Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Each day at Community Academy Public Charter School in the District, second-graders put on something that looks like a receptionist's headset and start to quietly read a book into it -- listening to what they are saying at the same time.

The device is called a "whisper phone" and is used by teachers to help students develop accuracy and expression while reading aloud to help reading fluency.

Students whisper into the phone, and their voice is carried right back to the ear, without anyone else hearing. The phones are part of a reading-instruction program that encourages students to read aloud, allowing them to more effectively hear mistakes than reading silently.

At Community Academy, second-graders use them during DEAR time, or Drop Everything and Read. And students who have reached upper grades without advanced reading skills use them, too, according to Lauren Smith Janzen, a learning specialist and teacher of English as a second language.

"They work beautifully," she said. "And the kids get very excited about them."

-- Valerie Strauss