podcast assignment instructions middle school

A Simple Process and Template for Student Podcasting

Maybe you’ve heard the saying that whoever is talking is the person learning. Or, the teacher should do less talking in the classroom than the students. Both of those sayings have truth to them. With that in mind, let’s see if there are benefits to student-generated podcasts.

How Does Podcasting Benefit Students?

Through discussion, discourse, and debate, students can gain a deeper understanding of content and language and grammar skills. Research indicates that students who create podcasts show improved language, speaking, and grammar knowledge. They are also more confident in using academic vocabulary in context. The podcast creation process incorporates high student engagement, which increases the likelihood that it may also positively impact student achievement. And using student-generated podcasts can be a strategy for learning in early elementary up through college. Be sure to check out this Research for Student-Created Podcasts Wakelet collection for specific and deeper study.

A Simple Podcasting Process

That all may sound good. But many teachers feel that having students create podcasts will have a high learning curve; it could end up more like herding cats. No worries! We’ve got you taken care of with a template for you to use and a drop-dead simple process. Let’s take all the technical mumbo jumbo out of it! To make it easy to go through, we’ll share the who, what, when, where, and how you and your students can take learning to the next level with podcasting.

Step 1: Establish Criteria and Define Roles

Remember the KISS – Keep It Super Simple (or something like that). Keep the process as simple as possible– at least initially. As the students become more comfortable and skilled, then you can add more expectations. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there is no “one right process” to go by for a great podcast. I recommend checking out the following rubrics for ideas on defining the roles and teamwork necessary for each group. Having the rubrics will also help your students self assess (and peer assess) between group meeting times with you. A few rubrics to check out for ideas include:

University of Wisconsin – Stout Podcast Rubric – A very robust rubric. You may need to scale it back initially, but this rubric highlights important parts of the process.
University of Missouri Podcast Rubric – This is a slightly older rubric; however, you will find that many of the sections are still very relevant and usable.
ReadWriteThink Podcast Rubric – This rubric is most relevant for a high school English or science class as it refers to a podcast addressing a thesis argument.
Pacific Lutheran University Podcast Rubric – This one is nice in that it fits on one page, but addresses pretty much everything. Depending on the age of your students, you may want to tweak some of the wording.
University of Northern Iowa Podcast Rubric – Though unclear as to the author, this rubric does an excellent job of identifying the different details and criteria for creating a podcast. Consider using this one when identifying roles and steps in the process. Older students will do well with this, but it’s too complicated for younger learners.
Kathy Schrock’s Podcast Rubrics – Kathy has compiled six different rubrics for you to consider. Click on the link given and then scroll to the Multimedia and Apps Rubrics section.

Step 2: Explore and Choose Tools for Podcasting

If your students have cell phones, then they all can record audio. But they may need to check to see that their apps can save and share the files in an MP3 format. Or you may be using school-issued devices such as Chromebooks or iPads. Below are a few of the tools and apps you might consider during your planning and producing stages.

Voice Recorder – https://online-voice-recorder.com
Audio Joiner – https://audio-joiner.com
GarageBand – for Mac and PC
Audacity – https://www.audacityteam.org
Anchor app – for iOS and Android
Pixabay – Free Music – https://pixabay.com/music
Pixabay Special Effect Sounds – https://pixabay.com/sound-effects
Free Music Archive – https://freemusicarchive.org
Free Sound – https://freesound.org

Step 3: Determine the Pacing and Process

Having students create podcasts is a great learning strategy, but it is best implemented once you understand your students and how they work. Decide on how many class sessions they will have to produce the podcast. You will also need to determine if the students are to work on the podcast outside of class or if they will record during class time. Initially, review the rubric that you will be using with your students, go over the process for recording, and outline the pacing of the project.

TIP: Podcast Recording Environment

It might be that students can only work on the podcast while in your class. If this is the case, it might be necessary to allow students to step out into the halls to record or to visit the library to record briefly. You may have the benefit of being in a larger room so that groups can spread out. If your school encourages “bring your own device” (BYOD), students may find that they can easily record on their phones outside of class and use class time to piece it together and post it.

Unless you are trying to compete in a student podcast competition (such as the Annual New York Times Student Podcast Competition or NPR’s Student Podcast Challenge ), realize that perfection may be nice, but is not realistic. It’s okay if there is background noise, as long as the student speakers can still be heard. Make the learning fun. Be creative with where students can record and with your expectations of what is acceptable.

Step 4: Practice Podcasting as a Class

While some tasks work well for individuals, podcasting is definitely not one of them. With project-based learning, students are more successful when they have clearly defined roles, working together to accomplish the task.

You may want to initially have just one large group, the whole class, as you create the first podcast or two. This will allow everyone to get familiar with the process and expectations. It will also allow students to explore the different roles, how they interact, and understand how each role is critical for the project’s success. Yes, initially, it will be teacher-assigned, but you are working towards having students take ownership of the grouping and even the roles over time.

