Some ideas for Podcasting Lessons for grade 3s

(From my assignments #3)

Podcasting is a fantastic tool for any classroom and can be incorporated into all aspects of the curriculum. Since I am currently teaching grade three, I have decided to focus my lesson ideas on my class's age group and their abilities. It was important for me, when creating podcasting lessons, to challenge their abilities and 'keep the bar high'. Higher order thinking is a priority. Meeting the needs of ESL, enrichment, and remedial students must also be taken into consideration. Every lesson can be diluted or expanded to individual student's abilities.

Podcasting in Language (and integrating into other areas)

Reading texts- (of course reading is the first use that comes into mind.) Podcasting is an excellent way to get students excited and motivated about reading different materials. With podcasting, students can read different texts over the course of the year and it can be dated and kept to show progression with fluency and decoding skills. It is important, however to remember that this should not just be used as a recording to show any progression, but rather, it should drive instruction. The difficulties that individual students are having would
be identified through assessing the reading and then teaching strategies would be used to address the difficulties. It would be a type of “running record” that the teacher would analyze to guide reading lessons. This also allows parents to become more aware of how their child is progressing and the difficulties he/she is having. Therefore parents can focus on these particular strategies at home to improve their child's reading.

Personal Journals/Diary- Students could podcast their personal journals on a weekly basis, telling about 'what they did on the weekend', 'writing about their families', 'their favourite activity/hobbies', 'best friend', etc. At the end of the year they would have a collection of journal entries that are about themselves at this particular point in their lives. They could do a reflection at the end of the year about their year overall.

Story Telling- Storytelling, another obvious, but a great use for podcasting. Students can create their own stories for others to listen to, creating an awareness of audience. By creating audio stories students would be able to add tone and voice (things that are difficult for them to do at times when writing). Discussions could be generated by the class after listening to the story (this is a great opportunity for higher order thinking questions). The elements (problem, solution, characters, setting, plot) could be discussed to help reinforce the purpose of them in stories. Pictures could be added to their stories to enhance them through programs such as kidpix. All students would be able to podcast a story at some level. Remedial students may be given some of the story elements to work with beforehand to guide them in their task and may just do an audio without any pictures. The stories could be dated and filed for assessment purposes, and also so that parents (and child) would have a wonderful collection of stories at the end of the year.

Character analyses-In grade three we do a lot of character analyses where the student must present proof from the story to 'back up' their description of a character. Individual students could be assigned a particular character from a common story and do a character analyses on that character. Again remedial and ESL students could work with more obvious characters and their characteristics, or perhaps they would only need to discuss one aspect of the character or give one (easier) example. (Lots of opportunity for differentiating with podcasting).

Summarizing/Retells-Summarizing is another big focus in grade three. Students must do this orally on our DRA testing at the primary level and, in the junior grades, they must write a summary. (Podcasting would be a great tool for junior teachers with students who are allowed a scribe for DRA testing). The concept is that students are oral before they can write, so podcasting summaries is an excellent way to have students collect their thoughts and verbalize their recount of a story that they have read (perhaps with digital storytelling) or that has been read to them. Discussions can take place when listening to their summary (as a teacher/student conference or a whole class) where the focus in ensuring they have covered the Beginning, Middle, and End (as we say in primary).

Interviews- This has endless possibilities and can be integrated. Students can do interviews to help develop their questioning skills. They can interview each other, as themselves, or be creative and interview another student as a character from a story where they are role playing. This could be done in social studies where one student interviews another where they are role playing as pioneers, a Native American, or perhaps a farmer (since we study urban and rural communities too), Students can be very creative with this one and teachers could incorporate it into a variety of subjects.

Reading Responses-Reading Responses are great when higher order questioning is used. We do responses all the time to stories we have read in class. Students are asked to make predictions, inferences, respond to: “why did the author...?”, “What do you think happened after the story ended?”, “Change the ending”, “Tell me a time when you felt/experienced...” etc., etc., etc., (so many possibilities). We do a lot of discussions on the carpet about our responses, but at times some individual students hear another response and “go with that answer”. Podcasting is great for individual students who are sometimes too shy to speak up or just “latch-on” to another student's response. Podcasting allows for independent responses in a comfortable, less intimidating forum.

