Strategy
APH’s The Littlest Pumpkin Tactile Book and Sound Effects!
The Novel Effect app adds sound effects to APH's tactile book!
Music and sound effects play at just the right time as you read APH’s The Littlest Pumpkin tactile book, bringing the book to life! Accompanying sound effects and music will delight emerging readers – and for students who are visually impaired, these stimulating sounds may also provide information about the story that is often gleaned from illustrations.
The free Novel Effect app has hundreds of popular picture books with “soundscapes” (music, sound effects and character voices) that follow along as you read the story aloud. Novel Effect has partnered with the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) to create soundscapes for the tactile book, The Littlest Pumpkin.
In the video below, a teacher is sitting on the floor with her preschool class reading The Littlest Pumpkin book. As she reads the book aloud, she slowly passes the tactile book and encourages her students with visual impairments to feel the book. An iPhone lays beside the teacher open to the The Littlest Pumpkin book in the Novel Effects app. As the teacher reads, the app plays corresponding sound effects that are aligned with story. Pay attention to the music and sound effects as the teacher reads!
How Does Novel Effects Work?
Prep
- Download the free Novel Effects in the App Store or the free Novel Effects in Google Play.
- Get APH’s The Littlest Pumpkin book (This is an On the Way to Literacy tactile storybook)
- Open the Novel Effects app on your smart phone or tablet.
- In the Search text field, type in “The Littlest Pumpkin” and select the book.
- On The Littlest Pumpkin page, Select Download.
- Open the APH book.
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Select the Record button in the app and begin reading the APH Book.
- This will sync your voice with the soundscapes for the book.
- Note: Your voice is NOT part of the recording – this prep reading is how the book sync’s the sounds to your words when you LATER read the story aloud to students.
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When finished recording, select the Share button and email the recording to yourself.
- You can save the email with the Novel Effect link or you can copy the link into a document. If you record multiple Novel Effect stories, it is recommended to copy the links into a document for safe keeping. You can also copy the link into your lesson plan or your personal way of organizing classroom activities.
Read to Student/Class
When you are ready to read the story to the class, you will need APH’s The Littlest Pumpkin tactile book and your smart phone or tablet.
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On your smart phone or tablet, open the email/document with the link to Novel Effects recording for the Littlest Pumpkin.
- Note: You do not access YOUR recording from the Novel Effects app.
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On the page with your recording of the Littlest Pumpkin, press Play and begin LIVE reading the APH book.
- Remember, your voice was NOT recorded previously – you must read the book aloud to students. As you read aloud, the app syncs the soundscapes as you read – meaning if you stop reading to allow a student to feel the tactile book, the sounds also stop. As you say key words/sentences, the sounds begin again.
Note: Many of these picture books are copyrighted, so you must have your own copy of the book. For books that are not copyrighted, when you select the book title in the Novel Effects app, below the picture will be another button, the “eBook” button. If this eBook button is available, select the eBook button and then select the Download button. The book will be downloaded into the app and you can begin reading and recording the book on this page.
For more information about Novel Effects, view Novel Effect App Review post.
By Diane Brauner