Step 5: Group Students for the Podcasting Project

Once the process is understood, at least in theory, break students into groups, assign roles, and, initially have them all work on the same podcast. Consider grouping students as you would for other assignments in which each group has a good mix of academic levels. There should be the same roles within groups, and it will be important to scaffold the grouping process over time.

Steps 6 and 7: Assign Podcast Topics and Start Recording

Initially, you may consider having students work on the same topic as they learn the process. Yes, that means that if you have six groups, you will have six podcasts on the same information. Each group may address it in their way, but they will all be using the same information. For example, they may podcast about chapter three of their textbook or chapter five of the class novel. Having the students listen to the other groups’ final projections will spark some ideas on how they can enhance their next podcast.

Once student groups have a podcast or two under their belt, start varying the topic or perhaps have student groups each record an episode related to a subtopic of a broader topic. This allows students to become experts on sections of information. These podcasts can end up replacing your lecture or enhancing it, giving students ownership in their learning. Though each group will be creating a podcast for a particular portion of the content, they are all accountable for all the information. This means they should both understand it and be able to apply it in different situations. (This is similar to the Jigsaw approach in teaching.)

Step 8: Check in Regularly

Just like you attend regularly-scheduled staff and faculty meetings, it will be helpful to schedule regular, though short, meetings with each group. This will give students the opportunity to report on their progress, challenges, solutions, and next steps in their process. As such, you will be mentoring them on how to manage themselves and other group members. The goal is for students to be successful and accountable for their learning. As you have students add to the podcasts, you can begin using them as a review for quizzes and exams. This will hold students accountable to make sure they have all the needed information in their episode(s).

Step 9: Publish the Podcasts with a Template

For simplicity’s sake, here is a Google Slide template to use for publishing your podcasts. Google Slides isn’t considered the typical method of publishing/hosting podcasts. But it does offer a bit more security over who has access to the podcasts. Once a student group has completed their podcast, have them upload it as an MP3 file into their Google Drive and share it. They should then copy the link to the file and add it to the appropriate slide in the template along with the title, episode number (if used), description, and show notes.

TIP: Publishing the Google Slide Deck

If the podcast’s content is intended for a real audience outside the classroom, consider publishing the slide deck. This will make it much easier for everyone to access it in presentation mode and listen. To publish the slide deck, click on FILE –> Publish To The Web. Leave the defaults so that the slide deck does NOT advance on its own; this will allow your listeners to click on the appropriate links to go to the intended slides. View the published template here so you can see how a published podcast slide deck appears. If your podcasts are only to be accessed from within your school’s domain, be sure to click on the Published Content and Settings link and then tick the box for your school’s domain.

Step 10: Review and Revise the Process

After your podcasting project, take time to review and reflect with your students. Assess the number of class sessions used for the project. Was it enough time, too much, too little? What about the tools used? Did they work well? How could the process be improved moving forward?

Pass the Mic

So, I’m now passing the mic to you. How will you do podcasting in your classroom? What are some ideas you have for implementing student-generated podcasts? If you’ve already had students create podcasts, what is one tip you would share with others who are thinking about doing the same? Leave your comment below so you can be heard loud and clear! You can also take a look at other posts on podcasting here .

Dr. Bruce Ellis

Bruce specializes in leadership development and working with districts to tailor onsite professional development workshops. Bruce earned his Ed.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Supervision in Secondary and Higher Education and his M.S. in Learning Technology/Information Systems at Texas A&M University-Commerce. He earned his B.S. in Elementary Education at Dallas Baptist University.

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The link to the published slide deck template won’t open. Could you please provide me with a link so I can view what you have created, please?

Click on the link in the Step 9 paragraph. That will take you directly to the Google Slide deck that I used. Also, the published link is now working so you can see it in “published mode.”

Hello, I would like to translate your Simple Podcasting Process Infographic in French for educational purposes. I work for public school in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. I thought I had sent you an email in November but can’t find your positive response. Thanks, Annie Dumay

Thanks for asking, Annie. Yep, feel free to translate and share with a link back here for the original. Enjoy!

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Making a Podcast That Matters: A Guide With 21 Examples From Students

This step-by-step format takes you from finding the right topic to researching, outlining and scripting, all illustrated with examples from the student winners of our previous Podcast Contests.

podcast assignment instructions middle school

By Nicole Daniels and Katherine Schulten

There is no better way to understand what makes a successful submission to one of our contests than to study the work of the previous winners. And even if your students aren’t planning to send their final compositions to our competition, showing them the successful moves kids their own age have made can encourage them to experiment themselves.

That’s why we’ve gone back and listened to past winning podcasts and used them as examples for every step of the process of making your own.

What can you learn from the way one teenager interviews members of her family who have been incarcerated? From how another marks the transitions between the beginning, middle and end of his podcast about a famous April Fool’s hoax? From the way two young women have a seemingly unscripted conversation about “Their Eyes Were Watching God” on their podcast about Black writers?

