide more independence to early skilled readers. Thanks for the opportunity!
Wow!! I don’t have space or time enough to tell why I’d like to win. I’m an ELA/ESL instructional specialist for secondary schools in my district. I work closely with 2 middle schools and 4 high schools. Our teacher trainings focus on assisting ELL’s, reading/writing interrelatedness, and language arts as a whole. We are beginning a new turnaround in focusing on reading for next year. We encourage teachers to try audiobooks for struggling readers and to use picture books (just like Strega Nona) to teach out of. We have modeled this through the National Writing Project training. In the summer we are lucky enough to be able to work closely with groups of students in raising scores, helping them to graduate, and raising reading/writing. I’d love to be able to ‘gift’ this at a training to a lucky teacher or during a session with an even luckier student!
As a literacy coach I am trying to help schools in our district build their listening libraries as we launch the Daily 5 along with a new Language Arts curriculum this fall. With a high Hispanic population and poverty stricken families, we find having books available to children helps increase their reading, speaking, and written language skills. Many of our buildings are just starting listening libraries so being able to add one of our favorite books, Strega Nona, to a building listening library would be a wonderful gift to start off the new school year. Thank you for the opportunity to participate.
I would love to win this Tomie DePaula audio book for my school. I was able to attend a couple of Dr. Janet Allen’s workshops here in Memphis over a couple of summers. I was very excited to see where her research was taking education. Two years ago, when my elementary principal asked for what we most needed in each classroom, my answer was a “listening center”. Imagine my surprise when 6 weeks later, a cassette/cd. player with four headphones showed up in each classroom. Except, we don’t have any listening materials except for the textbook copies. We need to have this for our library so that the school will see how wonderful audio books will be!!!! We can invest!!!!
I work with students with special needs, several of whom have difficulty with reading. I try to share my love of reading with them by giving them access to recorded books, which allow them to enjoy books without the struggle.
I work in a middle school with 500 students. Over one third of our population comes from other countries and have never heard American stories. We need this for our library so that students with special needs, and students who speak other languages than English, and even our American born students can experience the joy of Strega Nona and her wonderful magic cooking pot!
I use audio books in my listening center for 3rd grade. I have a variety of higher level books, which are great for proficient and advanced learners. However, I don’t have very many good, easier to read stories that are at a 3rd grade level. Tomie dePaola writes fun, interesting stories that appeal to all levels of readers. Recorded books are wonderful for English Language Learners to not only hear the pronunciation of the text, but the nuances of the language as well.
I use picture books like Strega Nona to teach writing. The children love hearing a good picture book story and when I can connect the story to one or more of our traits of good writing, it all makes sense to them. They love to hear stories on audio in addition to hearing me read them aloud. We would love to add this wonderful picture book to our growing library of quality reading materials. Thanks for the opportunity!
Strega Nona is a favorite of my English language learners. I have several of the books but no audio version. I would like to win this to use with my students. They love to listen to recorded books!
I’m a Literacy Coach in Virginia Beach, and work with “struggling reading teachers.” One of the strategies I’ve been encouraging is LISTENING to books, like Strega Nona that help our at risk students develop background knowledge, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. As another Reading Specialist mentioned in her post, I’d like to help our schools build listening libraries, in our elementary, middle and high schools. We have a high ESL and those students would definitely benefit as well.
We do a Tomie de Paola author study every other year with our K-2 class. We don’t have any of his stories on audio. This would really enhance our author study.
Thanks!
I would love to have a copy of Tomie de Paola’s “Strega Nona” for my school
library listening center. His books are read and reread, listened and relistened to by the students at my school. Whenever our volunteer readers come to the library, they choose or are asked by the students to have one of his books read
to them.
Hello Yvonne,
I’m using this means to reach you because I can find no other. My name is Judith Schwartzberg Bernal, and I am looking for your sister Valerie. We were best friends in our early twenties and have had almost no contact since. I remember you as a teenager. I knew your parents (loved your mother) and visited many times in your home in Staten Island.
