Audiobook Questions ANSWERED :)

Hello fellow #KidLit community! I have had several reach out to me in regards to how I use Audible in my classroom successfully. I wanted to make sure I got it all in a post for what works for ME (and hope and pray that Audible (or any audiobook app) never changes, or else I don't know how I would do this).

First of all, audiobooks have definitely changed some of my students reading lives. I have those specific children coming from 4th grade who NEEDED to have the auditory feature to be able to finish a chapter book. I can't even begin to describe the growth I see from September to end of year. There were some kiddos last year and even now who start out on Audible and eventually ween themselves off because they now have that confidence to read without needing or feeling the need to have it read out loud to them.

I also share my reading life with my students every day. I tell them that I am ALWAYS reading a book physically AND listening to a book in my car. This is a huge motivator for them, because they see what I am doing, and know that it's not singling out any individual; meaning, they don't think that Audio is a punishment per say.

How it works:

My district is 1-1 iPads starting in 1st grade. When they get to middle school they keep the same iPad all the time for 3 years, and then in HS they will get another one freshman year. So end of year for me, they wipe all the iPads for the incoming 5th graders.

I log them all in to my Audible account on the APP. The app keeps them logged in forever so I don't have to enter it in every day or anything like that. ALSO PLEASE NOTE THAT THE APP DOES NOT KEEP YOUR CARD INFORMATION. I know this is a huge scare. They are NOT ABLE to purchase books off the app. (If this ever changes, I don't think it will work in the classroom then unless Audible creates a classroom side.) They can add to your wishlist, which they will, so you'll be deleting books a lot. ;)

They can all listen to the same book at the same time. What happens is when they pull up Audible the next day, they will see this screen

If it was not THEIR last location because someone else is listening, then they need to hit cancel. Which every time on their OWN iPad they will hit cancel and it keeps their spot.

This is where it gets tricky if you have only a few devices, then they need to keep track of their spot (so maybe in their readers notebooks?). 

My only requirements is that they have to have the physical book in their hand as well. 

A little bit about Audible:

YES, I know it's ran by Amazon and NOT supporting independent and I hate that I am supporting big corp, BUT at the time it was all I knew about and it's somewhat affordable. A friend of mine mention libro.fm which supports independent book stores - if you do this and don't have a specific book store in mind PLEASE support my friend Kathy's The Book Lair. This app works by buying the audio directly from an Indie. I don't know much about it, but it does sound like a good alternative.

How Audible works: you pay for a subscription of "credits" every month. 

I usually do 2 credits/mo, but when I'm budgeting, I stick to 1. BUT they do this option too where you can buy 3 credits for $34.95 - Which is a really good deal a lot of times so I do that. 

Books WITHOUT a credit can get expensive. 

Here's an example: 

So a credit costs me $14.95 - I make sure I buy books that are more than that with my credit, but occasionally I will buy a book under $14.95 myself. 

OKAY...

If you have ANY questions, please drop them below and I will answer!!!

Thanks, y'all! :)