SEVEN PRACTICAL AND EASY WAYS TO IMPLEMENT PODCASTS IN CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION
Perhaps the most valuable contribution of podcasts is that they are designed for multi-tasking. I listen to podcasts while driving, waiting in line, exercising, folding laundry, cooking dinner, etc. The How to Love Lit podcasts are designed to supplement the reading of the texts discussed and facilitate the delivering of content to students on the go. Using podcasts enables you to flip your classroom, so class time is not used for lecture, but is maximized for discussion.
STRATEGY 1- LISTENING GUIDES
Included with each series of podcasts for each book are listening guides and listening guide keys.. These are designed for English language learners who are using these podcasts as tools for comprehending oral language as well as teachers who are helping students stay focused during a lecture series. These easy-to-use guides are not guided notes highlighting the most important content, they are direct quotes from the podcast designed to refocus a student's attention back to the oral content every two minutes.
STRATEGY 2- HARKNESS DISCUSSION GROUPS
Use the How to Love Lit podcasts in conjunction with the Harkness discussion groups. Using this model, the podcast is heard before class or in a previous class, if that is necessary. Harkness groups allow students to develop open-minded, respectful conversations that are both thought-provoking and safe. There are several helpful YouTube instructional videos on how to conduct these free-flowing groups.
In my classroom, I have modified the original version to accommodate our physical space as well as the large number of students in a public school classroom. I ask them to bring notes of things they heard in the podcast that they would like to discuss because either they disagreed with the comment or want to develop an idea further. I may also ask students to bring an article of their own that connects to the discussion heard.
By way of facilitating discussion, I select one student (or let them self-select) to be a table monitor. It is his/her job to make sure that every student comments at least twice and if a single person dominates the discussion, it is his/her responsibility to politely shut down an “over-talker,” no small task. I ask this student to keep a tally of how many times each student talks, and turn that in at the end of class. In my context, I have 30 students in a room, so we break our chairs into smaller groups and make the ovals out of the chairs. The largest problem is when discussions are heated the noise level in the room can elevate.
STRATEGY 3: PADEIA SEMINARS
The Padeia seminar is a much more structured form of creating discourse in a classroom, and the How to Love Lit podcast is an excellent supplement to this successful approach. The podcast fits into the pre-seminar context to frontload content needed to prepare for a successful seminar.
STRATEGY 4: PODCAST BINGO
Included are Bingo templates for various episodes. This is a lighter approach and can work well to help students focus for longer periods of time during class on auditory content. For this strategy, the podcast is listened to DURING class, not beforehand. In my context, I have used this with lower level classes or even on days that a substitute is filling in.
STRATEGY 5: MODELING NOTETAKING
Often students have difficulty understanding how to identify important concepts while listening to lectures, as well as the importance of short hand during the note-taking process. In this strategy, the teacher sits at his/her computer with the overhead projector where students can see what he/she is doing. Everyone listens to the podcast together, and as the teacher listens, he/she takes notes, as imperfectly as they are. This researched based approach to modeling can be an important tool in instructing not only just content, but also the SKILL of acquiring information independently.
STRATEGY 6: PAIR-SHARE
This is blended approach to facilitating discussion in a large classroom context. In this model, students sit in pairs and listen to segments of the podcast. This is usually controlled by the teacher, but it can be done independently. At certain intervals during the podcast, the pause button is hit and students have some time to sit in pairs and discuss what they think of the ideas being discussed. Reflections are turned in at the end of the podcast and should reflect NOT summaries of the material discussed, but some form of reflection of the ideas discussed in pairs.
STRATEGY 7: FOR THE ONE-TO-ONE CLASSROOM
Padlet.com is basically a gigantic digital post-it note bulletin board. At the beginning of class, have students bring up padlet on their computers and sign on to your page. Over the course of the class, keep the padlet screen up and as you listen collectively to the podcast, ask students to post comments about things they hear as you go along. Everyone can see everyone else's comments as they make them during and afterwards. This is kind of a "silent" discussion that is going on while the podcast is playing.
STRATEGY 8: TO USE ON A PHONE OR A COMPUTER
Flipgrid.com is an academic snapchat, in a matter of sorts. The nice thing about Flipgrid is that it is an app that can be put on phones for students who don't have computers but still want to participate in a digital learning experience. There is flexibility to use flipgrids in all sorts of ways really, but what I have done is asked students to listen to the podcast at home and make a one minute flipgrid where I have asked a question to which I want to them to respond. In class the next day, we bring up the flipgrids and spend class time viewing the different responses. While viewing videos, ask students to respond to some a few, usually at least two. After we've had a chance to view the flipgrids and respond, we talk about what were the most popular things people brought out in their flipgrid videos and why we thought this was the case. In this model, class time is used primarily for discussion.