Last year, while our first grade teacher was absent for an extended period of time, I spend a few sessions with them to read a book from the Magic Tree House series, Vacation under the Volcano, and then pulled  students out in small groups to record them. You can read about the process and my reflection on this post “Podcasting with First Grade“.

This year, the first grade teacher took over reading and writing the script in the classroom. She was one step ahead of me in reading and scripting each chapter, as I took three students (Interviewer’s, Jack’s & Annie’s voice) at the time out of the classroom to record them.

Recording the Script

As I was pulling the students out to record, the classroom teacher continued reading, chapter by chapter, and creating the interview script to be recorded with the students. By the time the last chapter was recorded, I had ten written scripts collected. I decided to create a little booklet (created from a MS Word Template) for the first graders, so they would be able to follow along as they were listening to the podcast.

Booklet created with MS Word Template

The audio file is about 15 minutes long. As the class listened to the podcast for the first time in it’s entirety, they had their little fingers on the paper to follow along. Each chapter ending was followed with a special sound to indicate that a new chapter was about to start. This helped any student who had lost their place on the script.

Read-Along

Read- Along

Once we had finished listening to the podcast, I asked their teacher give them a few minutes to write down a couple of sentences about their experience.

My thoughts:

• It amazes me every time. Students are so engaged, wanting to re-record, if their voice, didn’t sound “just” right.
• Students (6-7 year olds)  are very interested in the mechanics of Garageband (ex. tracks, dead air, sound clips, moving clips, etc).
• Students started to experiment with their voices: inflection, fluency, pitches, emotions, volume, speed…
• The written script as an add-on to the audio file was a bonus. Students are eager to “read-along” as they were listening to their podcast. I want to look for an iPad/iPhone app to streamline the process. Does anyone know of an app that would allow me to import a recorded mp3 file (I want to be able to continue using Garagband to record and edit them) and then ” attach” the word doc or a pdf file to that audio file for kids to scroll through at their own pace, as they are playing and pausing the audio file.

Next Step:

• upload the podcast to their classroom website to be played within the blog.
• upload the podcast to our school’s iTunes Podcast channel.
• Send information (how-to-guide) via blog, email or paper print-out to parents to help them subscribe and download podcast episode from iTunes to their devices.
• Work with librarian to establish a book review, storytelling, etc. audio file library accessible in physical and virtual library space to all students.

Reflection:

• I really like to expand the reflection piece as part of the podcasting process.
• In the future I want to involve students by giving them ownership and time to “play” on their own in Garageband to record and edit their voices.
• Assessment: I need to find a way to formally assess the impact podcasting (including script writing and voice recording) has on writing, reading, fluency, comprehension and presentation skills.
• We need to do this earlier in the year to be able to connect our students with other podcasting children around the world. Take a look at my blog post from last year when I asked: A Worldwide Audience for Six Year Olds?

Listen to these first graders make “Dinosaurs Before Dark” come alive with their voices.

If you have a first grade class or your own child is ready and interested in reading chapter books, download the mp3 file and the pdf file of the script, upload them to your iPod, iTouch, iPhone or iPad (or other device). Now you should be able to listen to the audio as you read along.

Dinosaurs Before Dark Script

——

Postscript: I could not stop thinking about the script and the audio file. Thanks to Leigh Murrell on Twitter, I checked into epub, a format that can be imported into iBooks on my iPad/iPhone.

Since I don’t have Pages on my macbook, I used a script file I had created in Word.

Creating Document in Word

I then converted the .docx file to an .epub file by using 2EPUB, a free online converter.

Free ePub converter

Once converted, I plugged my iPad in and dropped the .epub file from my finder directly into the iTunes>Books folder. I then added an artwork as a cover. Once I synched my iPad, I could find the dinosaur “booklet” on my bookshelf.

Import into iBooks

Even the dictionary part works, as you hold one finger down on a word, the dictionary caption pops up with a definition.

Script opened in iBook

I also uploaded the mp3 file to iTunes and now have a Read-Along audio book with the iBook and iPod combination.

As a former World Language teacher, I know of the importance of hearing the target language as much as possible. In order to internalize a new vocabulary word, you have to hear it at least 70+ times. By hearing I mean not only the sounds of the letters that make up the word, but also the context the word is embedded in… the melody of the sentence that embraces that word… the words that lead up to it and the words that follow it to make meaning and conclude the sentence.