Is there any way you can help me find Val? Her phone is unpublished and I haven’t been able to find any other means of connection.
I admire the work you’re doing in the school system. And I love de Paola, and especially Strega Nona!
I hope you are well. Thank you so much for your time.
Judith Bernal
As the Reading Specialist for a K-8 parochial school, I need a lot of tools in my toolbox for struggling readers. The advantage of having both methods (with the “ding” and without) enables me to turn the pages of the book, giving them an uninterrupted version of the story or help them function more independently by using the version with the “ding.” Thanks for putting it all on one disc! I met Tommie at a teacher’s convention years ago, and one of the First books I recently purchased for my grandchildren’s book collection was Strega Nona. You see I am Taylor and Savannah’s Nona (Italian Grandmother) and I think as they get older it will be fun to read to them about a Nona that is magic. I will use Strega Nona’s magic with my students as well as my grandchildren. I would LOVE to win!
As my budget is a whooping $6 per student and my library is only 3 years old, we don’t have an audio book collection yet. I would very, very much like to win this, failing that I would settle for a magic pasta pot.
I would be thrilled to win this CD for many reasons. We love Tomie de Paola’s books, “Strega Nona” is a favorite read aloud with all grades. We are building our recorded books collection to increase interest in reading for our struggling readers, to increase fluency for all.
It will also serve as a great model of what recorded books sound like, since our 4th and 5th graders are preparing to start recording stories in the bookworms for our early grade students on the spectrum. One of the additional skills we have been practicing is ringing the bell at just the right time to alert the student with autism when to turn the page.
Additionally, the use of recorded books, when coupled with a good pair of headsets has turned out to be a great sensory combination for both our ADD/ADHD students and our children on the spectrum.
I would appreciate the books and cd’s if I won, because we donot have many books in our district. My students are not only struggling readers, they also need to expand their imagination and explore more than Dr. Suess.
I’d love to have a copy. I use fairy tales — both traditional and modern — extensively with my English classes. Have a recorded version would be a great asset and change of pace from listening to me read.
Srega Nona!! Not only is this a favorite in my class, but she is one of my favorite book characters. My classes lovwe to hear me read the big book version (in tongues, I may add!) but we have a beautiful Srtga Nona doll looking lovingly down at us during the process. How much more fun would it be for my class (And for my throat) for us to be able to hear the story read along with our book. Please pick us!!
I would like to win this because I have never used this system. This would give me the opportunity to try it
& see how successful it is in my classroom.
Then I might do more of the same.
Coincidentally, a colleague and I have been assigned to write supplements to our library and technology curriculum to infuse them with language and culture studies. When we sat down to work on this the other day, we decided that using the Strega Nona series to highlight Italian language and culture would be perfect. Then I saw this blog post and thought, “How perfect!” Now we can have the story read aloud and listen with our students to a more authentic pronunciation of some key Italian words and phrases. It was like you were reading our minds!
My 8th graders deserve a shot at winning this book because they love to be read to and be reminded of the wonderful lessons and stories that are written in these younger books! My goal is to make my students life-long learners of books and have them pass this tradition on to their own children.
I welcome the opportunity to be chosen to receive this wonderful book and CD for my students and for future students to come.
Gracias.
Love everything byTomie dePaula. Have been trying to convinece more teachers about positive effects of using audiobooks for all types of readers. Having more selections will only help me in my efforts. I teach K-8 so all levels would benefit.
This audio version of Strega Nona would be a great addition to our LMC collection of dePaola’s works. He’s a great author/illustrator study for our primary graders. His books fit in nicely with Social Studies units. We would love to win this audiobook.
[…] like to win a copy of classic beginning reader title Strega Nona for your school. We got lots of wonderful responses that you should definitely check out. In the end, I chose Patricia Young of Dobbs Ferry Union Free […]