Spelling Bees-Classroom spelling bees can be recorded for fun to reinforce spelling and vocabulary.

Book Reports-Can be done similar to summarizing, but critiquing the book as well as telling about it. It would be fantastic to have a collection of book reports that the class could listen to to expand student's awareness of different books and help students choose books of interest. Students could listen to this library independently when having difficulty finding a “good book”.

Poetry-Students could create poems of their own working from a template/model that has been discussed in regards to the characteristics of a poem. For remedial students they could work with a repetitive poem and fill in the missing word at the end of each line or students could work with a partner or group. I should move on to some other subject areas where podcasting can be used effectively, but keep in mind that these lesson ideas can all be crossed into each other. They all include language.

Newscasts-After a class trip, or perhaps a school event, the class can create newscasts telling all the details or give an editorial.

Podcasting in Math

Describing and Explaining critical problem solving- Podcasting would be a great tool to use in math especially at the grade three level. This is the year that the students write the EQAO test. The EQAO test requires students to describe and explain basically every answer that is not multiple choice. Students have a very tough time doing this. When practicing examples of this I do try to have each student take a turn at orally explaining or describing how they solved the problem, but with twenty students it is difficult. Podcasting would allow each individual to express their answers orally, listen to what they have explained, edit it, and then write out their answers.

Counting Backwards and Forwards-In grade three students also must demonstrate the ability to count backwards and forwards by 2's, 5's, 10's, 100's. This year I sat with each child and had them do this for me one at a time. With podcasting students could do this on their own all at once and I listen to them without taking time away from instruction.

Riddles- When exploring 3-D shapes we often play the “riddle game” where students come up with clues about a shape (I have 12 edges, 8 vertices, and 6 faces—What am I?) and the other students try to guess. Creating riddles as podcasts would be great fun for the students. Those finished work early could make up riddles on their own and the class could listen to them after.

Podcasting in Social Studies

Debates- Students can work with a partner to record debates that can be discussed as a whole class afterwards. Podcasting the debate would allow for stopping on key points without interrupting the flow of the students debating. In grade three we debate which is better, living in a rural community or an urban community.

Timelines- Work with a partner, students can be assigned a specific time in history to discuss. Each pair can record their 'time', beginning with the earliest and working up to the latest. The class would have small exerts of what was taking place in the past and it would be in chronological order. The whole class could listen to it together and share their information.

Interviews-Students could have a lot of fun doing this in language too with story characters and such. In grade three we study pioneers. Students could interview a pioneer questioning them on their lives and the hardships they have encountered.

Podcasting in Science

Processes/Collecting Data-Podcasting could be used to list the steps required to complete an experiment with magnets or plants for example. They could record their “prediction” (as we say in grade 3), tell the steps involved and finish with their conclusion. This is an excellent way to keep track of their observations too. Fantastic for remedial students who have difficulty with writing, but love the hands-on activities. Being able to save their observations and return to them over time is great for experiments with plant growing. I think students would be more likely to listen to their findings over and over again for study purposes rather than read their notes. Processes and findings could be shared and compared as a class.

Podcasting in Drama

Plays/Reader's Theatre-Students can create dialogue for mini skits and practice the elements of voice and tone. They can rehearse the dialogue before performing the play. This can also be done solely through podcasting as a reader's theatre where they receive the script and add expression and tone. Enrichment students may want to add music for mood or pictures to theirs. Groups can take turns enjoying all the podcasts.

Podcasting in Music

Creating Songs/Raps-This can be done in groups. The younger students seem to really enjoy the rap songs and they seems to be easier to create once they are given the beat. Students can either create songs of their own or change the words to familiar songs.

Exploring Beat and Rhythm-In grade three beat and rhythm are explored. With podcasting students can use instruments or body parts to create various beats (and add a rhythm, perhaps for enrichment students). They can then play their creations for an audience.

Podcasting in Health

Commercials-In health they can podcast their own commercials for healthy living. Topics may include healthy food choices, staying active, brushing teeth, or anti-smoking., Again, students could add sound affects, music, or pictures to their commercial.