The Power of Immersion Reading with Amazon Kindle

I love to read. I have always loved to read. Reading is an escape for my mind like no other. Through books, I meet amazing new characters and travel to incredible places. As a full-time teacher, wife to a husband with a crazy schedule, and mother of two busy boys, it is difficult to find time to squeeze in reading. When I do find time to read, that time is precious- I have no time for boring books!

With the limited time I have to dedicate to my passion for reading, I am lucky in that I rarely pick up a book that I don't end up loving. I always do quite a bit of research before I start reading a book. I read reviews, search for information about the story, and find out what I can about the author before really diving into and committing to reading it. I also read a diverse genre of stories- everything from non-fiction, to historical fiction, to sci-fi, to young adult, and realistic fiction. I have found that this process of doing some research before reading and having a variety of topics to read about has me reading one amazing book after the next.

Thanks to this picky-process of choosing books for myself, I have become quite gifted at pairing reluctant readers in my classroom with books they can become excited about. Hey, they need to read, so my students might as well choose a book that is going to engage and excite them! After taking to my students, browsing the library shelves, and asking a few key questions, I am usually able to successful pair even the most reluctant reader with a book they will love.

But not always.

When a student has a visual processing issue, dyslexia, or some other learning challenge that prevents them from accessing the text, the reading is never enjoyable. It is work. Hard work that is frustrating and doesn't offer much in the way of reward. This is the kind of student who, no matter how hard we both might try, I just couldn't show them all that a passion for reading could bring to their lives.

Enter the Amazon Kindle Fire with Immersion Reading. This is the game-changer.

I started noticing the amazing and engaging power of Kindle eReaders on reluctant readers a few years ago. Picture the student who hates to read, continually tests at a very low reading level, and has never truly finished a book on their own before. They work and work, yet none of what they are reading is comprehended. Each page, each paragraph, each word is a struggle. Reading is not fun for a student like this. Reading is discouraging and exhausting.

Last week, I loaned my Kindle Fire to one of my most reluctant and struggling eighth grade students. I loaded it with an engaging book that I knew he'd love, Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz, and I handed it to him. I did add one other vital layer before sending him off with my Kindle. This one step allowed my student, who has a 2.0 independent reading level, have access to this exciting book, which he would never have chosen on his own due to its 304-page length and 5.1 reading level.

Before sending him off with my Kindle to suffer through another difficult reading experience, I purchased the paired Audible file with professional narration. I paired the professional narration with the eBook, changed the background to a darker color to create a less-harsh contrast, enlarged the font, and showed him how to start and stop the narration.

Listening to an audio-book while following along with a written-copy is challenging. It is easy to get lost on the page and then just end up listening or tuning-out completely. The most amazing feature of Amazon's immersive reading experience is that the text is highlighted on the Kindle page while the narrator reads the story. This one, small difference allows students with tracking at attention issues to follow along, to read at a natural pace, and for the very first time ever, to experience reading the way "everyone else" does. This use of both audio and visual support provides a whole new level of access to text for reluctant and struggling readers.

I noticed he was very tired in class the day after I sent my student off with the Kindle, but he was excited, too. He had started reading Stormbreaker when he went to bed at 8:00. He stopped reading at 1:00 a.m., when he finished the book. My jaw was on the floor. The coy smile on his face when he told me he had read the whole book in one night was something I will never forget. I had him take a quick assessment to check his comprehension of the book and his score was 100%.

The simple ability to read along with the highlighted test and a professional narrator, with larger text and less harsh contrast, provided this student the opportunity to have access to an engaging, age-appropriate book for the first time in his life. He was hooked immediately and finished another book, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, in just a few days. His parents purchased a new Kindle Fire for him and he is currently reading the third book in the series.

The potential for providing access and building a passion for reading in struggling and reluctant readers is unlimited with this incredible tool. I challenge every educator to put a Kindle with Immersion Reading into the hands of a reluctant reader you know and watch them fall in love with reading right before your eyes!

EdTech Inspiration!

I recently attended the CUE (Computer Using Educators) Fall Conference in American Canyon, CA. It was a whirlwind of a two days, but the information I brought back to my school has provided innovative new opportunities for my students and staff. I learned how to teach my students to edit video with YouTube, to create dynamic images and graphic organizers with Google Draw, to teach student how to write code and create their own apps, and so much more. 

It was inspiring to be surrounded by so many innovative and creative people and I am always amazed at how much is available for us to bring into our classrooms for free! We live in a world where our students can accomplish far more in far less time than ever before. It is our job to empower our young people to improve the world. In our schools, they need to not only learn, but to BECOME good, effective, world-improving people. Learning is a means to this goal, but learning is not the goal- becoming good people who work to improve the world should be the goal of education.

Opportunities like the CUE Fall Conference allow teachers to focus on getting beyond lecturing and testing and to focus on real-world accomplishment. With the technology available to us, we can make sure students are involved in real-world projects that solve real-world problems based on actual needs of the world and on individual passions and interested of our students. It allows us to go from worrying about controlling our students to trusting them and empowering them. This is just one example of the kinds of world-changing opportunities that are available thanks to technology, creativity, and the empowerment of our youth:

I am blessed to have had the opportunity to attend this powerful professional development and to have access to the technology we have available at Paradise Charter Middle School. It is through these kinds of experiences that we can change our world, one new thing at a time.