We hope you’ll find many ideas here to borrow and adapt for your own work, and we hope you’ll submit it to our annual Student Podcast Contest when you’re finished.

Step I: Choose a topic.

First, make a list. What are your favorite podcasts? Do you love them because they explore a topic you’re passionate about, because you’re interested in the hosts or guests, or for some other reason?

Then, categorize your list by topic and style. Would you describe the formats of the podcasts you enjoy most as chiefly news reporting, or are they better described as interviews, conversations or storytelling?

Looking at your list, do you notice any trends? Do certain themes or topics come up often? Are there topics you wish you could find a great podcast on, but haven’t yet?

Your next task is to make as long a list of ideas for your own podcast as you can. Put down anything you think might be fun to investigate, discuss, describe or bring to life, and when you’ve run out of ideas, use these questions to add more:

When you hang out with friends, what are things you like to talk about? Do your friends think of you as an “expert” on particular issues or topics? Which? Why?

What are your favorite types of entertainment? What TV shows, movies, books, music, museums and sports do you like best?

What hobbies or skills do you have? What do you know a lot about, no matter how small, that others don’t?

What are some topics you think it might be fun to learn more about?

What issues are you passionate about, in your community or in the world?

What in your immediate surroundings might spark an idea? Is there a family member you could interview, a neighborhood problem you could investigate or a personal story you could tell?

Take a look at our categorized list of over 1,000 writing prompts for students . Many podcasts we’ve received in the past — including some that have won — have gotten their start when students answered one of these questions. What new ideas do they inspire in you?

Finally, take inspiration from our previous winners and the breadth of topics they’ve covered.

One thing to notice : All of these podcasters chose a topic that could be adequately covered in the five minutes we allow. Though some take on big issues like climate change, sexism or gun control, they’ve grounded their pieces in a small, local or personal aspect of the issue that they can thoroughly explore in a short amount of time.

Have a listen:

“ How the Worst Procrastinator I Know Led Seattle’s March for Our Lives ” Aliyah Musaliar and Maya Konz narrowed the focus of their podcast to a gun-violence protest in their community, and more specifically, to the lead organizer, who has had to overcome her own issues in order to lead.

“ Sexism at Lillian Osborne ” Kaia Janmohamed used cultural references and quotes from reporters, politicians and activists, but she narrowed her exploration of sexism to experiences at her own school.

“ The Truth About Your Seat Belt ” Molly Cleary used facts, statistics and interviews with peers, but then shared her personal connection to the dangers of not wearing a seatbelt.

“ A Day in the Life of an Anxious High Schooler ” This podcast is personal: Cece Benz shows the listener how anxiety affects the experience of a typical day of high school.

“ Shots Fired ” Alina Kulman narrates the story of a battle over gun rights in a small Rhode Island town.

“ The Evolution of Dating Culture: A Podcast With My Parents! ” Arí Gibson holds a discussion with her parents about how dating culture has changed over time.

“ What Makes a Tune Memorable? ” Sanjaya Haritsa dives into the world of music theory and the science of the human brain to explore the question: What makes a tune memorable?

Which of these is most like something on your list — either in terms of topic or technique? Why?

Step II: Decide on a format.

As you’ve already observed, podcasts can be a conversation or a solo-cast monologue. They can feature an in-depth interview with just one person, or weave together several shorter interviews with experts who have different takes on a topic. They can be audio investigations that showcase reporting, or radio theater featuring multiple characters and a compelling plot. Or, they can be crossovers that mix and experiment with several of these styles.

Before going further, have a listen to a few ways our winning students have made these formats come to life. As you go, ask yourself: What do I notice or admire about this podcast? What lessons might it have for my work?

Solo-cast : “ When I’m Older ” by Abby Overstrom

Long-Form Interview : “ How My 90-Year-Old Neighbor, a Holocaust Survivor, Sees America Today ” by Lila Shroff

Informational Reporting : “ Juuling in My School ” by Lukasz Paul and Krystian Psujek

Conversation : “ Black Ink ” by Kaela Wilkinson and Jalen Lewis

Podcast Theater : “ Alexa, the Start of the Robot Revolution ” by Silas Bartol and Mila Barnes-Bukher

Then ask yourself …

Which format, or formats, might be most effective for my podcast? Why?

What are the strengths of this format?

What might be weakness or challenges, if any?

Step III: Research the subject.

Now that you have a topic and format, you’ll need to research to learn more — whether getting a firm grasp on the background information you’ll need, figuring out whom to interview, or deciding what questions to ask.

For instance, to make “ Ram’s Evolution ,” about Paul McCartney’s second album, Tomer Keysar had to know a lot about not only the artist himself and his history with the Beatles, but also about music history and journalism.

To make “ Period Poverty ,” Genevieve Schweitzer had to educate herself on the issue in general, as it appears nationally and internationally, but she also had to find out how the problem presents in her own local area.

