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Podcasting...a New Way of Engaging Students

When thinking about our students and their level of engagement, we often only think about the direct instruction period. While that period of engagement is important, other ways of engagement exist. Podcasting is a great way to keep student's attention and also engage them in new ways of thinking and learning. 

The Podcast I chose to learn more about is called Children's Fun Storytime. It is a Podcast that takes common children's books and records them into Podcasts. Students can listen to the Podcast on any device. The specific Podcast I chose to listen to is called "Peter Rabbit, By: Beatrix Potter". This is a common children's story that is also a part of my Language Arts curriculum. 

When thinking in terms of my students and how I would use this to meet learning standards and goals, the possibilities are endless. I envision using Podcasts as a Learning Area during differentiated instruction. In one learning area, students would listen to the Podcast on iPads. Students would listen individually using headphones. In my Teacher-Led Area, my students would respond to the book. This would meet several Speaking and Listening Standards for Kindergarten.  When students are in the Teacher-Led Area, they would work on skills such as comprehension through a series of questions. They could also work on skills such as identifying plot, characters, setting, and much more. Podcasting could be used in several different areas of a classroom, but I feel that with my specific class in mind, a language-based area would be the best fit. 

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  1. UnknownNovember 18, 2017 at 2:52 PM

    I like that you are using podcasting for differentiated instruction. I think that for some students, this is the perfect way to absorb the story instead of the old paper book. Just make sure they get to see those beautiful water color illustrations though, lol!

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