Why use podcasts in the classroom?
Podcasts are amazing! I can’t remember a day in the last 4 years where I haven’t listened to a podcast. In fact, I love them so much that I created my own: History Detective.
There is so much content out there, so why should teachers be harnessing the amazing power of podcasts?
Literacy
Listening comprehension is a key literacy skill. As teachers, we often focus on the literacy skills of reading, writing, speaking and viewing, and apart from talking to the class and giving instruction, we don’t often do targeted listening comprehension activities. Let’s be honest, part of being a great communicator in life is being a great listener. So improving listening comprehension is an incredibly important skill for life.
Differentiation
Often students struggle with the demands of reading and decoding difficult written texts, especially in history, which may often have difficult or archaic vocabulary that students with limited reading experience may get bogged down in. For students with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, listening to content can be a way of ensuring that your content delivery is accessible. Yes, I am aware that there are programs that are designed to read out difficult text, but it is more inclusive to have everyone listening to the same task and even a little more interesting and dynamic than having a computer read to you.
Read and Listen
Many podcasts come with transcripts, so students are able to listen and read along at the same time. If you have a LMS (Learning Management System) you can make the transcript, or a link to the transcript available to the students so they can improve their reading and listening skills simultaneously.
Research Starting Point
Often in history, students will have to choose their own topic to research. If you have a library of podcast episodes on a particular topic that you study, you can direct individual students to specific episodes that are related to their topic. This can be used as inspiration or a launching point for their own academic research. Podcasts can also be used as a source to support their argument on a topic. I am a history teacher, but this same concept can be applied to any other subject. English, Science, Geography, you name it, there is probably a podcast on it.
Experts in the Classroom
Not every school can afford to go on an excursion to visit an expert, or perhaps if you are in a rural school, having an expert come to your school is just not viable. Podcasts are a way of having the voices of experts and authorities in the classroom without having to organise and pay for an excursion or incursion. If you as the teacher curates wisely, you know exactly what information will be imparted and how to cement the concepts that are discussed in the podcast. Most podcasts are FREE! So as long as you have an internet connection, you have access to experts from anywhere in the world.
Cover Lesson for Supervising Teachers
Maybe you are away due to illness or attending a meeting or cover lesson. If you have a repertoire of podcasts that are on your topic, you can pop the link in your LMS, ensure that you have some comprehension questions or further research activities and you know that your students will have access to a high quality lesson, rather than worrying that the substitute teacher does not deliver the content that you need them to.
Online Learning
Lets face it, COVID-19 made us all rethink how we could deliver content in an online capacity. While teaching in lockdown, every school had different lesson requirements. Some schools required teachers to be online for the whole lesson, some emailed out set work, some logged in at the beginning of the lesson to check in and set work, some teachers taught from home, some had to go in to school but had no students, some had some students in front of them and some online. There were so many different options. Podcasts can be a way that teachers can ensure that students are receiving learning content in an engaging manner and embedding curated podcast episodes into an LMS, can be a way for students to access great content from home and school.
8 Tips For Using Podcasts in the Classroom
1. ALWAYS listen to the podcast before you set it for the class!Text Here
This is very important! Some podcasts have swearing in them. Many in fact. I have found some fantastic history podcasts on really interesting topics, but they are peppered with swear words and just not appropriate for a classroom. Not all podcasts have a language warning at the beginning, so you will have to be the first line of defence. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the occasional swear, but it is not my place to introduce my students to bad language.
2. Make a list of pre-listening vocabulary
Many students are living in a vocabulary deficit. You would be surprised at some of the words that they just don’t know. This could be attributed to the decline in reading amongst students. Because of the prevalence of smart phones and social media, they are just not getting to exposure to a rich bank of vocabulary that good old reading exposes you to. So, having a pre-listening vocabulary list is vital.
If the podcast has a transcript, you can scan trough and identify words that you think would be beneficial to review before listening. A simple class discussion to see if students know these words or can guess their meaning can be beneficial. Otherwise having a list or a glossary for the students to add to can be a great tool to enrich student’s vocabulary.
All of the Episodes of History Detective, have transcripts that have vocabulary in bold for teachers to use in their pre-listening activities.
I am a huge advocate for explicit vocabulary instruction in improving education outcomes. Quite simply, the more vocabulary you know, the more complex texts you are able to comprehend.
3. Don't just listen, have engaging activities
If you are using podcasts, this is not a set and forget lesson. You want to plan activities to complement the podcast. This can be be comprehension questions, reflection questions or further research activities.
All of the episodes of History Detective have 5-8 reflection questions in the show notes so this work has been done for you. However, if you want ready made worksheets and PowerPoint presentations (editable), they are available from Amped Up Learning. That way you have a ready made worksheet, presentation and no further preparation is required.
4. Stimulate Debate
A snippet from a podcast can be an excellent starting point for a class discussion or a debate. Once you have listened to a podcast or podcast extract, you can get students to discuss in pairs, small groups or even as a whole class, their opinion on a particular topic.
5. Demonstrate Note Taking Techniques
Note taking is not often a skill that comes naturally to students, they need to be explicitly taught how to take effective notes. No matter what method of note taking you use, whether it be Cornell Note Taking, mind mapping or sketchnoting, you can demonstrate to students how to actively listen to content whist taking effective notes. Don’t forget the power of the pause button. You do not have to rush, you can stop the episode at any time to have a discussion with the students or write down notes.
6. Headings and listening cues
Before listening with the class, you can listen through and create headings or listening cues that the students need to listen out for. Or you can even set a 3-2-1 activity, venn diagram or table to fill in. It all depends on the content that is in the podcast.
7. You don't have to listen to it all!
Remember that you do not have to listen to the entire podcast. Many podcasts are long. Way too long to listen to in a lesson. Find a snippet that suits your teaching needs.
8. Curate your own lists
You can use a platform like Podchaser to curate your lists of podcasts or podcast episodes related to your topic. These lists are organic and you can continually update them. They are also a bit of a service to the rest of the teaching community, who may not have the time to hunt down episodes. Creating curated lists is a great way you can share ideas and resources with other teachers and make life that little bit easier for teachers all over the world.
Here is a list that I have created: Podcasts for the High School Classroom. Obviously, I am a history teacher, so there are more history based podcasts, but I am happy to add more if you have suggestions.
Top Podcast Episodes for Teaching History: Civil Rights Edition and Top Podcast Episodes for Teaching History: World War I Edition are two lists that I have created and I do have plans to make more on other topics and will update this page as that happens.