A Wrinkle In Time

Yes to Podcasts!!

Going into reading the article on podcasts vs. textbooks I was biased and I have to say I still am considering they came to the conclusion that neither textbooks nor podcasts had significantly better results. I personally love the idea of having a unit on podcasts in a classroom. In almost every class, there are some types of reading assignments and for new English Language Learners (ELL) this can seem so daunting. I love the idea of getting to pull a podcast into the mix for students because it switches things up for them but keeps the root of the lesson on literacy, just in a new way.
via GIPHY
What’s cool about podcasts is that students can still follow along as they listen but for student’s that are not strong readers, I think this would help them a lot because they would be able to keep up with the rest of the class and words/phrases that they typically would struggle with, they would get to hear read out loud correctly. I also think for students in general, whether they struggle with reading or not, being read to is one of the best experiences. I realized when we were talking in class last week that that is something that I didn’t appreciate as much as I should have! So many students are not read to as a child so I think giving them that experience, even in a classroom, is worth it even if there is no huge statistical difference in results.