Teaching with Mel D

Learning Resources HearALL Review & Giveaway

I was asked by Learning Resources to introduce you to this wonderful product, the HearALL Assessment Recorder. 
To be honest, I wasn’t sure when I received the box what I would do with this until I started playing around with it & found out all of it’s capabilities. The uses for this lightweight recorder are endless. 
The first thing I loved was the fact that no software is required and it is charged via USB port. I love the fact that I don’t have to replace batteries on yet another piece of technology! 
I would like to show you just a few things I did with my first grade students the last several weeks. 

 The first thing I used this for was classroom management…I know..what a surprise! We were in Daily 5 and I had a group of rowdy boys in the “Work on Writing” station. I was trying to test & they were breaking their stamina by being too loud & chatting about..um Star Wars. I stopped my assessment & introduced the HearALL Assessment Recorder. The key work here is “recorder”. I proceeded to tell the boys that I was recording them & was planning on listening to them on my break to see if they were on task or not. Guess what??? Silence & on task behavior. Love it! 

Next, I was assessing each student on their first grade sight words. This is great if they go too fast for me, I can always go back & listen to see if I missed any words they did not know. 

This also made me think of those certain parents that get these assessments home & then argue with me that it’s not accurate. Have you ever heard “Well, they know ALL the words at home!” Now I have a recording that I can actually email them a .wav or MP3 file! Wow! Wouldn’t they be surprised to get this little piece of evidence :o)





Here I am giving several DIBELS assessments. You know how they fly through the PSF (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency), NWF (Nonsense Word Fluency) & TRC (Text Reading Comprehension). We are expected to do this with a classroom full of first graders but let me tell you sometimes we miss a thing or two. When I listened to one of the assessments it was crystal clear despite all the background noise. Mind you I usually wear a tiara when I am assessing but I’d thought I’d spare you. 

This is during “Read to Someone” during Daily 5. These particular students listened to a recording of me reading “Sarah Slyvia Cynthia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out” & then they read it to each other. It was too cute. I modeled the fluency & then they tried to read with the proper fluency. 

After several rounds of students traveled through this station I chose the best model of fluency & had them listen to it through the SmartBoard and guess who it was. 

Here are some more ideas I will do with this HearALL Assessment Recorder: 
1. This can be used by a speech pathologist or an ESL teacher while working on certain speech patterns or pronunciation a student is struggling with. 
2. This can be used as fast fact practice. For example, I would record 3+3, 5+2, 8+7, 9+4 & add a slight pause in between for time to answer. I can put “me” in that math station. The same can be done with spelling. I can record myself spelling out our spelling or sight words for the week.
3. This can be used with reluctant readers to hear themselves read. 
4. This can be used with students who do not pause properly at the end of sentences while they read. I can record myself, then record them & listen. 
5. This can be used during RtI or small group work for all of the above. 

Who says a teacher can’t be two places at once! 


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I saved the BEST part for last. Would you like this $99.99 gem for your classroom? Just enter via Rafflecopter below. Good luck! 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. I would definitely use this to assess my students that have accommodations; it'd be nice for them to be able to orally give their responses, have it recorded, and then I can dictate it.

  4. What a great giveaway! I would definitely use this with my ESL and speech friends; listening, repeating, anything. I think it would also encourage my students to read at home if they could come to school and record their reading. Imagine how much MORE time I would have to work with my struggling students if my high students read to the recorder. Oh the possibilities!

    heathernnance@yahoo.com

  13. I would use this in my centers. I always wonder if they are getting everything they can from the centers. I would also use this to help my students with special needs. I would be able to record items to use, so they could become more independent.

  14. I love all of your suggestions! I would definitely use this in small reading groups, RTI, sight word tests, running records, and centers. I especially love your suggestion where you said you would record yourself reading a text fluently and then have the students record themselves reading the text and pick the ones who read it the best and play it for the class to guess the "mystery readers". Love it!

  17. I love all your ideas and would probably try them with the read to self and practice fluency 🙂 Maybe I would try all of your suggestions!

  20. Oh my goodness! I am a music teacher, but am also studying a masters in ESL. I loved all your classroom ideas and the ESL/SLP ideas too! And oh what a music teacher could do with a recorder too! I've often thought about this and looked at various types but have not had the opportunity to purchase one yet. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  21. I would love to use it with some of struggling readers during their Daily 5 time….sometimes I wonder if they are on task.

  22. I would love to use this for my small reading groups. My students couldn't "hear" their own improvement (or lack of) so I started recording them with my cell phone to let them hear themselves reading. Boy! Did that get their attention! I would much rather have something like this (with so many other uses) than having to use my personal cell for it! 🙂

  25. This would be an amazing addition to a classroom. I will be teaching full time again next year and could definitly use this in my new classroom.

  26. This would be an awesome product for me to use in speech therapy with my students. They could have immediate feedback on their sound productions! They would love using this – I am sure!!

  28. I love this! I have been searching for a long time in vain for a decent recorder. We have a recording program on our teacher laptops called Audacity – but of course no training or instruction manual was given to help use it. I have a view not so wonderful recordings of my ESL students reading in guided reading group time and they loved hearing their voice. How do I get one? I saw your rafflecopter part but I don't know where it is on your site? Or I don't know how it works.
    lzauflik@gmail.com

  30. I would use this resource in my room to be in two places at once. This would be great for students reading to each other. This will allow me to hear there strengths and weaknesses when working in pairs!

    Danielle

    dnll.brown@gmail.com

  32. This would be fantastic in my classroom. I am going to be a first year special education teacher and I can see so many good things coming out of having this in my classroom. I love what you did with it and now my mind is racing at everything I could do with it.
    – Ashton Beaver
    abeaver@harding.edu

  34. What a great product! I would use this during my book club groups with my fourth graders. Thanks for the chance to win.

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