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• enhance oral comprehension
• facilitate decoding skills within relevant and authentic tasks
• facilitate word recognition in a meaningful context
• engage students in activities that encourage and require strategic reading
• provide visual enhancement and reinforcement

There are plenty of average students and even those that excel in arts and humanities, specifically literature, that could also benefit from such a module.  And, the studies also indicate this is true.

The Bransford article discussed and highlighted research on how the addition of visual information makes a contribution to students' comprehension and interpretation of text.  My honest thoughts were - isn't this a no brainer?  Yes!  Visual images contribute!  But, this is coming from a visually oriented person.  During my reading my mind kept going back to our enjoyment of "story time" in my ASL (American Sign Language) class at work.  Each week, we learn new signs, and then our dear colleague tells us a story, using only a few of the signs in our vocabulary.  We have to guess what the rest of them mean.  In spite of a few hilarious misinterpretations we usually translate the story quite well.

I also just recently viewed an excellent performance of La Sylphide by Carolina Ballet.  I opted not to read the story in the program, to see if I could instead interpret it from the dance.  Piece of cake!  No problem getting the story from the dance.  OK, I realize that some need empirical evidence, but I am already satisfied that visual cues of any kind help convey a message.

I really like that the MOST modules at the Peabody Institute are set up so that students may write their own books, and again think that students who are not at risk would also benefit from such a module.   I think my favorite aspect of the module is that students are not required to "master" certain skills before using the module and can build on what they do know.  And best of all, it provides another way for students to learn pronunciation and other literacy sub-skillls without all the boring drills!