Want to make the science of reading engaging? Start a Class Podcast
“No writing about reading!”
Our class journey with podcasting began with these four words; Marcelo’s response to my request that my fifth graders take out their reading notebooks.
I was not surprised by his honesty. Let’s face it, students do not typically enjoy written reader response. They see it as extra work demonstrating that they have done the “work” of reading. The plea “Can’t we just read!?” is a familiar one but on this day, written responses reminded me of Brussel sprouts; most kids don’t enjoy them but the adults in their lives insist “they’re good for you!”
The decades of research commonly referred to as the Science of Reading, calls for instruction that is responsive and authentic. Clearly my students did not see the value of written reader response. I had to step back from my lesson plans and reconsider the following questions:
Q. How can we make written responses meaningful and engaging for my students?
Give them an audience! Students need to see a purpose for writing about reading. Knowing that an audience will read their writing and possibly want to read the text to which they are responding is motivating.
Q. How can we scaffold and inspire responses that are thoughtful and move beyond summary/ retell?
Make reader responses authentic. As adult readers, we often talk about the books we’ve read sometimes in the context of a book club but also in casual conversation when a friend asks for recommendations. My students love to talk so I channeled that energy by creating lessons where they got to talk about the texts they read.
Q. How can we build on students’ strengths in speaking and listening?
Offer experiences where students truly listen to one another and engage in conversations that lead to greater understanding and enjoyment of texts. There is a reason that we have speaking and listening strands in our educational standards. Not only is oral language one of the “Big Six” literary competencies (oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension), it is a critical life skill! What’s more, the impact of technology on today’s youth is striking; often resulting in the familiar refrain: “Kids don’t know how to talk to each other.” With that comes their struggle to listen.
Enter podcasting with students
I love podcasts. The voices of Kelly Corrigan, Krista Tippitt and Melissa Joulwan and David Humphreys keep me company as I walk, work out and drive. From planning lessons and trips to reflecting on life and parenting, podcasts are a huge part of my well-being. I loved the idea of bringing podcasts to my students. What better way to engage them in the art of speaking and listening?! I decided to start with a class podcast where students share the texts they are reading.
Audience? Check!
We would share episodes with our school community and families.
Authentic reader response? Check!
Students would discuss texts and write podcast scripts in order to recommend books to our community.
Listening and speaking? Check!
Student collaboration and co- constructing meaning around texts is essential for writing and producing podcast episodes.
The Steps to a class podcast
I knew WHY I wanted to teach my students to write and produce podcast episodes, now I had to figure out HOW to do it! Here are the general steps I followed.
Step 1: Immersion
To generate excitement, inspiration, and vision for our podcast, we began the year listening to a variety of episodes in narrative, interview, and reporting formats. Here are a few favorites:
Six Minutes *** Note: we start every class session by listening to an episode of Six Minutes. It is a great way to invite kids into the classroom and prime them for reading and writing time.
Students discuss and list their observations of each episode’s content, structure, and music. To make this learning collaborative, we create a template for drafting our own episode based on our observations about structure.
Senatore, 2024
Step 2: Plan a Class Podcast
Generating excitement and joy around podcasts planted the seed for creating a class podcast of our own! We discussed our mission and audience. In this case, it was sharing texts (short films, short stories, novels) representing diverse identities and life experiences.
Step 3: Create a class episode together
To scaffold the process, we created the first episode together. We started with short films because they are accessible to all learners.
Generate content: We generate content for the episode by discussing the film as a class.
Draft: Students volunteered to draft parts of the episode based on their individual reading goals. For example, if students needed practice summarizing texts, they wrote the episode’s introduction. If their goal was to examine how secondary characters impact the protagonist, they contributed to the character analysis section.
Revise: After the first draft was complete, students revised the entire transcript together. Reading the text aloud during rehearsal reveals areas of the script that need revision and editing. Students added punctuation to places where they need a breath and rewrote sections to make them sound natural.
Record: We set up a “Recording Studio” in a corner of our classroom. Maintaining a silent environment was challenging but having students go into the hallway to rehearse and revise their section helped. Students added transition music that reflected the text’s mood.
***Since this work honors students’ identities and preferences, I encouraged those who are uncomfortable recording their voices to direct rehearsals, offer feedback, and lead revision and editing work.
Proofread After recording, we listened to our final product and fixed issues such as music drowning out the speaker, stretches of silence, and overlapping tracks.
Step 4: Create an episode with a small group
We repeated this process with small groups. This time students created episodes based on short films of their choice. Later episodes focused on book club books.
A note on the technology
I do not describe myself as technologically savvy. I want you to know that in case you are reading and thinking that this is a requirement for bringing podcasts to your classroom. It is not! While I dabbled a little with the recording platform, Soundtrap, https://www.soundtrap.com/musicmakers, I very much jumped in with two feet and learned alongside my students. In fact, I often called on their expertise to figure things out when the tech got wonky. My advice: Don’t let the tech deter you. Just go for it!
I know what you are thinking…
This is great Krista but when do I find time to do this?
Here’s the thing, teaching students reader response in engaging and meaningful ways scaffolds students' abilities to write in other genres. It increases their confidence and therefore, the more traditional units take less time. For example, podcasting reduced our literary essay unit from four weeks to one week! Plus it created more time for students to engage in the types of response that developed their identities as readers!
And now…
I no longer hear complaints when I ask students to take out their reading notebooks. In fact, many do so without my asking because they see the purpose of written reader response: to capture and develop their thinking about texts. They realize they have ideas worth sharing and are intrinsically motivated to read, write and talk about texts. And Marcelo, he became a leader in our class podcasting and went on to thrive in literacy classes in middle school.
Ready to get started? Click here for my podcast starter kit!
For more details, check out my article in The Reading Teacher.
