CSI – Comprehension Strategies Instruction

Author, co-developer of CSI, and audio text pioneer Meryl-Lynn Pluck explains the why and how of the audio support in CSI.

The developers of CSI, guided by leading researchers and successful classroom teachers, believe it to be highly beneficial to students if they are provided with texts to read that are interesting and age-appropriate in content and complexity. Although there is, without question, a place for students to read texts at their independent and instructional reading levels for instruction and practice in the use of comprehension strategies, it is deemed to be beneficial for students to have access to text that is at their level of understanding, regardless of their ability to decode.  

The developers also realized, however, the need to provide scaffolding for struggling readers and English Language Learners to allow them to access text that they are unable to read unaided. The decision was made to provide that scaffolding with an audio-recording of the texts that students are expected to read independently or cooperatively without direct assistance from their teacher.  

Scaffolding supplied by means of an audio-recording is well-proven in research to be an effective means of providing support and modeling for students (Chomsky, 1978, and Samuels, 1979, cited in Worthy and Broaddus, 2001, p. 338), so the “why” of providing an audio-recording was not the difficult part.  The intricacy lay in the fact that CSI is published in New Zealand, yet sold worldwide, requiring, we believe, voices acceptable to a wide range of listeners.  Our task was to find “international” male and female voices. Fortunately, New Zealand is home to many skilled narrators experienced in using “international” voices.  

So, in a New Zealand studio, guided by a New Zealander well-experienced in providing audio-support at the correct pace for developing readers, US-born-turned-kiwi narrators KC Kelly and Jen Wolfe provided the voices on the CDs for the CSI kits 3, 4, 5, and 6 texts. Kits 7 and 8 texts were recorded by Jen Wolfe and Canadian-born Derek Flores, who was recently back from winning the World Theatersports Championship in Germany, along with his Canadian teammates. These voices, customers worldwide agree, are the ideal “international” voices desirable in a resource used by students around the world.