And for “ August 2 Stories ,” Emma Melling needed to understand the local history around a 2017 gas explosion that killed two people at the Minnehaha Academy so that her interview could fit well into a larger narrative about the incident.

Now you’re going to listen closely to two podcasts and make a list to answer this question as you go: What research and preparation do you think the podcasters had to do in advance to speak knowledgeably about the subject and conduct the interviews?

“ With the Opioid Crisis, Don’t Stop at Narcan ” by Kristina Vakhman

“ My Incarcerated Family ” by Samantha Zazueta

Finally, consider your own next steps. Do you need to set up any interviews? Is there something you should read or watch related to your subject? What have other people written or said about it? What background information will listeners need in order to understand the context, and how can you convey that?

Step IV: Create a storyboard or outline.

Our contest rubric stresses the need for a clear beginning, middle and end that together create a “complete listening experience" regardless of format. Below, we focus on how three student podcasts handle these sections, and the transitions between them.

As you listen, think about how sound can be used to mark beginnings, middles and ends. And, as always, consider what compositional strategies you might borrow from these students for your own work.

Beginnings: A successful podcast engages the listener right from the start, and there are many ways to do that. Listen to the openings of these three podcasts paying attention to the topic: How do they introduce the focus? When, exactly, do you know what the podcast is going to be about?

00:00 to 00:45 — “ The Ides of March: An Uprising to Save the Earth ” by Madeleine Klass

00:00 to 1:11 — “ The Best Pitcher That Never Was ” by Harrison Larner

00:00 to 00:45 — “ Depression Memes and Me: Why I Stopped Looking at Depression Memes ” by Zuheera Ali

Middles: The middle of your podcast should build on themes and ideas that were introduced in the beginning, but take the listener deeper. Listen to the following excerpts and ask yourself how the middle keeps your attention, and furthers what was introduced in the first minute or so.

1:20 to 2:20 — “ The Ides of March: An Uprising to Save the Earth ”

1:30 to 3:28 — “ The Best Pitcher That Never Was ”

1:30 to 2:40 — “ Depression Memes and Me: Why I Stopped Looking at Depression Memes ”

Endings: Like the ending of any artistic piece, a podcast’s final minutes should provide satisfaction and closure — and can often either challenge you or leave you thinking. Go to the minute mark listed below and listen through to the end, noting how each piece does that. Again, what ideas can you borrow for your own work?

4:30 — “ The Ides of March: An Uprising to Save the Earth ”

3:30 — “ The Best Pitcher That Never Was ”

3:00 — “ Depression Memes and Me: Why I Stopped Looking at Depression Memes ”

Finally, it might help at this point to fill out your own podcast planning form (PDF). It begins with a focus question or idea that can help structure your work; guides you through thinking about narration, storytelling, sound and interviewing; and leaves you at the stage where you can construct an outline.

Step V: Write the script.

At this point you have a proposed outline for what your podcast will sound like, from start to finish. Now you just need to fill in the details.

For Podcasts With Interviews: Your main challenge is figuring out what questions you will ask. Listen to “ How My 90-Year-Old Neighbor, a Holocaust Survivor, Sees America Today ,” by Lila Shroff, and reflect:

What do you notice about how the interview begins?

How does Lila use her voice and narration to guide the listener through her neighbor’s story?

What other techniques and stylistic elements does Lila use to enhance the story?

One technique that can be effective is to invite the interviewee to do something, as Lila does in her podcast. Listen to two more examples for additional ideas about how this might work, and notice how asking the interviewees to do a particular thing can open up or guide the conversation:

“ Steel City Academy Podcast ” by Erin Addison, Evan Addison and Andrew Arevalo

“ Depression Memes and Me: Why I Stopped Looking at Depression Memes ” by Zuheera Ali

Whom will you interview? What will you ask? And is there something specific you might ask them to do as you talk?

For Podcasts With Stories or Narration: If you are performing or reading a story, narrative or essay, you will need to write the piece first. And if you are using narration to introduce interviews or other sound elements, you may need to script that as well.

Listen to Cece Benz’s first-person narrative podcast, “ A Day in the Life of an Anxious High Schooler .” It begins:

[Alarm clock beeping.] No. It’s 7 already? I just went to bed. I can’t do this again. I just need to turn my mind off. Is there like an off switch or something? Cause I’d love to find it. [Shuffling.] Great, just great. I am suddenly attacked by dog kisses. This is bad. This is really bad. There are thousands of tiny bacteria entering my pores and infecting me and I’m going to slowly die. So, I guess today is the day. See ya! Actually, no.

What do you notice about Cece’s podcast? What do you think was effective? What writing do you think she had to do in advance?

For Podcasts With Conversations: You may want your podcast to sound like you’re having an off-the-cuff or improvised conversation. That’s great, and you may be able to improvise while recording. But it is often helpful to draft a script outline or sketch, if not a complete script, before recording.

