Coulee kids doing some cool podcasting!
I really hope that people don’t think I’m just shamelessly promoting my new company, but so much of this just has me jazzed up. I spent about 90 minutes showing our regional managers some tips and tricks about the finer art of blogging, and they are just running with it. Not only is it fun keeping up with what they’re doing in their states, but now they’re bringing things to my attention that I would think I’d normally have the scoop on!
For example, I just found out that there’s a bunch of kids at Longfellow Middle School who are podcasting! I know I was a bit out of it for a while, but this is the sort of thing that I’m usually pretty up on. Go figure, eh? Anyway, there is a great description of podcasting along with some effective ideas for how to use it in the middle school classroom.
Podcasting is not just a “fluffy” new way to teach language arts. Students are still learning the school district language arts curriculum and mastering the state standards, but the added component is that they are being asked to discern the important concepts and vocabulary used in science, math, and social studies class and to teach the content in a way that is understandable and engaging to an authentic web audience. The process includes writing storyboards, conferencing about the content, editing, performing, analyzing the raw footage, combining the spoken word with photos, working in teams, meeting the class deadlines, and analyzing their work according to the rubric created by the class. Students are challenged to create their podcast using their Six Traits + 1 writing skills which include developing ideas and content, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Additionally, students are striving to use their vocal abilities as an effective tool to portray a message.
Not bad, eh? Another great example of an innovative school making use of available technology to create meaningful experiences for the students.
Alyssa, a seventh grade student there, put it very well. “Podcasting reaches out to others across the nation. I feel our voices are being heard.”
’nuff said.
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