The Magic of Talking Books

Fergus loves working with the Talking Photo Albums

Not being quite as technology savvy as some of my teaching colleagues, I was delighted this year to discover a wonderful teaching aid for my Junior Room. It is called a “talking photo album” or “talking book”. The kids just love them and read them over and over again.







In fact we have two, as the school bought one and I bought one for myself.We use the talking books to:

• display and caption paintings
• improve the clarity, fluency and appropriate volume of oral language
• record our Inquiry learning
• enjoy reading a book with both written and oral texts
  for support.

The children simply produce their illustration, type up a caption which is attached to the picture and slipped into the album. With help, they then hold down the recording button, and their page number button to record their caption.

The clarity and appropriate volume of their speech has improved immeasurably and the books are an absolute favourite.

We bought our books from New Era IT Ltd in Hawke’s Bay and for me they have been the find of the year.

Jenny Pyatt has a background of 27 years in teaching at all primary school levels. Her teaching experiences in east and south Auckland invoked in her a strong interest in helping those for whom English is a second language. She is the author of a range of classroom resource books that focus on language, literacy and te reo, which are available in Australia, New Zealand and the UK.