lessonideas

= = __Booktalks with Podcasts__ Shelly Christman As a librarian, booktalks are a good way to get students interested in reading. Unfortunately, with recent school cutbacks, many of us are now responsible for multiple schools. This makes completing booktalks a lot more difficult, and only a small fraction of the student population will get to experience booktalks if they are done the old fashioned way. With the use of technology and podcasting, booktalks can now be set up electronically, and broadcasted to the entire student population at the point of need. A good example of podcast booktalks can be found at http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/. Creating a good podcast booktalk involves a few key components: The reading needs to be dramatic throughout the podcast. You should always start with a good set-up or attention-getter to grab the students' attention. Read a short, but powerful, passage directly from the book, and make sure you end with a teaser. Your booktalks should always be open-ended, leaving the reader with a longing to find out what happens in the end. Podcast booktalks should never be too lengthy. I would set up a podcast booktalk site for my school district similar to the one listed above. //***Great idea, Shelly! I think that once you have done a bunch of these podcast booktalks, you could definitely recruit some students who could create their own podcast booktalks, too. -Lynn**// This would be a great idea for students to become active readers. If you challenge them to find the short powerful passages that create interest in their reading choices or yours, it would earn them the chance to create a podcast. It would also give you a different view of the chosen book and find things that you never thought of or considered. It would be like a book club with the podcast as the intermediary. -Barron Idea: Book Review Podcasts
 * Shelly, love the idea! You could also create a "videocast." The kids would be able to see pictures or images of the book (maybe its cover or pictures from the inside). You could show other books by the same author. It might be more effective if they could see you talking rather than just listening. It would be like you were really "there" even though you can't be:) --Amanda**
 * PODCASTING LESSON IDEAS ||
 * Lynn Slowiak

As a middle school library media specialist, I do not have a set class of students, so I would plan to do this with book club members, student volunteers, or in collaboration with school literacy or communication arts teachers.

In small groups, students would read the same book; instead of a "typical" book report, students would develop a podcast advertisement for their book. The podcast must include the main characters, a basic plot summary, important conflicts and themes, and connections that can be made to the book. Students must remember to include some sort of hook that would make others want to read the book, something like an attention grabbing question or quotation.

In order to prepare a good podcast, students would have to listen to other book review podcasts such as those at this website: http://www.hopkintonschools.org/hhs/library/podcast.html#anchor823756

Students should remember to be enthusiastic and have fun with the podcast; this is how they will get others interested in their book. More advanced tech users could add free background music to their podcast with sites like [|http://freeplaymusic.com/.] || Lynn, I think you came up with a really fun way to get kids excited about reading. I would also add that the students could create a digital story using power point, and embed their podcast into their digital story. (If it's possible). Shelly Lynn, your reading teacher skills really come across with this lesson:) I was thinking that you could introduce a rating scale (or something similar to that) that must be used in the advertisement so that all groups were "evaluating" the book in the same way (if you are asking them to rate the books they read). --Amanda Lynn- great idea! Why stop at advertising books? How about an author focus too? You could have kids podcast an interview with an author, read excerpts from a particular author's book (s), and advertise authors along with books. It's easy to find written interviews all over the Internet. You could embed some audio into your podcast as well. **Sara** ||
 * Other Ideas from CED 534 Classmates:
 * Other Ideas from CED 534 Classmates:

Idea: Geometry Class Basic Postulate & Theorem Reviews
 * Jamie Kohlmeier**

Students will be able to explain first the difference between a postulate and a theorem. Then students will be randomly given a postulate or a theorem and will podcast the explanation of what they found. When finished, students will not only have learned their own theorem or postulate, they will have learned basic podcasting and through a group effort, an extensive oral "cheat sheet" will have been created that they can use to study and reinforce their geometry knowledge.

