Often I am asked about how to find novels that can be downloaded to mobile devices. The challenge with access to any literature is copyright.
Here are some ways to help your students who learn best through hearing stories. These student may struggle to understand a chapter they’ve read, but can articulate full understanding if they listen to a story being told in class. Have your students take charge of their learning by downloading Apps or accessing websites to download books.
Apps that offer copyright free access to Audiobooks
OverDrive App can be downloaded and installed to an iPad, iPod, or Android device. I use this App to see if a title is available in alternate format either as an ePUB or audio file. Students will need their Library card if they wish to take out any ePUB or audio book from the Burnaby Public Library (BPL). Once a student locates a title, they will need to login to their Library Account before being prompted to download the mp3 file to their mobile device. At the end of the loan period, the audiobook expires.
Using OverDrive and BPL, I quickly found the following typical English novel titles provided to me by Judi Mathot.
- Once Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Next by Kesey
- 1984 or Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- … cont’d…
Websites that offer copyright free access to Audiobooks
Other websites I use to locate audiobooks include Librivox.org, the Internet Archive (www.archive.org/details/audio) and/or the Gutenberg Project site which also searches a subcollection from LibriVox. LibriVox uses volunteer readers to develop their audio book recordings. Again, all of these were easy to download to a mobile device.
Some English titles I found at LibriVox included but not limited to:
- Romeo and Julliet
- Macbeth
- The Merchant of Venice
- Misummer Night’s Dream
- The Taming of the Shrew
- To Kill a Mockingbird
Then there other sites that offer audio downloads read by computerized voices such as the Gutenberg Audio Book Collection (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/ ), http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com or LearnOutLoud.com.
Learning Support Teacher
Another resource to access is the Learning Support Teacher who can login to ARC-BC.org to locate titles not available through the public domain sites. Many come in MP3 format that can be downloaded to devices for individual student use.
If you have found sites or other APPs to support auditory learners requiring access to English Language novels, please leave me a comment.