When learning a language, it is especially important to attach a feeling to a word in order to make meaning of how it will be used in the future with maybe other words surrounding it than the ones originally learned. It is equally important to give language learners the opportunity to practice using the words, sentences and melodies and help them be comfortable in pronouncing them and feeling and hearing them come out of their mouth.

Recording a podcast and the EDITING of the podcast is a great tool, especially for language learners to play with the mechanics of the language. It gives the learners the opportunity to see their voices, read the sounds, manipulate the sequence of sentences, sounds can be deleted, edited, emphasized and re-arranged similar than a word processing program can do this with the written word.

Our second graders were learning the story of Purim a few weeks ago. Their teacher and I planned to have the students record the story as a podcast to be shared with their parents on their classroom blog. Students had had experience with podcasting the previous year as they produced Flat Stanley and a Magic Tree House podcast as first graders.

Their Jewish Studies teacher worked with each of them to write individual parts in Hebrew to create a script of the Purim Story. Collaboratively the class had to make sure that the entire story was told between them.

Then we started recording them in Garageband. We recorded each student’s sentence, but were careful to record the sentences completely out of order.

The children loved listening to their recordings over and over again. Once all the parts were recorded it was time for the students to edit the podcast file and move each clip into the correct order to tell the story of Purim.

Putting audio clips into order

We connected the computer to the SmartBoard which allowed students to come up to the board to use their fingers in order to find a certain place in the recording, play, pause, start, listen and decide to which position the clip should be moved to.

Listening Comprehension

Again, I would like to emphasize that this project was NOT about using Garageband (the tool). It was NOT about producing a podcast (the genre) . This lesson was about writing a script, listening, comprehension, collaboration, speaking skills, and fluency in the target language. The tool allowed us to manipulate sounds, re-listen, think critically and logically about the best way to present the story- all in the target language. The genre allowed us to share our work, amplify our reach, gain an authentic audience and motivate students to create and be creative.

Even if you don’t speak Hebrew, take a moment and listen to  these 7 and 8 year olds. Listen to their fluency, melody and motivation in their voices. Maybe you want to leave them a comment to let them know you “heard” them.

This blog post has been in the making for over 12 months.The first part was written (and then left in the draft folder) in November of 2009, while the second part is being written as the unit was unfolding over the last few weeks.

I began working with our Middle School Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Kuhr, to upgrade one of her units (Author’s Point of View).

I wanted to:

• describe the teacher’s train of thought from the moment, I approached her with the idea of taking reading of short stories to challenging students to create a podcast narrated from a different point of view.
• compare the initial lesson objective the teacher envisioned to the unexpected lessons the project taught teacher and students.
• her journey of podcasting for the first time, playing and staying one step ahead of her students when working with Garageband.
• document 21st Century skills, students were being exposed to and were practicing.

I wanted to document in way:

• that could it could be shared on our school’s (private) professional development Ning, so her colleagues could be inspired by her “courage” to just try it out and by the possibilities upgrading a “once traditionally taught unit” could bring to their own class
• that it could be shared on our school’s 21st Century Learning blog to keep the school’s parents informed of what their children were experiencing in the classroom. What skills are we teaching our students? What are digital natives capable of creating?
• that it could be shared on the Langwitches Blog in order to reach a wider audience than the one of our small school community. Reach out, so educators from around the world could get an idea that would, in turn inspire them, to try something different in their classroom and as a result reach more students from outside of our school.

Ripple Effect

Sharing what one is doing, sharing what one is learning along the way, will not only allow for reflection, but it also will create a ripple effect. A ripple effect that in turn will touch the lives and the future of others.

As the unit upgrade and the podcast project progressed, I kept documenting via a draft on my blog. Mrs. Kuhr was faster than I was and wrote a fabulous documentation and reflection of her lesson on our school Ning. With her permission, I am cross- posting:

LESSON:
To Teach the Literary Element – Author’s Point of View

OBJECTIVES:
Students will learn the various points of view and be able to identify them in literary works. Students will explore how point of view affects a story’s plot. Students will learn to discern the subtle differences between author’s point of view and perspective, and how to employ each in their own creative writing.

