Using Digital Audio to Teach

     I have used a number of different audio tools over the course of my teaching career. When the COVID-19 restrictions were first put into place, the co-teacher I worked with used Flip Grid in place of a morning meeting. Students were given the prompt, they recorded their answers, and shared them with the class. While this app did have a visual component (students recorded video along with audio), it mimics many of the podcasts that I see online. These podcasts almost always include a video of the recording process that is posted along with the audio. Another way I have experiences audio tools in my classroom the option on most school issued chromebooks to use speech-to-text. In 4th grade, many of my students struggle with foundational reading (and therefore, spelling) skills. I have noticed them using the speech to text button to perform searches on the Internet. While I do agree that foundational skills need to be taught so that students do not rely on speech to text options forever, this is an accessible way for students to feel more independent when completing online research projects.

    Another audio tool I have used in my classroom is online read alouds. When I taught preschool, I included extra worksheets, crafts, and books with every week's lessons. (Side note: this was done at the parents' requests, I am not advocating for extra worksheets for 5 year olds!) In order to make this more accessible, I often included online read aloud versions of the books. I also do this when the district does not provide the texts included in the curriculum and have done this for asynchronous work in my 4th grade classroom when one of my students was homebound.

    For my audio clip, I chose a Storyline Online read aloud. When getting preschool students ready for lunch, I needed something to engage students for about 10ish minutes that was more educational than a random Youtube video. I came across these videos that featured famous actors and actresses reading their favorite children's book. While these videos do have a visual element with showing the actor/actress' face while reading and some images from the book, it can be enjoyed with just the audio. This allowed students to engage with a read aloud text while giving me the time to prepare my students and classroom for lunch.

Storyline Online: Arnie the Donut

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