I. ENRICHEMENT: How to Use Audio Books to Teach Your Child to Read

A traditional emphasis on mechanical reading practice is often counterproductive, leading to many bored students and frustrated parents. Audiobooks offer an effective alternative route toward improved literacy for students struggling with reading. By emphasizing a love of story and immersion into language, students develop a greater total literacy which makes learning the tiny subskill of reading very much easier, though, ironically, of ever diminishing value when compared to the greater expansion of literacy. Now learn how to turn reading into ice cream by making some ice cream right now!

The Ice Cream
Cone of Learning:

The Brain, Enrichment, and the Power of Audio Books

(Listen to the 15 minute Audiobook Sample Here)

Lesson Objectives:

Grade: K-12+

Subject: Enrichment

You Will Understand:

The difference between reading and literacy
How enrichment can help struggling readers enjoy books
The Power of Audio Books

You Will Know:
4 benefits of listening to audio books
How to enrich printed books using the Ice Cream Cone of Learning
How to promote creative and critical thinking through literacy

You Will Be Able To:
Enrich any book
Use audio books to improve literacy
Make Ice Cream

ACT I: Enrichment

The Existing Situation: Educational Malnutrition

Often getting a child to read is like getting them to eat broccoli, an intense struggle that leaves both sides angry and spent with very little reading to show for all the effort. Yet what is the best way to improve reading? Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm (2008), Professor of English Education at Boise State University, argues at length that the best way to learn to read is to “spend time reading” (p. 52). Which is why it is so painful that he found the average student reads “less than 5 minutes a day” (p. 52). A perfect description of an epidemic, MindTree^X calls, Educational Malnutrition, affecting millions of students in a national famine that demands a revolutionary solution.

Struggling readers are often subjected to a frustrating, painful, and lasting decline as a result of the counterproductive interventions inflicted by the mass education school system, designed 150 years ago
at the surging beginning of the industrial age meant to produce factory workers, rather than highly literate super-computer carrying, internet connected, 21^st century human capital.

A team of researchers defined dyslexia as “significant difficulty learning to read and spell” despite sufficient instruction (Smith, Kelly, Askew, Hoover, Deffenbacher, Gayan, and Olson, 2001, p. 512). Thus difficulties learning to read are often determined to be caused by learning disabilities, leading those same researchers to use the most giant brainscopes they can (MRI and fMRIs, or functional magnetic resonance imaging machines) in a quest to find the tangible source of this difficulty, presumably hiding deep in the “MOG”, which sounds comically like a bog, but is actually “myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein” or the coating that insulates neural connections in the brain (p. 512). While this is certainly interesting research, and it provides valuable insights into the functioning of the brain, the absurdly long list of “learning disabilities”, reveal that the mass education system is disabled not the majority of our children. An unjustifiable assumption and obsession with a perfectly “average” student, and the drive to see all students stuffed into such a mold is a great source of deformation, and subsequently, the cause of very real learning disabilities.

The diversity of real students should not be expected to change to fit the model of an average student, rather the school should adjust to more appropriately fit the unique shape of such a variety of students.

Discovering the Trusted Guide:

There are people who love to read, not because of any explicit instruction they received in how to read, but as a result of intrinsic motivations, and this manifests as the characteristics of high level reading, school try so hard to teach. Yet, the experience of so many students, in mass education, special education, and/or reading intervention groups, with explicit instruction on how-to-read provides a very clear example of what does not bring about a love of reading. The Ice Cream Cone of Learning is based on very intensive research into the question of what the characteristics of high level reading actually are as exhibited by those who read well and are highly literate, and, more specifically, how they came to be that way. More simply, this is the distilled chronicle of the journey to find out how someone comes to love reading.

What if Books could be made into Ice Cream?

Difficulty seeing the text in a book, due to poor eye sight, bad lighting, cheap printing, or dyslexia, is often a reason for difficulty reading. The discomfort caused by struggles with eye fixation are not solved with more powerful spectacles or enlarged text, but are merely eased, and such “solutions” completely fail to consider the problem from the perspective of developing a love of reading. A love of reading does not come from seeing the words better, but from “seeing” the content contained in the words better. Love of reading comes from experiencing the content to a greater degree than simply reading words off a page, and this can be done most effectively through a process called Enrichment. Enlarging the print or wearing stronger classes merely increases the size and intensity of the broccoli, while enrichment turns that broccoli into ice cream.