Next, the SET INDUCTION:
I love to tell stories, so I began with a 1st person narrative about an awkward situation that involved me and several others. After I told the story, I asked students to imagine the thoughts and emotions of the other “characters”; how the story would differ, say, if told from a 3rd person omniscient point of view. Or, better yet, what kind of stories would the others tell?

Then, APPLICATION: Each class read a short story from their literature texts -

• 8th: The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
• 7th: The Foghorn and All Summer in a Day, both by Ray Bradbury
• 6th: Eleven by Sandra Cisneros

and was asked to identify the author’s point of view. Students were then instructed to imagine how their stories would change with a different character’s or object’s perspective. Discussion ensued, and though the repartee was thoughtful and stimulating, I felt I needed something more concrete by which to evaluate. I had recently spoken with Silvia about the successful podcasts she was doing with the lower grades and wondered if the same technology could be used as an assessment tool…

Alas, the PODCAST: Using Garage Band, each student recorded a retelling of the story he/she read from a perspective other than that of the original narrator. Students could select a minor character, the protagonist or an inanimate object to tell their tales. In some instances, students were allowed to create characters (a.k.a. the “fly on the wall”), as long as they stayed true to the storylines. After recording the narration, enhancements (e.g., sound effects, music) could be added to the podcasts.

Finally, ASSESSMENT: Actually, the podcasts themselves are the means by which I will evaluate whether or not my objectives are met. As students finish, they will present their podcasts to their classmates, first explaining why they chose their particular perspectives. In each case, the class is responsible for identifying the author’s point of view.
Note: Though higher level critical thinking and creative imagery were my goals, what transpired produced a whole new skills set in digital storytelling. As a result, I asked my 8th graders to create a generic Podcast Rubric for all grades. Hence, in addition to the lesson’s objectives, students will be assessed on podcast content, technical production, and presentation.

WHAT WORKED:
The majority of the students “got it”. They were able to use perspective and point of view in a creative writing/storytelling scenario. They were enthusiastic, focused (for the most part), and exhibited pride in their work. Peer review was more “critique” than “criticism” – always a plus. And I learned more about podcasting and Garage Band than I ever thought I would – or could!

WHAT DIDN’T WORK:
Concurrent recording. Oy! There were not enough places to hide and record in quiet. Background noise was a problem, and editing often led to volatile frustration. Time was also an issue. I had originally scheduled 5 class periods per grade for this assignment. (I should have known better.) We are now on week 3.

WOULD I DO THIS AGAIN?
Yes, with tweaking. Now that I know what’s involved, I’ll begin with a definitive rubric that reflects objectives and goals, add a production schedule, and stagger recordings.

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Lisa Nielsen from  the Innovative Educator  wrote around the same time as I had started this blog post (in November 2009) “21st Century Educators don’t say “Hand it in”, they say “Publish it!” . In my opinion, Mrs. Kuhr took the step towards becoming that 21st century educator. She moved from having her students “hand in” a written response to a prompt to allowing students to add elements such as voice and sound effects to support their character’s perspective as they were recording a podcast. She also realized that her usual assessment rubric was insufficient. She invited her students to join her in creating a new assessment tool that would reflect, not only the basic literacy skills, but also the their podcasting skills.

Fast Forward

Fast forward 14 months. We are in 2011 and Mrs. Kuhr has the previous year’s experience under her belt. Podcasting (and Garageband as a tool) do not scare her anymore and she was ready to repeat the “upgraded version” of her author’s point of view  unit with her students.

Current 8th graders had had the experience with podcasting as 7th graders (with a different story). When presented with a new story, they were also given a choice of media they could use to express “their” chosen point of view.

A few students chose to create individual podcast files, while others decided on a collaborative episode. The latter group worked hard to come up with job descriptions and divide the responsibilities among themselves.

Students assigning their own job responsibilities

Here are the jobs they came up with:

• Project Manager
• Assistant Manager
• Sound Manager
• Scribe
• Script Supervisor
• Technical Assistant
• Liaison
• Character Coach

They also collaboratively designed a rubric for their point-of-view project.

Students Helping Create their own Assessment Rubric

Here are a few examples:

• The Tell Tale Heart retold by 8th grade (collaborative group work)
• The Tell Tale Heart retold by the old man’s heart (William)
• The Tell Tale Heart retold by the old man (Manya)

One students chose to create a PowerPoint to express yet another point of view (the bed)

7th graders were also given a choice of media (audio, video, powerpoint, essay, multimedia poster, etc.). They all chose to create a multimedia poster with Glogster. Mrs. Kuhr quickly created a teacher and student accounts and had them in business in no time.