Listen to “ Black Ink ,” a conversation podcast by Kaela Wilkinson and Jalen Lewis. Here’s a partial transcript of how it begins:

Hi, and welcome back to “Black Ink,” the podcast where we talk about notable books by black authors. I’m your host Jalen. And I’m Kaela. And this week we’re going to be reviewing “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale-Hurston. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of you have read this book because it’s definitely somewhat of a classic. Right. So we’re going to be doing a brief recap of the book, but mostly we want to focus on some of the themes and social commentary that Hurston included because even though she wrote it in the 1930s it’s definitely still relevant.

Reflect on how they conduct this conversation. In your opinion, what elements are effective? What pre-writing do you think they did? What aspects are probably unscripted, but still important?

Finally, invite students to study some of the transcripts from popular Times podcasts. What can they discover by looking at transcripts from “ The Daily ,” “ Still Processing ” and “ Modern Love ”? For instance, how do these podcasts vary the voices of the different speakers with music, sound effects and archival material? How is that rhythm different in a news show like “The Daily” and a pop-culture conversation like “Still Processing”? How does the variety and rhythm affect the listening experience?

Additional Steps: Record, edit and publish.

What happens next?

Well, here’s where our how-to lesson plan comes in. It can guide you on the art and science of choosing a recording device, finding royalty-free music and sound effects, using editing software, and getting your polished work out into the world. We hope you’ll submit to our annual contest.

Nicole Daniels has been a staff editor with The Learning Network since 2019. More about Nicole Daniels

Katherine Schulten has been a Learning Network editor since 2006. Before that, she spent 19 years in New York City public schools as an English teacher, school-newspaper adviser and literacy coach. More about Katherine Schulten

Faculty & Staff

Podcasting as Instruction

Incorporating podcasting assignments and projects into the classroom provides students another way to connect and engage with the curriculum. It encourages another means of representation and expression and leans into the idea that coursework need not be confined to a restrictive Canvas quiz or assignment format.

To be clear, podcasting is not revolutionary. While the medium may be relatively new, at the heart of every podcast is a story. And storytelling in education is as old as time itself.

What to do first?

We try to approach podcast integration through the lens of backwards design . Ultimately, you start with the end in mind by identifying what students should know and be able to do by the end of your course. Then, you must ponder whether podcasting meets those needs and if a podcast is an appropriate delivery mechanism to meet your instructional goals.

Assessment is one part of this process so think about how you will measure the learning as a result of podcast development. We urge you to consider assessing reflective practices related to the production rather than the quality of production itself. Once your assessment is determined, begin planning lessons that contribute to success of that assessment. Remember, the podcast is not the assessment.

Here is a generalized set of plans that seem to work for our instruction. As a reminder, we typically host four two-hour sessions in our podcasting curriculum. This can be condensed or expanded based on your timeline and assignment needs:

Start with an introduction activity . It gets students started right away with editing, recording, storytelling, scripting and self-reflection.
Develop a plan. Backwards design doesn’t just apply to the curriculum. Ask students to develop a plan – what they envision their podcast will look like, how an audience might respond and who that audience might be. This activity helps students to set project goals and begins to frame how an audience might engage with the content being produced. Plans also help to identify specific stories that could or should be told, as well as how students might go about telling those stories (with their own voice, through someone else’s voice, with a group of voices, etc.).
Receive feedback from peers and instructors. It’s important to incorporate feedback into the process as a way to challenge students to critically evaluate the work. There will likely be strategies and practices that students have used that will be revelatory to some and ignite “ah-ha!” moments during the project.
Iterate . With so many different facets of production – recording, editing, music, transcripts, reflection – there will inevitably be little tweaks here and there that can be made in the final podcast. Lean into this iterative process and challenge students to improve and grow with each production check-in.
Celebrate. We always devote a good amount of time to celebrate the work being produced in any given cohort. Producing a podcast, even if it’s for a grade, is hard work . We should be proud of that work and have opportunities to celebrate in the success and triumph for ourselves and for our peers.

How to integrate podcasting into the curriculum?

There are a few things you can do right now to integrate podcasting into your curriculum. In fact, you’re doing one of them right now: develop your own podcast segment or episode . Even completing the initial podcast introduction activity will give you a good idea of the work required to complete a larger production.

Another thing you should consider is how big this podcast assignment will be and how you might scaffold the production with weekly topics and themes. Will you focus on a one-shot activity in class where participants will be introduced to podcasting and given an option to choose it as one delivery mechanism? Or will the assignment span multi-weeks, incorporate collaborative production and development, and require more complex component parts like research and/or interviews? It’s up to you to decide how you might wish to integrate the activity into the course.

In an effort to incorporate universal design into your curriculum, we urge you to consider how podcasting content is consumed by many listeners.