A Model for Enrichment: Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience

Edgar Dale, a professor of education working in the middle of the 20^th century championed audio and visual learning, producing the Cone of
Experience as a means of explaining his arguments, and turning reading instruction upside down, makes for a nice ice cream cone of learning.

The same brainscopes used to search for deformities in the MOG, have also revealed amazing neurobiological congruence with this experiential learning model described by Dale Graphic, showing that enriched environments provide the opportunity for “multiple memory pathways” (Schenck and Cruickshank, 2015, p. 76). On a neuroscientific basis this means a highly enriched learning environment allows for the use of a variety of “modalities” by which students may “create more linkages” (p. 76). Starting with reading, the cone progresses, with each proceeding level a little bit richer, touching on more senses, connecting with more existing neural networks, tickling a greater number of neurons, and therefore enriching the experience, and increasing retention of the material.

This puts the narrow, traditional focus on “reading” into proper perspective. According to the Cone of Experience, reading text is the least enriched way of accessing content. Reading in this simplest of states is raw broccoli, and even the most dedicated health enthusiasts, or bibliophiles can choke down raw broccoli. All the struggling readers with their lack of reading development, even under the ever greater emphasis on “reading” can attest to validity of this comparison. Looking up the cone there is an obvious correlation between turning books into movies, video games, and theme parks which provides readily observable and reproducible validation of the effectiveness and relevance of the enrichment model described by Edgar Dale’s Cone of Experience.

The Enrichment Process: Making Ice Cream

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Reading. One characteristic of text which provides disproportionate value is in the use of questions. Questions are good because they activate prior knowledge about the subject in question, and almost force the mind to engage, as in the following sentence. Do not, I Repeat, DO NOT think of a white elephant. The three-person team of Reading Specialists, Michael Optiz, Dorothy Rubin, and James Erekson (2011) explain that a single well-chosen question can “stimulate” students into high level thinking and discussion that can reveal for the teacher if the content is appropriate and understood (p. 231). The human brain tends to fill a void, great examples are the massive and voluntary engagement in cross-word puzzles and Sudoku (Willingham, 2009). Questions open a space that begs to be filled with understanding. For example, “What Flavor of Ice Cream makes People Happiest?”

Reading text is the roughage of a good literary diet, a basic element of learning for the brain and required for good mental health. Using limited amounts of text, in the form of questions, is supportive of the rest of the enrichment process, much as the role a waffle cone in a real ice cream cone. The ability of high level readers to turn the text of books into a cone which holds tasty ice cream provides a hint of the greater role text has yet to play in the Ice Cream Cone of Learning.

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Hearing Words. Listen Up, or down, or sideways. According to Dale’s Cone of Experience hearing words is twice as memorable as reading text. Because hearing the words will be discussed in greater detail later, and to get a better understanding of why hearing would be twice as effective as reading consider the next level in the enrichment process.

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Add A Picture. The human brain loves visual information. Dr. John Medina (2008), a developmental molecular biologist, notes that vision processing takes up to “half our brain’s resources” (p. 240). This provides a neuroscientific explanation of why a picture is worth a thousand words. Humans have been reading for several thousands of years, but have been processing visual and auditory information many magnitudes longer. A picture does not require the complex decoding of arcane text symbols into meaning. As with audio content, visual content is more easily processed by the brain than text, providing higher returns for mental inputs.

Even more useful in the context of reading, is the infographic potential of a picture. Presented here is not just a picture of ice cream, but a chart filled with densely packed chunks of information. Optiz, Rubin, and Erekson explain that when used in concert with text, pictures not only “grab readers’ attention”, but they “provide relief from print” (p. 224). For those with difficulty reading, a picture is like a bench upon which weary eyes may sit and take a rest from the unnatural effort of decoding those tiny, shifty, irregular letters.

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Watch a Video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a video worth? Building on the value of seeing a picture and remembering the brain’s powerful visual processing abilities, the next level in the enrichment process follows logically, as historically photography developed into motion pictures. But how does watching video help students learn to read? How can anyone possibly claim that watching a movie is beneficial to the development of a student’s reading? Rather than fight against the imperial reality of video’s influence, management expert Sandra Bowman (2005) encourages educators to recognize and understand the empirical power of video “to teach, entertain, convince, and make a message memorable” by taking advantage of the brains ability to absorb visual information at speeds many degrees that of reading text (p.2). A good comparison to help think of the varied processing speeds of reading versus watching video is to consider 1990’s dial up internet versus the fiber optic, wireless connectivity of today.