Glogs are interactive posters that can include different media (images, audio, video, text). All student-created-projects (glogs, powerpoint, videos or podcasts) involved dealing with, finding and using digital media for their creations. A mini-lesson evolved around the issue of Copyright and Fair Use grew out of this need.

Rikki Tikki Tavi Glogster

Rikki- Tikki- Tavi Glogster Example

Students created their glogs about a specific character from the story and their unique point of view. They linked to each other’s glogs to tie the story together. Some students used more text and links, others were heavier on images and some even inserted audio.

Where do we go from here? How do we extend the learning further? How do we “upgrade” more parts to include more 21st century skills and literacies ? How can we give students more job responsibilities to empower them and take ownership in their learning? That will be part of Mrs. Kuhr’s and my reflection before next school year’s Author’s Point of View unit rolls around again.

We (Head of school,Jon Mitzmacher, 5th Grade Classroom teacher, Shelly Zavon, Middle School Language Arts teacher, Mrs. Reppert, Technology Director & 21st Century Learning Specialist,Andrea Hernandez and two of our students, Sabrina & Hannah) were interviewed by Alan November for his NL Podcast Series about the use of student jobs in the classroom!

Take a listen to the November Podcast Episode: Students as Contributors:

In this podcast, Alan interviews Silvia Tolisano, 21st Century Learning Specialist, along with other administrators, teachers and students at Martin J. Gottlieb School. Here, students are being encouraged to take more of a leadership role in their learning as they take part in a variety of jobs inspired by Alan November’s article, Students as Contributors: The Digital Learning Farm.

The jobs these students are doing give them a great deal of responsibility and provide them with authentic tasks that result in meaningful content that supplements their learning and connects them with experts from around the world.

Silvia will be a presenter at the 2011 Building Learning Communities Conference. Click here for more information and to register.

A Teacher's Heart Smiles when...

A teacher’s heart smiles when students become creative, enthusiastic and take ownership of their work. This was the case with the 4th grade class at my school. Their classroom teacher asked me to introduce podcasts to her class, she and her students took it from there and RAN… with it…

I came to their classroom to let them listen to various examples of class-podcasts and talk to them about  creating a collaborative storyline, that would tie individual audio segments together. I also talked to them about the importance of voice acting in order to engage their audience.

Here are some sample podcasts they listened to:

• Flat Stanley Podcast
• Magic Tree House
• Zoo Trip
• Endangered Animals

Students started to get excited as we were brainstorming scenarios for their storyline.

Brainstorming on the SmartBoard

We took a screenshot of the final list and uploaded the image to their classroom blog. Students were then asked to write a short paragraph on the blog detailing their storyline. The class was going to vote for the best storyline to be used for their podcast.

Screenshot of Possible Storylines

From their classroom blogs:

Sabrina M.

I think the plot should be where we go the Kennedy Space Center and Hannah accidentally pushes the button that launches the rocket so we go to all the different planets and then an evil alien says that we cannot go back to Earth unless we can name four facts about every planet. And that’s when we say all our facts.

Josh Z.

Plot: We go into space accidentally and we get a tour of space. After the tour a black hole suddenly says ” take a quiz of the solar system if you get any questions wrong the sun will disappear ” and we take the quiz and the sun doesn’t disappear.

Reesa Z.

We should do something where we all were asleep and we had a dream about and alien taking us to the solar system and then he/she would give us a tour about the planets. Then we will talk about our planets. After that we all wake up and realize it was just a dream.

Ryan H.

Real estate agents: Aliens from many galaxies away want to sell, The sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are on the market from alien Real estate agents. The aliens want you to know 4 facts about each planet in order to buy them. If you dont get all 4 facts for your planet by Friday Earth will be destroyed.

Hanna G.

I think the storyline should be: One night all of the classmates dreamed of aliens coming out of the blackhole and they came to capture us. Then the next day we came to school and we went to the Kennedy Space Center and clumsy Hannah accidentally launched the rocket and then it fell so we had to go back to the class and when we got back the class turned into the solar system. In the solar system we learn about all the planets. When we were done we went to the alien real estate agents to get us back home.