Are the podcasts a standalone activity or are they incorporated into larger conversations around writing for the web and engaging listeners with a call to action? You might want to consider pairing the podcast with a writing activity where students create their own blog posts, webpages, or portfolios.
Will students involve community voices? Consider tasking students with reaching out to community organizers for interviews. The same also applies to local industry leaders and mentors in the field.
How might someone interact with the podcast if they are deaf or hard of hearing? Make sure to highlight accessible practices such as generating transcripts and making them available online.
How is metadata being used in the assignment? What implications for citation, attribution, preservation, scholarly impact or utility might be incorporated into classroom discussion?

As one example of podcasting instruction, take a look at the instructional arc that former podcast workshop participant and IWP instructor Julian Barr develop for a Geography 272 class. Podcasts developed in this class are also available online .

Where to go for support?

The UW Libraries is happy to help support you in your teaching endeavors. We are able to provide you support by consulting with you directly on these instructional efforts, providing short instructional sessions like the ones you are experiencing in this podcasting track, and more.

UW-IT provide many learning opportunities such as synchronous online workshops and online curriculums for tools such as Audacity and audio editing.

Getting Started with Student Podcast Assignments

Podcasts are a series of audio only programs. Most are released on a regular basis – every day, every week or a couple of times each month – and can deal with most any topic imaginable. Podcasting has been around the Internet for some years, but has recently gained new interest with the popularity of Serial and other new podcast series , as well as easier access to mobile technologies that let you download and listen to podcasts “on the go”.

Faculty have used podcasts to let students explore writing and creating multimedia. Students might do original research, conduct interviews, and then prepare a script, record and edit a short ten minute program. Podcasts work well in classes where students are progressing through original research or exploring a topic through a semester, using a podcast episode every few weeks to distill and analyze what they are learning.

Podcasting can be done in Duke classes using commonly available tools – student laptops or mobile devices, free audio software, and Duke’s multimedia streaming platform, Warpwire .

Preparing Students for the Assignment

Students will need to be able to record and edit the podcast on either their computer, a tablet, or a smartphone. Typically, the free software package Audacity , supported here at Duke, is used for recording and editing.

Students can use OIT’s Multimedia Project Studio for recording and editing. OIT also offers training and self-paced options through LinkedIn Learning .

Students will need to fill out a release form for public distribution of their work. In addition, students will need to get others not involved in the class that are recorded to sign a permission and release form for recording and webcasting. (Sample forms are located in Duke’s Scholarly Communications Toolkit .)

Setting Up and Using Your Podcast

After your students have created podcast episodes as mp3 (audio) files, you can use Warpwire to offer the episodes to listeners. Create a new Warpwire Media Library for the podcast. Then make sure that the Library is publicly accessible in the Sharing settings . You can then upload episodes to the Media Library. To promote the podcast, obtain a URL for the RSS feed of the Media Library – listeners or viewers can enter this URL in their podcast aggregator.

Tell Us About Your Experience

If you’re creating podcasts in your course at Duke, let us know – we would love to feature your site on the CIT blog and would welcome guest faculty bloggers to describe their experiences with podcasts and other types of class assignments.

If you would like a consultation about creating student assignments around podcasts or would like advice on other aspects of teaching at Duke, email the CIT to set up a time to talk with a consultant .

Podcasts to Inspire Your Classroom Practice (GradHacker blog at Inside Higher Ed)
Student Thoughts About Podcasting Assignments (Evan Cordulack at the College of William and Mary)
Podcasts as an Assessment Tool (Christopher M. Buddle, Arthropod Ecology blog at McGill University)
Sample Rubric for Assessing Student Podcasts (A+ Rubric, University of Wisconsin-Stout)

Articles / Podcasts

Classroom Podcasting for the Middle Grades

by MiddleWeb · Published 10/01/2019 · Updated 02/03/2024

Links updated 2/3/24

By Monica Brady-Myerov

I used to work as an NPR reporter, and eight years ago the industry was wringing its hands fearing the death of radio. What we didn’t foresee was the rebirth of interest in audio in the form of podcasting.

Recent research indicates that 51% of the US population has listened to a podcast , and that 91% of people aged 12-24 in the U.S listened to a podcast online in 2019. ( See 2023 data here .) This trend is expected to continue as more people are eager to consume audio on-the-go via their phones or in their cars.

With such a young podcast audience, it’s no surprise that the instructional use of podcasts in K-12 classrooms is increasing. Teachers have discovered that listening to podcasts is a great way to promote deeper learning for students using a modality that has not been traditionally featured in the classroom. And thousands are also teaching their students how to create their own podcasts.

Podcasting is a great way to invite students to investigate authentic, engaging, complex questions and problems. It empowers students to share their voices with an audience beyond the teacher.

Not only is podcasting fun to do, but it can build important 21st-century skills and competencies, including communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.

And considering so many students are avid listeners, students are drawn to expressing themselves through podcasting. Not only can they emulate real journalists and famous podcasters, they are engaged in designing their own learning by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing ideas and theories, and pursuing answers and solutions.

