Week 9

When I was first introduced to Podcasts, the first thing I thought of was having my student's actually create their own Podcasts. Although last week we did our own personal searches for Podcasts to be used in the classroom, I still feel that students creating Podcasts of their own would be more beneficial to them.  After creating my own Podcast using Audacity in my other EDT class, I quickly started thinking of how I could implement this into my own classroom. In third grade, poetry is a key factor in a child's success when passing the STAAR exam at the end of the year. Because we are covering poetry on a daily basis, I thought an engaging activity for my students could be to have them recite their own poems on a Podcast. This is a great strategy to get my students practicing their fluency because it is not easy to read with expression. I would have my students recite different forms of poetry such as humorous, narrative, and lyrical. Having them recite the poem with expression will help them understand the tone of the poem. Students could also practice pausing after line breaks and stanzas. Once the Podcast was created the Podcast could then be shared with teachers, parents, and other students.  Most teachers in my district have their own personal website for students and parents to access. With this tool, the student's work could be posted on the website for them to listen to and for their parents to hear, as well.

            Another way to use Podcasts in the classroom would be as a listening center in the classroom. I would save different genres of Podcasts, depending on the content being covered that week. The students would then choose which Podcast to listen to during a math or reading center. One podcast they could listen to would be a collection of past students' recited poems.