Allie I.

Everybody in the class goes home and goes to bed. They all have the same dream. In their dream, they dream about space and learn about space. When they go to school the next morning, they all figure out they had the same dream and talk about what the dream was in class.

Edyn G.

I think that we should be staying at a hotel and there is not enough beds so we pull out a pull out bed and while every one is asleep it turns into a rocket ship and takes us into space and then it turns into a bus and we tour space and then it turns into a rocket ship and gos back to the hotel.

Montgomery P.

I think the plot should be: We go outside for recess, and Daniel tells everyone to come look at what he found. He found twenty jet packs. So we all take a field trip to all the planets and the moon and sun. So when we get back we put the jet packs back where we found them.

Rachel O.

Our classroom turns into the space shuttle because by accident Josh tripped over a binder and pressed the button and no one knew what it did until they all saw the stars and planets.After they see all the stars and planets the class wants to go and take a look around at them all.Mrs.Raitt says “Ok let’s go!”.We all are looking at the planets and then we go back to school.

Shira D.

I would like to do a news cast where on the news they announce that aliens have captured people and they take then around the solar system and that is my idea!

We booked time in the computer lab to allow students to “play” with Garageband and learn about tracks, background music, splitting, editing and moving tracks.

The classroom teacher created a list of planet facts that each group had to include in their segment and students started to write their script.

Items to be included in script

Once each group finished and exported their segment, we imported these files into a new Garageband project and arranged the segments in order.

Putting Podcast Together

Take a “listen” to these 4th graders “Space Real Estate Agents” podcast. Honor their efforts as

• storytellers
• collaborative team members
• creative writers
• producers
• directors
• audio editors
• podcasters

Leave them a comment, including your location, so they can track their listeners on a Map.

View MJGDS-4th Grade Space Podcast Audience in a larger map

Many times, I see eyes glazing over, when I excitedly speak with parents or administrators about blogging, skyping or podcasting with students. Many of them, unfamiliar with the tools, will immediately feel uncomfortable. Some will automatically and immediately steer the conversation back to what they know:

What about learning the basics, like reading, writing, math and science?

I usually try to explain and emphasize, that these skills are precisely what are being taught. We are not podcasting in order to teach Audacity nor Garageband. We are not recording students for the fun of using microphone, we are not blogging, so we can practice typing, we are not skyping for the purpose of using a webcam.

Parents and administrators, unfamiliar with the tools, also seem worried that “important” academic time is being lost and wasted!

In an attempt to explain that there is so much more involved when using technology tools, I blogged a few months ago, We Podcasted Today So, did you learn anything?

It is important that we explain to parents and administrators that we are using the tools to practice the above mentioned basic literacy skills, engage and motivate students, but also address, integrate and embed so many more skills and literacies.

Take a look at the visuals below:

• Podcasting Skill
• Video Conferencing Skills
• Blogging Skills
• Wiki Skills
• Digital Storytelling

What are some other technology tools you are using in the classroom? What are the skills and literacies that you are addressing? How can we educate parents and administrators that blogging, podcasting and skyping, etc. are simply a vehicle to preparing students for many skills and literacies, including the 3Rs they are accustomed to and familiar with.

Disclaimer:

All images were created by me with photographs obtained at Stockxchnge. The resulting visuals are available for you to use, remix and build upon under the Creative Commons license. This means, that you are free to copy, embed, print, or distribute the images as long as it is not for commercial purposes and you give credit to me, as the original creator.

This work by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

You might want to grab the images with higher resolution from their Flickr Page:

• Podcasting Skills
• Blogging Skills
• Video Conferencing Skills
• Wiki Skills
• Digital Storytelling Skills

Podcasting Skills

Video Conferencing Skills

Blogging Skills

Wiki Skills

Digital Storytelling Skills

One of our first grade classes read the book Flat Stanley by Jim Brown. They sent paper Flat Stanleys to relatives and friends around the country and received images and stories back.

Paper Flat Stanley

Then, inspired by the “worldwide” success” of the “other first grade class’” podcast episode of the Magic Tree House, the six year olds wanted to create their own recording.

As a class their brainstormed with their teacher a storyline so every one of them could have a segment in the recording. It came natural to them that they wanted to be flattened by their SmartBoard and be mailed around the world.

