Sound may be one of the more captivating, moving,
and dynamic stimuli. A certain song can
instantly bring you back to a special moment in your life. A specific sound can make you calm or
alert. A soundtrack can heighten the
emotions and ambience of a film. I’m a
big fan of the composer Hans Zimmer, who has scored many
movies. When listening to his scores, I
can create a crystal clear mental picture of the movie scenes while also
experiencing the mystery or suspense of those sequences. I discovered an online service that uses the
power of sound and music to create an immersive, engaging, and creative reading
and writing experience. It’s called Booktrack Classroom.
Booktrack Classroom is an online service for teachers and students. It provides a library of e-books that contains soundtracks and sound effects to amplify the reading experience. As you read, the score, ambient sounds, and sound effects perfectly complement what is happening on the page. I found it absolutely immersive as the sound sparked my imagination to better visualize and experience the story. Booktrack has smart technology that automatically adjusts the score and sound effects to adapt to your reading pace, but you can also manually increase or decrease the reading speed to ensure the sound seamlessly matches the story. Additionally, you can adjust the volume, pause it, and start the audio back up again by double-clicking on a word if you want to re-read it or if you lose your place.
Teachers can get a full-version account for free, but it’s
only available for a limited time. I
checked today, and this offer is still valid.
Once teachers have an account, they can create specific classes within
Booktrack Classroom, add students to it, assign individualized books to each of
their students, monitor and track their progress, and much more. These classes also integrate with Google
Classroom, so teachers can send anything in their Booktrack Class to their
Google Classroom. Booktrack Classroom also
keeps track of books you or your students want to read, are reading, or have
read in “My Bookshelf”. According to
Evidence-based Educational Outcomes in Literacy by the University of Auckland
and NYU, contextual soundtracks helped students increase comprehension by
17%. This study also found students read
for 30% longer and reported 35% higher satisfaction when reading with a
Booktrack. Now, here comes the coolest
part of Booktrack Classroom.
Students and teachers can create their own Booktracks for
any book in the Booktrack Classroom library.
For example, teachers can have students create their own Booktracks for
a chapter out of The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz. It gets even better. Students can create their very own e-books on
Booktrack Classroom. They can write
their own stories and choose from hundreds of professionally made music tracks, ambient
noises, and sound effects to match the mood and setting of their stories. Additionally, they can create a book cover and then publish it for others to
read and enjoy. There is much potential here
for the four Cs (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication).
I encourage you to read a book on Booktrack Classroom
yourself because the experience gave me a huge “Wow” moment. When my eyes came to the part in A Christmas Carol when the bell in
Ebenezer’s bedroom mysteriously rings, and then the sound of a bell rang while eerie music played
in the background, I was as shocked as Scrooge but in a good way.
