Tar Heel Books

The Tar Heel Readers site is at http://gb-cs.cs.unc.edu/TarHeelReader/ or enter 'Tar Heel' into your search engine. It contains online books for beginning reader students of a variety of ages. The books have been created so they can be used via a switch (an alternative device for accessing a computer instead of using a mouse) and are enabled for speech output (so they can be used with a speech program so the student can lsiten to them being read off the computer).

The books are all free as the site has been created as a voluntary collaboration, with writers uploading their stories and photos to create new 'books' for everyone to use. Mostly the stories are created by teachers and their students using daily life and student relevant topics.

The books can be accessed using Microsoft Powerpoint, OpenOffice Impress, or Adobe Flash programs. The books open as a slide show and users can choose a background color and a male, female or child speaker voice. The books can also be read without the voice, and can be accessed using a keyboard instead of a switch.

Creating a story for beginning readers is a great way of enhancing literacy learning, and providing relevant, motivating content for students. Most schools have a digital camera available for use, and this can be used to take a series of photos for a book. Try for photos with a 'real life' look (home, school grounds, classroom, excursions), or using props supplied by students (books, bags, pets, school equipment, sporting gear, computer). Link the photos together using a simple theme. Some good starting points for creating a story include:

• days of the week
• months of the year
• daily routines
• in a school day
• sporting activities
• on the weekend
• my family
• colors
• friends
• seasons
• celebrations
• time
• pets
• food

Beginning readers are very reliant on picture cues to help them read. Picture cues are a hint from the picture which helps a reader work out what the text says. To choose good picture cues, construct the sentences on the page so there is a high usage of commonly read words already known by the student. Use the picture cues to give a hint about non familiar words which may be more challenging to read.