As their homework assignment, they were to pick a location of their choosing and to borrow a book from the library about that location. They could also use the internet to research their destination. Together with their parents they read the book and wrote a short script that needed to include:

• The location (City, State, Country, and/or Continent)
• How did they get there (transportation)?
• What did they do at that location?
• How did they get back home?

They were also given the reminder that

This is an audio recording, so the children need to think about the senses and sound effects they can use to help portray the mood. How did it feel to be mailed? how did it sound and smell at the places. What did they see?

Recording with Garageband

Take a listen and follow these first graders to London (England), Antarctica, Alabama (USA), Space, Israel, Tokyo (Japan), North Pole, Illinois (USA), New York (USA), Hollywood (USA) and Michigan (USA).

Please take the time to let these six year olds know where you are from by leaving a comment. Having a worldwide audience does matter!

My 5 year old niece lives in Brazil. I don’t get to see her much… Over this winter break, I was able to share some precious time with her though Skype. I read her several stories as I was showing the accompanying illustrations to her through the webcam. She also read to me in her first attempts.

In order to share some more storytime with her, I recorded a fairy tale, my grandmother used to tell my brother and me when we were children. I found a translation online from the original German story “Der Wolf und die sieben Geisslein” from the Brother Grimm (“The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats”) into Spanish “El lobo y las siete Cabritas”, which is my niece’s first language.

Hopefully, my brother will be able to download the MP3 file and transfer it onto an iPod, so I can continue telling my niece fairy tales and a family tradition can continue through time, space and language barriers.

The Wold and the Seven Little Goats

Right Click and Save Link as to download MP3 file. El Lobo y las Siete Cabritas

Cross posted on TechLearning Advisor Blog
Podcasting has been around for a while now. It has also made it’s entry into the world of schools. Teachers of younger students are venturing into the world of digital storytelling in the classroom and are recording their students digitally.

The benefits for students to practice skills such as the following are part of a growing list.

• listening
• speaking
• presenting
• comprehension
• storytelling
• performance
• voice acting
• oral fluency
• media
• technology

I believe that there is an added bonus, one that we are just beginning to explore with the younger crowd is the benefit of a having a worldwide audience. The process of creating and recording a podcast is only one part of it. The opportunity to having their work disseminate on a bigger scale is just starting to be possible as teachers are growing and expanding their PLN (Personal Learning Network).  This network can literally span the world through social network sites such as blogs, Nings and twitter.

I am curious to find out if having a global audience makes a difference to six year olds or not?

Does having a Global Audience make a difference?

Once our podcast MP3 file was created, I embedded the file into a blog post on Langwitches and sent an announcement on my Twitter network with the invitation to listen to the audio and leave a comment with their geographic location.

Over the weekend, comments with observations, encouragement, and commendation were pouring in. I tracked the location of the commenters on a Google Map.

The following school day, students were sitting at their desks listening eagerly to me read the comments for them. In addition I showed them the location on the map. I made it a point to remind them that “their” voices were traveling and reaching to far away places.

There were comments from:

• USA
• Argentina
• Scotland
• England
• Spain
• Germany
• Turkey
• China
• India
• Bangladesh
• Thailand
• Australia
• New Zealand

There were a few words that students immediately picked up on and were thrilled to hear over and over again in several comments. They were especially intrigued by the word “professional”. Proud giggles were heard when commenters told them they sounded like 4th or 5th graders and that college professors would let their student teachers listen to their voices as an example. They would be teaching others who were much older than themselves.

Andrea Hernandez from EdtechWorkshop suggested to create a Wordle from all the comments that were left on the blog. As always I am amazed how a word cloud can shed light in an instant on a “bunch of text”.

Wordle created from comments left by listeners of 1st Grade podcast

As we were reading the comments, we also talked about and noted differences among our commenters. Not only where they were coming from, but also if we could figure out, if they were male/female, teachers/parents/grandparents or elementary school level, middle school or at the university level.

During the day, as I met these first graders at different times in the hallway of the school, I was asked as they were passing by, if someone else had listened to”their” voices and where they were from.

At the end of the day, the same first graders were part of a Skype call with another first grade class from  North Carolina. When I asked them, if they had any questions to ask our Skype partners, immediately a hand shot up wanting to know: “if the teacher and the students from North Carolina were “fans” of ours and had listened to our podcast?” Since, the class in North Carolina had not heard it, we immediately sent the blog link to them to check it out.

