There are some teacher tools that have changed my instruction immensely and this is one of them! QuickVoice allows you to record your voice and I use it for read alouds and test prep throughout the school year. You can record your own voice reading a short text or picture book and play it back to your students. I usually use this with my iPhone and then plug it in to speakers to play back for students with this short text recorder.
Short Text Recorder
I work with a CTT group of students whose IEPs mandate that test passages are read and reread and quick voice is a great way to record and replay short texts.
From a management perspective it’s been extremely helpful to monitor students who might get distracted, especially when practicing note taking. As your voice reads the story over speakers in the front of the room you can be at the back making sure that everyone is on task.
This app (there are many that perform the same function) allows you to label and save each recording for later use. You can pause as you’re recording if there is an interruption and pause as you play it back if you want to ask questions to the class about the story.
QuickVoice not only keeps my students engaged at the use of technology (if they know I’m recording for the first read through they are silent and still at the seats) it makes the often boring task of reading test passages aloud easier on everyone.
*this app is also available for the iPad but may be a bit more cumbersome for recording than the more portable iPhone or iPod touch