Who Is Podcasting

Thousands of classrooms across grade levels, demographics, and locations are podcasting. Thousands of classrooms have submitted podcast entries into the NPR Student Podcast Challenge . And the New York Times had over 1000 submissions for its 2023 student podcast contest . That’s an amazing number of aspiring podcasters!

I know the breadth and depth of student work because I’ve listened to dozens of student podcasts and spoken to the teachers who are making them happen. This past spring, we launched the Student Podcast PODCAST to help share their work. It’s a podcast that highlights and celebrates student work, demystifies the creation process by interviewing teachers about their successes and challenges, and hopefully inspires other educators to start podcasting with their students. (Listen to Episode 13 – NPR Podcast Challenge Middle School Winners .)

I interview teachers about their podcasting tips and their most surprising moments. Listening to the Student Podcast PODCAST is a great way to hear student work and discover new lesson ideas from practicing teachers.

What I’ve learned from these interviews is that students love making podcasts. Their teachers say it gives them agency in their learning. It lets them interview people within their community and hear firsthand experiences and perspectives. It allows them to be creative with their writing, song choices, and interview clips.

One 8th grade class created an entire podcast on radicals in math . And it’s fun to listen to! Another student explored the roots of her immigration story and learned about the history of the Philippines. In another student podcast , 5th graders dived into the etymology of words like kerfuffle .

Podcasting can take many different forms. Listen to this sample student podcast about what it means to be an adult. This was put together by Ms. Bannerman’s podcasting class:

And there is no age barrier to podcasting. Any child can podcast with the support of an adult. Listen to these kindergarten podcasters!

So why not get your students engaged in project-based learning through podcasts?

5 Steps to Podcasting

Step 1: Listen.

Start by having your students listen to high-quality audio stories. Students need to hear great audio storytelling and what a good podcast sounds like before embarking on creating their own.

Step 2: Plan.

Creating a 3-minute podcast doesn’t take 3 minutes or even 30 minutes. It should take about two weeks of dedicating some part of class to researching, interviewing, writing, recording, and editing. Set aside sufficient project time for your students to focus on their podcasting projects.

Step 3: Collaborate.

Even when only one voice is heard, professional podcasting is typically a collaborative endeavor. Podcasts need interviewers, narrators, researchers and editors. All students should participate in the writing of the script, but students should be encouraged to choose production roles that play to their strengths.

Step 4: Assess.

As with most class work, it’s important to provide feedback on your students’ work. Don’t wait until the final podcast to assess their work; set up expectations at the start and provide feedback at critical points along the way. For example, if you provide feedback on students’ interview questions, the interviews are likely to be more productive. And remember, more important than the quality of the audio recording is the quality of the ideas and the depth of learning.

Step 5: Share.

What’s great about podcasting is that it lends itself to sharing student work with a wider audience. That audience might include peers, parents, or the rest of the school. Student podcasts can also be shared outside the classroom by submitting them to the next NPR contest — or to us, to be featured on an upcoming episode of the Student Podcast PODCAST .

Here are 8 easy project ideas to get podcasting in your classroom . If you want to chat with other educators about podcasting, Twitter is a great place to connect and explore classroom podcasting ideas using #podcastPD or #podcastEDU .

Don’t Fear the Technology

Podcasting is easy to do–at least technically. I’m not just saying that because I have 20 years experience in audio recording and editing. It’s because there are now so many free and low-cost recording and editing tools that the technical part of podcasting has become the easiest part.

Students can record audio on their smartphones or computers and use Audacity , which is a free downloadable editing program, to edit their podcasts. iPads are pre-loaded with GarageBand, another popular sound editing tool. If you have a budget, I recommend Soundtrap , a low-cost subscription-based online editing application that includes podcast features for educators, including transcription and sound effects.

These are all intuitive, user-friendly programs. While you might be intimidated by the complexity of audio editing, I doubt your students will be. Ask them for help! And if they need help, follow the rule of having them ask three other students before coming to you.

Podcasting projects work well in the classroom or in blended or online learning environments. Podcast creation lessons can fit into one-computer classrooms, classrooms with mini-labs, and one-to-one classrooms, or they can be implemented using mobile devices or computer labs.

Go Podcast!

You can find a variety of resources to support student podcasting projects in the Listenwise support center, including this article by an 8th grade social studies teacher, “Podcasting on Field Trips.”

And if you want more great resources to support your podcasting projects, check out the NYTimes Learning Network and NPR .

Monica Brady-Myerov was a 25-year public radio journalist and host. She was the founder of Listenwise and served as CEO until 2021.

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Podcast Guide

Getting started.