Here are quotes from journal entries of these podcasting six year olds (Word for word, I only took the liberty and used spell check before posting )

When I heard those compliments, it made me feel happy and very excited. I loved hearing those compliments.

When I heard about the replies, I felt great. Just amazing, so good. They said so much good words. I loved it very much.

I was very happy when I heard them. I liked all the comments about Jack and Annie.

When people texted us, I felt so happy and surprised. I t was fun when I heard one text that they were a big fan.

My class did a very great podcast. People all over earth made us happy. They were nice to us. Yes, they were!

So so so so so so so so soooooooo great! And I liked it so much that I want to explode like a volcano.

When I saw the Wordle, I felt really unbelievable. It was cool!

I felt very happy when I heard they thought we did great. I did not feel sad, I felt excited.

It was fun making a podcast. When we made a podcast, it was good. When they sent us stuff, it was fun.

I felt proud of myself because we got so many comments. I liked them all, because they make me happy because they are very kind and nice.

So, what do you think? Does it matter to a six year old to have a worldwide audience? Does an audience beyond his/her teacher and parents influence student’s motivation and excitement for learning reading, writing, speaking and listening skills?

If you have not thought of podcasting with your younger elementary school students, I encourage you to think again.

The first graders at my school had listened to the second grade podcast about animals, and had really enjoyed their story.They were especially thrilled that the second graders had received so many comments from teachers around the world. Believe it or not, but having an audience matters… even to 6 year olds.

They were enthusiastic and eager to record their own voices to get them “into other people’s computers and iPods” too.

I had started reading a chapter book called Vacation under the Volcano by Mary Pope Osborne from the Magic Tree House series with them.

The idea was to pretend that we were interviewing Jack and Annie, the two main characters, about their latest adventure that had taken them to Pompeii.

We read one chapter at a time and discussed as a class,  what happened as we were reading. After each   reading, I typed up all the questions and answers that students had came up with. The following time I went to their classroom, we recorded these questions and answers from the “script”.

I rotated all students to be either the interviewer, Jack (boys) and Annie (girls). I also had them record several segments as a class chant together (ex. gasping, “no children allowed”), which they seemed to enjoy very much.

Recording with Garageband

I had several students at a time come to the back of the class and record directly into Garageband, while the other students were silently working on classroom work or reading a book. A few times, I also took them out into the hallway, if the teacher had another activity planned in the classroom.

• I was amazed how cooperative and attentive to what was going on with the recording in the back of the room while it was not their turn.
• Several students started to take a real interest in the editing part of the podcast too. They were verifying that I was editing out any clicking noises that were included when I stopped the recording segment, or if a word was repeated twice.
• If they were not happy with their recording, they asked to record over it for a second, third or fourth time.
• Shy and quiet students were coming out of their shell. Their classmates were surprised and impressed of these new “podcast” voices they were hearing from them.

Recording in the Hallway

Recording:

• After demonstrating the difference in the sound of their voices and fluency, students agreed to NOT read off the script.
• I read one sentence at a time to the student who was to record. I let them practice saying the sentence out loud and coached them with their volume, melody and to use different acting voices.
• Some students needed to have sentences split into parts. Putting each sentence back together made it sound seamless in the recording.
• I could tell a drastic improvement among students in their confidence level and voice expression as we progressed in the book.

After class,

• I “cleaned” the recording tracks
• added music and  sound effects

The class couldn’t wait to hear the entire recording the next day. They wanted to hear the audio from start to finish, including the newest chapter clips. They begged to hear it again and again from the beginning and not only the added part. By the time we reached the end of the book they had heard the podcast over 20 times.

Skills addressed:

• listening
• speaking
• presenting
• comprehension
• storytelling
• performance
• voice acting
• oral fluency
• media
• technology

Take a “listen” and leave a comment to these first graders who worked very hard and enthusiastically on their recording. Let them know where you are from too. We will create a google map with placemarks to show how far their voices reached.

Thank you for leaving our first graders comments. You are making a worldwide audience real for them and are keeping them motivated. We are tracking them on our Google Map. Once you leave a comment with your location, we will add you to our Google Map.

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