eCAP • El Crystal AudioBook Project

An Overview by Skip Johnson • April 2012

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With a grant from the Danford Foundation, in October 2008, we implemented an audiobook take home program using Apple iPods at El Crystal School in the San Bruno Park School District in San Bruno, California.

This program is the result of reviewing Summary Reports of student performance data from Scholastic Reading Counts and Scholastic Reading Inventory. Forty-five percent of our students in grades third through sixth displayed a lexile rating below proficienct as measured by Scholastic Reading Inventory. These students had read the fewest books while having the lowest passing percentage on comprehension quizzes. Our biggest concern was that these underperforming students did not have access to appropriate literature at their grade level. Many of these students were Second Language learners. These students often attempted to read books well above their lexile level, but soon returned them or failed repeatedly on the Reading Counts comprehension quizzes. Inspired with the notion that these underperforming students aspired to be successful readers, we looked around for a technologically-oriented program to support them.

I discovered kid-friendly audio books on the iTunes website when redeeming a fifty dollar iTunes gift card. I bought a couple of iPods and a few titles. Tried them out on a couple of kids. There are however, free resources for audiobooks. The University of South Florida offers a huge selection of free books in a program called Lit to Go. It is housed under that title in iTunes University.

While reviewing the Audiobook files in iTunes, four conditions encouraged us:

1.  Reasonable prices • We have spent to date (April 2012 about $6.000.00) on over 600 titles (reasonable could be debated)

2.  Large selection of appropriate titles

3.  High quality of the recordings using professional readers

4.  Ability to download titles to an unlimited number of iPods

a.  This policy has changed

b.  Consult with your Apple Rep as the policy is much more restrictive

It occurred to us that perhaps audiobooks were not appropriate for a school setting. We sent an email to Jim Trelease, author of the Read Aloud Handbook regarding audiobooks in schools. He replied, “that if you only use an iPod to listen to music, you are wasting it as a valuable learning tool.” He supported the idea of using audiobooks with the condition that we are steadfast in reading aloud to students daily. We do.

First steps included the following:

1.  Setting up an account with iTunes using Gift Cards

·  Most districts will not establish this account with a District Credit Card

·  Use a District or Gmail address to establish the account

·  Restrict who has access to this account for purchases

·  Apple issues a receipt via email and within the context of your account

2.  Purchasing needed items

3.  Devising a distribution plan

4.  Choosing participants

5.  Obtaining parent permission including commitment for payment if items were lost, broken, or stolen

6.  Publishing a spreadsheet that cross-referenced audiobook titles, authors, lexile rankings, ATOS rankings (Accelerated Reader), length of book, and cost

We implemented in stages. The first ten students manipulated the iPod easily and soon taught us that our distribution system was not efficient. Rather than have the students bring the whole packet of eCAP materials back and forth each time they completed a book, we designed the following system:

·  Assigned a complete eCAP packet to leave at home

·  Asked each classroom teacher to complete a trimester by trimester reading plan for each student with an emphasis upon choosing titles based upon student interest and increasing lexile difficulty

·  Created a schedule for each student to periodically return the eCAP packet for inspection by the media center aide

·  Directed each participating student to take a comprehension quiz using Reading Counts once they finish reading an audiobook

Getting students started on this program was relatively easy. We trained ten students initially in October 2008. After three weeks they trained the next ten students. As other schools in our District have implemented this program, our students have visited various classrooms and trained their students.

PROFILE OF ONE SUCCESSFUL eCAP PARTICIPANTS

Sixth grade student Jose G. began the year reading at a lexile level of 539. Sixth grade students reading proficiently should score between 665 and 1000. On January 5th he tested at 710 for an improvement of 171 points. Since starting the audiobook project Jose has read three books: Holes by Louis Sachar, James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, and Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. Out of 60 questions on three quizzes he missed only four. When asked how he feels about using audiobooks, he says that the program ‘makes him want to read more’.

During this short time we have implemented this program we have observed the following:

·  Participating students are increasingly enthusiastic about reading

·  All show a minimum of 100 point gain in lexile scores using Scholastic Reading Inventory (the average proficient reader should gain a minimum of 100 points per school year)

·  Non-participating students want to participate

So far, we consider this a successful implementation. The participating students are reading at such a fast rate that we have dubbed them ‘Rabid Readers’. A large number of parents have requested that their children be participants. We are in our fourth year of this program.

INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION COSTS • 2008

Item / Function / Cost
40 iPods Nanos / ·  Contain audiobooks / $2,400.00
40 Warranties / ·  Extended warranties for iPods / $1,600.00
40 iPod covers / ·  Protective skins / $440.00
40 iPod Chargers / ·  Charge iPod during extended usage at home / $1,200.00
1 Bretford Cart / ·  Securely stores, charges, and syncs audiobook titles to 40 iPods / $2,200.00
40 Headphones* / ·  Collapsible for easier storage / $880.00
40 pouches* / ·  Secures collapsible headphones
·  Vinyl cosmetic bags work fine – $1.00 each / $50.00
40 Case Logic / ·  Secures iPod, charger, cable, and instructions in English and Spanish / $750.00
Server** / ·  Stores audiobooks for distribution
·  Serves FASTT Math Program / $5,500.00
2 Terabyte Hard Drive / ·  Backs up Server / $199.00
MacBook Laptop / ·  Access server to distribute audiobook titles to individual iPod Nano’s / $1100.00
Digital AudioBooks / ·  Content of Program
·  Priced individually / $3,000.00
40 String Backpacks / ·  Holds all materials in one place
·  Fits inside backpack for security / $300.00
Hard Copies of Books / ·  Participants follow text while listening to audiobook / $1,000.00
TOTAL EXPENDITURES / $19,340.00

*We no longer provide headphones – students are responsible to get their own and pouches are no longer needed as well

**This expense can be avoided if you just use a portable hard drive. Western Digital sells a nice 2TB drive for under 200 dollars. We bought the server to support other software programs including eCAP.

Contact Us:

Skip Johnson • • 650.624.3151

Megan Youngblood • • 650.624.3150 x 1310

Adrienne Hwee • • 650.624.3150 x 1207