Class Podcast

Tell the Story Podcast

I couldn't think of a better way to wrap up the school year with my newcomer students than by creating a podcast!
I am ending the school year with 16 newcomers. This is my students' first year in the US and their first course to learn English as an additional language, acculturate, and begin their immersion in the US school system.

Throughout the school year, we engaged in many lessons where students had the opportunity to grow emotionally, academically, linguistically, and socially. Stories after stories and activities after activities, my students had the space and time to process their experiences and continue developing their identity as learners while making connections and creating interactions. 
The core of everything we do in my newcomers' course is HUMANITY. Growing and developing our humanity FIRST is more important than anything else.  
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I hope you enjoy listening to their learning experiences. 

Process:

• Give students a few minutes (or as long as they need to look through their notebook(s) and choose 3 favorite lessons for the school year (or semester). 
• Provide sentence starters or sentence frames for what you expect them to say. Keep it simple and challenge your higher-level proficiency students to add complex sentences. 

My name is ___________. I am from ________. I go to ____________ School. I am in ________ grade.
This is my ________ school year in the US.  I am in _________ class.

My first favorite lesson this school year (semester) was _____________, because ___________.
My second favorite lesson this school year (semester) was __________, because ____________.
My third favorite lesson this school year (semester) was __________, because _____________.

My least favorite lesson this school year (semester) was __________, because ______________.
This was (a great) OR (not great) class because  __________________.

• Allow your newcomers to complete these sentence frames in their home language THEN translate it to English. Once is translated, a one-on-one conference can help with teaching students to see the errors in their sentences and the correct translation.
• Once corrected, have students re-write the text OR type the message onto a blank document. 
• Have the students practice hearing the text. This can be done by pairing the student with another student who can model reading the text OR you can use a read-aloud feature so students are hearing the text out loud. 
• Have them read it to YOU (the teacher) before recording their text so you can approve their pronunciation of all the words. They can record at home or school ONCE you have approved it. There are several free tools online to have students record. We are using our Canvas recording feature - nothing fancy!
• Create a teacher account on Podcasters.spotify.com and open your class podcast. 
• Upload your students' voice messages and add as much as you'd like explaining what the student is sharing. I will be adding a 1-on-1 interview with some students.

If you choose to do this, let me know! I'd love to hear your class's episodes. 

Thank you for reading!