Reading Aids

Several aids are helpful supports for literacy activities:

• Adjusting the position of books and reading materials to suit an individual student can make the content much more visible or accessible.
• Being able to turn pages, without having to call for help, frees a student to read at his or her own pace.
• Highlighting not only makes important information stand out, but helps students find information easier and faster.
• Portable alternatives to heavy dictionaries and other reference materials allow students to more easily find answers to questions and pursue their interests.

BookHolders

These devices offer adjustable hands-free convenience while reading.

RobertsT Book Holder (Roberts Bookmark Co. )
Accommodates nearly any size or thickness of book or magazine at a comfortable reading angle, from the first page to the last. It's an ideal computer aid or text book holder. Molded of strong plastic, it consists of a flat base, a backrest, and two adjustable pegs, which prevent pages from flipping, yet allow for easy page turning. The book holder has a built-in handle and folds flat for storage.

Book Butler® (Independent Living Products)
The Book Butler® features two spring-loaded page-holding posts that make it easy to turn from page to page.

Page Turner Aids

Touch Turner (Touch Turner)
Although students can use pencil erasers and rubber-tipped head and hand pointers to turn pages of a book, there are electronic Page Turners, which can be used with a single switch. Pressing a switch turns the page and holds it in place. Some models also turn pages in reverse. 2 Models:
forward turning, and forward/reverse

Post-it Tape Flags (3M)
Students can use these to mark pages of a book. The flags come in many colors and provide instant indexing for table of contents, glossary, index, etc. The dispenser is heavy-weighted for easy, one-handed access. Buy them from any office or business supply store.

Highlighters

Hi-Liter Pens (BIC)
These pens are great for highlighting text passages. They also help with figure/ground problems when reading longer passages. Try different colors. Of course, they can't be used on library books or books that you don't want to permanently alter; instead try photocopying pages or use Highlighter Tape (see below).

Highlighter Tape, Tabs, Wide Tape (Lee Products)
Students can use Highlighter Tape to accentuate text in books or places that can't be permanently altered. You can even write on the wide highlighter tape and use it like a post-it. Use Highlighter Tabs to index or mark books; they're like Post-it Tape Flags only better.

Indexing Taped Material
If your students use a tape recorder to tape stories or other information, here's a tip that might reduce wading through long tapes to find specific information. Use a tape recorder with a counter (the little odometer-like numbers that show where you are on the tape). Then, while the story is playing, keep the tape recorder near you and write down key words along with the counter numbers as the speaker says them. Later, you can fast-forward the tape to specific numbers to find key ideas.

Electronic Books (e-Books)

This new medium for book reading provides a computer version of many popular and classic stories, magazines and newspapers.
E-books, the small hand-held reading devices, can be carried and read anywhere, and add powerful electronic features for note taking, fast navigation, and key word searches to look for a character's name or find a specific part to read again. Books and articles are selected from websites and then downloaded to an e-book via your computer or as e-mail attachments. Information below is for hand-held devices. See the Reading module for information on e-Readers for desktop computers.

Portable e-Book Devices

Franklin combines the features of a Personal Information Organizer with e-book Reader capabilities in their eBookman. You can download books to read and listen to audio books or music (with audible.com). It offers organizer capabilities as well as voice recording and handwriting recognition.

eBook is currently available in two models from Gemstar: the GEB 1150 (previously Rocket eBook) and the larger, full-color GEB 2150. Features include the ability to take notes in the margins, use the touch screen to bookmark pages and to increase the size of the font. Download commercial eBooks from the Gemstar site. The Gemstar website is also a great information source for electronic books and other materials.

TumbleBooks
TumbleBooks™ are animated picture books, complete with text, music, sound and narration, for children five to eight years old. Purchase and download stories from the web. TumbleReader allows you to read the books on your computer or Pocket PC.

PDA e-Readers

Microsoft Reader (2.0) is a free e-book reader comes installed on most Pocket PC 2002 devices. This allows you to read any e-book on your Pocket PC. You can install Encarta® Pocket Dictionary today and start using the Lookup feature in Microsoft Reader to find instant definitions. Free translation dictionaries are also available. Free e-books are available for the MS Reader from Audible.com, Slate.com and the UVA eText Center.

Similarly, Palm OS hand-held devices offer a free Palm Reader in order to read the e-books in several different languages. You can find several free books at Palm Digital Media and the UVA eText Center. Several e-book Cliff Notes are also available!

Resources

Barnes & Noble Helps Books Go Digital
Gopika Vaidya, IDG News Service
Friday, January 05, 2001

Curl Up With an Electronic Book
Linda L. Grubbs, PC World
Friday, April 07, 2000