NOW Classrooms, Grades 9-12. Meg Ormiston

Have student pairs read a mathematics problem out loud and record themselves discussing how to solve the problem. Students can then take turns each discussing how to complete a step in the process, back and forth, until they reach the solution to the problem. By speaking and listening in this way, students learn to better explain and justify their solutions.

      • Foreign language: Have students create a voice-recorded online journal, demonstrating their mastery of speaking skills in the language they study. To practice specific fluency skills at different times during the year, and help students measure their progress, give students a statement or paragraph to record themselves reading.

       TECH TIP

      If your classroom doesn’t use devices with access to audio-recording apps and your school does not permit individual cell-phone use, consider using free audio-recording software like Audacity (www.audacityteam.org), which is available for both Windows and macOS systems, to complete this process.

      • Career and technical education: In a health science class, have students create audio recordings that reflect their ability to pronounce medications and procedures for patients. Review students’ recordings and offer feedback. At the end of the course, students can use their best clips to showcase what they learned during the course and even include them as part of a digital resume.

       Operational: Pairing Audio With Animated Elements

      Learning goal:

      I can combine audio I record with animation to better explain my learning.

      Instead of just an audio file to demonstrate learning, in this lesson students will use specialized tools to create an animated avatar that can speak the audio students record. Using specialized tools that pair audio with animation can maintain student interest in learning while allowing for even more student voice and choice. For this lesson, introduce students to tools like Tellagami (https://tellagami.com), Voki (www.voki.com), or Blabberize (http://blabberize.com) and have them create avatars that they pair with their own recorded audio to explain concepts they have learned in the classroom. Not only does this allow students to get creative in how they demonstrate their learning, but it also provides a way for shy students or students with anxiety issues to express themselves without physically making themselves the center of attention.

       Process: Combining Audio and Animation

      Use the following three steps to teach students how to connect audio they record with an animated avatar.

      1. Tell students to select an app that lets them record audio and pair it with animation. Because many of the tools for this process have limited audio-recording times, have students create a short introduction to a topic for their avatar to speak.

      2. Have students set up the animation they want to use. This can include building an avatar of themselves, another person, or even an animal, as well as selecting a background setting or other on-screen elements.

      3. Instruct students to record their audio clips and pair them with the avatar they created. Recording the audio clips should be done outside of the classroom to avoid recording in a noisy environment. Most apps have a simple export feature or provide means to link to the final clip by sharing it on the classroom LMS. These clips are also fun for students to post on social media.

       Connections

      You can apply this lesson to different content areas in the following suggested ways.

       TEACHING TIP

      Give students the opportunity to search for other tools similar to Tellagami and Voki that allow them to record audio that demonstrates their learning through fun, creative means. Students should share the apps they find with each other and think of creative ways to use them to make connections with curricula, clubs, or sports.

      • English language arts: After students read a novel, have them create an audio project with animation that features their avatar or another animated character discussing the novel. This project could include their answers to discussion questions you pose, their own questions they want to ask about the text, their analysis of the characters, or their view on the plot.

      • Science: Have students complete a lab report as an audio file and pair the audio with animations that depict the work they did in the lab. For example, one student can create an avatar of a famous scientist while the group’s other members develop and conduct a virtual question-and-answer session with the famous avatar.

      • Music: Have students record themselves playing or singing a new piece of music and then pair that recording with an animation in one of the apps. They can include this creative example of their work in a project or digital portfolio as a way to draw attention to it.

      • Career and technical education: Have students in a web-design course create avatars for a website to greet visitors with a specific message based on the website’s content. For example, the school mascot could greet visitors on the school’s home sports page.

       Wow: Producing Collaborative Audio

      One of the ultimate ways to demonstrate audio-production skills is to create podcasts. A podcast is an ongoing audio discussion that listeners subscribe and listen to that generally features multiple episodes. In this lesson, students will create a podcast by recording and editing audio that includes both music and discussion. This process will not only sharpen their presentation and sequencing skills but also help them practice speaking skills, like conducting roundtable discussions and interviews.

      Learning goal:

      I can collaborate to create an original podcast that includes music, narration, and discussion.

      Because podcasts require some form of online hosting, podcasting is typically not a free enterprise, but many podcasting platforms do allow users to try out podcasting for free. For this lesson, we suggest exposing students to multiple podcast platforms and letting them choose the one that works best for them. We recommend three: (1) Podbean (www.podbean.com), (2) SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com), and (3) Spreaker (www.spreaker.com). Each of these platforms requires students to create an account using an email address. You could instead have students simulate a podcast environment by using an audio-mixing tool like Audacity (www.audacityteam.org) or Apple’s GarageBand (www.apple.com/mac/garageband) to record a podcast and simply post it to the classroom LMS.

       Process: Recording and Mixing a Podcast

      Use the following six steps to teach students how to record, mix, and share a podcast.

      1. For homework, have students research podcasts and record three things they noticed about those podcasts in the discussion forum of the classroom LMS.

      2. Have student pairs work as partners to plan and record their own podcast on a topic in the unit they are studying.

      3. Instruct students to pick a podcast platform and spend time planning their content with their partner.

      4. Give students guidelines for what you want them to accomplish with their podcast—for example, should they include multiple audio streams, like narration and music? How long should their podcast be? Should the podcast include specific elements like interviews with individuals