An experiential comparison of this is possible by considering one of the most well read books of all time…not the bible…Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.

These are the word totals for each of the Potter books:

Harry Potter and the..

Philosopher’s Stone – 76,944
Chamber of Secrets – 85,141
Prisoner of Azkaban – 107,253
Goblet of Fire – 190,637
Order of the Phoenix – 257,045
Half-Blood Prince – 168,923
Deathly Hallows -198,227

Doing some math reveals that if a picture is worth a thousand words the following 17 second video, 17 seconds x 24 frames per second = 408 frames x 1000 words per picture/frame =, is the equivalent of 408,000 words, or roughly any two of the books from the Harry Potter series. Please view the following https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAvD7X2YTJ4

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Discussion. After watching this video, with the lingering question of its relative contents versus that of two Harry Potter books, a discussion is almost guaranteed. Certainly, arguing this video is not equivalent to the contents of two entire books is reasonable, but just try to forget this commercial and the power of video will become more apparent. Then consider the conversion of the over 1 million words of Harry Potter text (1,084,170 words to be exact) into eight 3-hour-long movies (1199 minutes or 20 hours) and the dictum, “A picture is worth a thousand words” turns out to be a bit of an exaggeration, but not that much of an exaggeration. A more accurate conversion rate could be calculated, which would still show the brain to be a powerful processer of visual information.

A discussion can be activated with a few good questions. The ancient Greek philosophy Socrates was notorious for provoking active discussions with his questions. Optiz, Rubin, and Erekson discuss the value of using questions as a tool of working assessment, to “see” how students are comprehending the material (p. 231). Questions are important because they push learners beyond a critical boundary in the learning process. As can be seen on the diagram, until this point the enrichment process has involved essentially passive activities. A discussion invites engagement, as a Wh__l of Fortun_ puzzle is nearly impossible not to fill in, taking the learner, sometimes unwillingly, as was the case of many Athenians thanks to those discussion inciting questions of Socrates, into active learning. Cognitive activity involving active engagement promotes tremendous amounts of learning.

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Demonstration:
Monkey See…The next step in the enrichment process is watching a demonstration. A Add to dictionary reason to explain why watching a demonstration is so powerful is the “mirror neuron”. Researchers from the School of Advanced Science and Engineering at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, describe specific neurons in the brain which activate when “merely” observing another person doing something (Ushioda, Watanabe, Sanjo, Yamane, Abe, Tsuji, and Ishiyama, 2012,p. 504). Their research was done in an attempt to create strategies to re-teach surgery patients how to swallow. Their finding showed that just hearing someone swallow, or seeing someone swallow, did indeed help these patients once a again gain the ability to direct their throat musculature to swallow. Think of the effects of seeing someone yawn. Another working example of this mirror neuron effect, is the ability of some animals, such as dogs and crows, to learn how to solve puzzles simply by seeing a fellow solve the puzzle first, meaning this sort of learning occurs even without language.

To experience the benefits first hand and more specifically for this presentation please review Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag: Quick and Easy, posted by BlueberriesWA (2013), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ztYjFxwmI.

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On-Location Demonstration – This is a very well-produced video, and yet, in accord with the Cone of Experience model and explained by activation of mirror neurons, watching a live demonstration on location will provide an even richer sensory experience, with the resultant improvements to learning and memory. Consider the following example: A student young middle grade student becomes enamored with the book Hatchet, written by Gary Paulsen, narrated by Peter Coyote, involving a young girl getting stranded in the wilderness. Sending that student to a wilderness camp with on-location demonstrations of the survival skills described in the book would provide a very enriched learning experience. Hearing the snap of branches and smelling the sour sap of freshly cut wood during the demonstration of how to make a proper lean-to, increases the range of sensory information available for the creation of deeper memories. Also the sharp axe impacting wood only feet away brings about a certain attention to the content…

…To get the rest of the story please purchase the eBook, or the enriched S3 Edition eBook, or the old fashion print book, or, my personal favorite, the enriched Audio Book experience… of Course!