The fun and engaging part of this lesson will be that each postulate and theorem will be created by a different voice. Students could be very creative by disguising their voice (possibly with a famous figure - Harry Carey, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Clinton, etc.). My hope is to have it entertaining enough so they don't just listen to my voice. Instead they will want to keep playing it over and over until the postulate and theorem is learned. Click here to find [|Basic Postulates and Theorems of Geometry]

Other Ideas from CED 534 Classmates:


 * Jamie, Nice idea. I would add that the students could earn extra credit for guessing which students created the podcasts. Shelly** //*Who would have thought? A postulate podcast! I wonder if doing something visual, along with the oral podcast piece might be beneficial, too. -Lynn//

= = Idea: Broadcast Reader's Theater As a classroom teacher, I always wanted to do plays with my students, and they were enthusiastic as well. Plays are a terrific way to develop and strengthen fluency, along with helping struggling readers feel secure with reading aloud. The reason plays are so difficult to do in the classroom is time- there's never enough of it!! You need a lot of time to develop background scenery, props, and costumes. So my lesson is to broadcast plays- what we also know as Reader's Theater. When I taught reading, we focused on one genre at a time. I would find an entertaining play or picture book that the kids could turn into a Reader's Theater that went along with our genre focus. We would pick our parts and practice, practice, practice! Two students would be announcers, and two students would be in charge of finding music to enhance our show. After doing a few of these, I would love to have students write some short plays to podcast. So this would encompass reading skills, oral skills, and writing skills. This could be broadcast to all classrooms, no matter what age. Also, parents who were unable to come in during the day to watch a play would have no difficulty listening at home on their own time. I think parents would really get a kick out of this! (Well any podcast really!) //***Definitely agree that parents would love to be able to hear a play like this. Students who aren't as comfortable reading out loud could use a podcast to practice and listen to themselves, helping them to get more and more comfortable. -Lynn**//
 * Sara Gull**
 * What could really liven up the group is having the students that made the podcast play, perform it in front of the class while the podcast plays in the background - this would get the performers to learn the play very well - Jamie

Amanda Flood I**dea: Digital Stories and Podcast Narration This project would be used in my sixth grade reading class. The idea is to have the students create a digital story representing a character in a book they have read. (I would have the kids read a Newbery Book of their choice for this because most Newbery Books have strong character and plot development). Then, the students will narrate the digital story by creating a podcast.

Students will use different photo sharing websites and clipart to find images that represent the main events in their book. I would ask them to find 20-30 images that will help take the audience through the main events, from the beginning of the story to end. They would need to provide a written description and explanation of each image in one to three sentences. At my school, we do not have Macs available so my students will have use a PC supported software to create their digital stories (like PhotoStory). Once their pictures are chosen and organized, they will create a podcast that will serve as the narration to their images using the written portion from above as a guide. They can make a separate podcast for each image or one podcast for their entire image selection. At the end of their digital story, students will be asked to rate the book and offer reasons for or against why they would recommend it. This could also be done in the form of a podcast. Finally, they would be expected to present their digital story and podcast to the class.

I feel this project will expose the students to a variety of different media and resources and will allow them the chance to become familiar with how to use them. It will also provide a good opportunity to address appropriate Internet use like we have been talking about in class.**

Other Ideas from CED 534 Classmates: Amanda, This sounds like a good project to present during parents night or open house. They would be quite impressed! Shelly
 * //*Fun idea. If the school has digital cameras available, I bet some students would love to take their own digital pictures to go with their story. -Lynn//**

Barron J. Johnson Idea: Using the text of our Health book- The five components of Health

Other Ideas: Great idea Barron - I think it can really get them excited about learning their health components. Maybe even have them make a song from their information and lip sync along with the podcast in front of the class - OK that might need to be extra credit for some of your more imaginative students - Jamie**
 * Students would be broken into groups of 4-5. They then would be assigned a component of health. My idea came from the Podcasts that I got from iTunes from ABC. I would expect them to create a script in order to create a 1-2 minute Podcast that details the core elements of their component of health. The elements of this assignment would be a complete script of their podcast, a list/catalog of resources they used to compile this script, and of course the podcast itself. The class would have spent sometime exploring podcast to understand the level of production I would like to get. I would encourage them to explore the ability to use a podcast. The students could go for an ultra professional feel, try to pull off their own "Ron Burgundy" create a podcast persona if you will. It would be great if they tried to incorporate intro music and other production values. This lesson plan could be used several times in an attempt to have them become better or used sparingly in other topics. //Although some topics are best left to the professionals (STD's)//**