Blog Post #4

Langwitches' blog post Podcasting With First Graders is about a group of students who started reading Vacation under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne from the Magic Tree House series. The idea was to make believe that they are interviewing the two main characters. The students were eager to record several segments and enjoyed listening to their audio recording repetitively. The students also cared about the quality of their work because they asked to record their podcasts again if they were not pleased with the results. Even the most timid students were breaking out of their shells and joining in on the excitement.

The children learned the following skills:

listening

speaking

presenting

comprehension

storytelling

performance

voice acting

oral fluency

media

technology

Langwitches' blog post Flat Stanley Podcast is about a first grade class that reads the book Flat Stanley by Jim Brown. The class brainstorms with their teacher and comes up with a story line for their audio segment. They would be flattened by their SmartBoard and mailed around the world. They picked a location of their choice and had to borrow a book from the library so they could learn more about their place. They also had the option to use the internet to research their location. Together, with their parents they read their book and created a short script. The students were reminded that they needed to think about the senses and sound effects in their audio segment.

This podcast made by these first graders really made me realize that sound effects and tone are an important part of audio. I would love to use this method of teaching in my future classroom.

Langwitches' blog post Listening-Comprehension-Podcasting is about a group of second graders who were learning the story of Purim. The students had to record the story as a podcast and their Jewish studies teacher helped them write their individual parts in Hebrew to create a script. The class had to unite as a team and make sure the entire story was told between them. The teacher had to make sure all of the recordings were completely out of order for this group project. The students then had to work together as a team and put the recordings in the correct order. They listened to the clips over and over again while they decided where to move each one. In the process of arranging the clips they were learning the sentences in English and Hebrew as well. After listening to this podcast I can really tell the children had a great time being creative. This was a great example of integrated learning and I think this is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom. I have learned that podcasting can offer an innovative way of learning and I am very excited about creating my first one.