A comparative study examined student performance attributed to the mode of literature instruction to determine the validity of increasing auditory-based learning activities in the middle school language arts classroom. Two classes of identified low-achieving students in a middle school reading program participated and were alternately assigned to read or listen to a passage during each of four lessons. Results from objective assessments, correlative writing activities, observations of on-task and off-task behavior, and surveys of students' preferences and self-evaluations were used to identify students with auditory strengths. Students who benefited from exposure to recorded literature were identified according to student preferences and objective assessments; a correlation between student behavior or writing strengths and the mode of exposure was not found. The identification of auditory-based learners, based on examples of student work and student preferences, was then used to propose a reading program that integrates the use of recorded literature. (Contains eight references, and three tables and five figures of data. Appendixes contain activity sheets, objective and subjective assessment forms, and a student self-evaluation.) (Author/RS)