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March 24, 2020

Using A Podcast for Listening and Speaking Skills


Podcasts are a great resource to use for listening and speaking skills. You can listen to the episode before the students to create a list of comprehension questions.  I like to use a graphic organizer while listening to the broadcast.  This does take practice and you will need to model how to do this with students.  My students enjoy listening to each episode!  I split the episode in half if it is longer than 25 minutes to make it a two-day activity.  Speaking skills come into play when we have discussions about the podcast. 

school house rap podcast lesson

This podcast has longer stories and I love the rich vocabulary!   

school house rap podcast lesson

I use this podcast with my fourth and fifth grade ESOL students at one of the schools I teach.  Most of the group enjoys sci-fi, so it was perfect. This serialized podcast tells the story of an 8-year old boy living on an interplanetary space station who explores the galaxy and solves mysteries with his friends.

We use a graphic organizer to help with remembering what we have heard during the podcast.  It has a few components to it.  We fill out new vocabulary words we hear.  We've talked about words that have meaning to us or our favorite words.  Students can pick new words or words that they like to use.  My students know I love the word "expeditiously" 😁.  They know the meaning of the word because I use it when it's time to transition...consistently.  

The notes section is for jotting down words or phrases that help identify the main idea and details of the episode.  It took some practice to do this because my students wanted to write complete sentences.  I told them to think of it as the brainstorm step of the writing process.  


 The connections portion of the organizer can be filled out during or after.  I let students know that they may need to jot down a few details to complete after the podcast is over.  


The remaining sections are filled out at the end of the podcast.  We ask questions about anything that is unclear.  This will be used when students share their organizers with each other.  Most of the time, they can answer each other's questions.
  

Students will also make predictions about the next episode.  We spend about 10 minutes discussing our predictions.  This is where you can help build schema or correct misinformation.


The last part of the organizer is the section where the students can draw a picture or doodle about the episode. 


Students can share their completed organizer with a classmate.  Partners discover new information that they may not have recognized while listening to the podcast.  

Printable Version
There is great value in sharing viewpoints and ideas.  This is an awesome activity to help improve the listening skills of any learner!

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