Useful Software
Available Equipment
For Faculty: Using Podcasts in the Classroom
How to Access Podcasts
Podcasts to Explore
Hear This! Podcasts as an Assessment Tool in Higher Education Prof. Chris Buddle, Natural Resource Sciences, writes about a podcast assignment he and his TA designed for a large undergraduate ecology class.
Four Mistakes I Made When Assigning Podcasts Cordulack, Evan. (2012). "Four Mistakes I Made When Assigning Podcasts." ProfHacker, July 18, 2012: https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/four-mistakes-i-made-when-assigning-podcasts/41377.

Sample Assignments Using Podcasts

Communication Studies This assignment is taken from a course at the University of Western Australia that's meant to explore the medium of podcasting and critically engages with the idea of participatory culture in either the podcast itself or its exegesis.
Introduction to Digital Media Students are asked to produce a short audio documentary exploring one aspect of how digital technologies or social media are affecting the lives of college students. (This site includes an in-depth PDF file about describing the assignment.)
Introduction to Public History Students in an Introduction to Public History course at Gettysburg College completed walking tour podcasts. The goal of each group was to explore how different people can attach radically different meanings to the same historical place.
Interviewing the Experts: Student Produced Podcast This is a journal articles that explores podcasting. Students prepare a team-based research presentation on a topic that incorporates a student produced podcast. They produce and share a podcast in which they interview an expert or knowledgeable individual in the research topic area. By producing podcasts, students have the opportunity to research and analyze information, communicate effectively, and incorporate the opinions of experts in a cutting-edge way.

Sample Rubrics

Podcast Rubric Created for self-reflection and peer assessment, this sample rubric was created by Ann Bell and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.
Getting Started with Student Podcast Assignments Riddle, Randy. "Getting Started with Student Podcast Assignments." Duke Learning Innovation, February 5, 2016: https://learninginnovation.duke.edu/blog/2016/02/getting-started-with-student-podcast-assignments/
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Appendix C: Podcast Assignments & Examples

Assignment #1: Ethics Discussion

Prepare for a class discussion on the following issues:

Are there “good” uses of AI in podcasting, if so, what are they?
Do you think there are downsides to using in AI in podcasting, and if so, why?
Since AI is built from existing data bases, do you have concerns over discrimination abuses against individuals or groups?
Should the listener be advised that AI was used in research, preparing guest bios, doing ads, or any other aspect of producing the podcast?

This exercise could also be used for Discussion Boards, Blog Posts, Podcasts, or written papers.

Assignment #2: Podcast Listening & Deconstruct

The goal of this assignment is to familiarize students with podcast variety and production techniques.

Students should take notes and listen critically, since this is not casual listening for entertainment but to study, think about, and probe HOW a podcast is produced (meaning how it is put together). Make your analysis clear enough that it would inform someone who has not listened to the show.

See Ch. 6 on how to do a podcast deconstruction – if you study how creators put together various podcasts it will help you shape your own because you will have knowledge about a variety of creative storytelling techniques.

Select an interview, conversational, or nonfiction narrative podcast (one example in this genre is This American Life ) and listen to at least the first 20 minutes. (Do NOT include fiction podcasts, unless directed by your instructor) because they are far more complex and expensive to create.

Include a live link to the podcast episode and answer the following questions:

Identify the podcast name and description ; explain why they do or do not match the show content you heard; describe why the podcast music and artwork (include a link to the artwork) seems appropriate and compelling or not to the topic;
Discuss whether the content of the show is interesting or compelling by identifying what makes it so with specific examples;
Identify the show format – how the show is constructed? Is it a single host, co-host, or roundtable? Is it an interview, talk, or nonfiction narrative-where the story is told by the host and in edited audio clips of interviews; identify the genre (crime, investigative, sports, politics, pop culture, self-help, educational, a mix?);
How well is the technical portion of the podcast done? Think about audio quality of the podcast and about the speaking clarity and energy by hosts and guests;
Identify one thing that you DO & one thing that you DO NOT want to imitate; if anything.

ALTERNATIVE ASSIGNMENT : The goal of this assignment is to familiarize students with the multitude of podcast topics available by actively listening to podcasts and critically analyzing the differences among podcasts in content, style, and production.

Go to a podcast directory and select two podcasts on different subjects to listen to for at least 15 minutes.
Go to a podcast directory and select two podcasts on the same subject (hopefully on a topic you expect to cover on your podcast) and listen for at least 15 minutes.
Write a 4-5 page critical analysis based on the following criteria:
Describe/critique the podcast name, description, music, and artwork;
How interesting or compelling is the content? Think in terms of quality, style, format, and genre;
How well is the technical portion of the podcast done? Think about audio quality and speaking;
Identify one thing from each of the four podcasts that you DO or DO NOT want to imitate.

#3: Podcast Pitch & Post

This assignment has two goals. The first is for students to make a written pitch for a podcast show they would like to do, with the information posted on the course Discussion Board.

The second part is to evaluate the pitch of a classmate with constructive criticism posted on the Discussion Board.

Podcast Pitch : Propose a name for your podcast; describe your podcast in 10 words or less;
Post : Review the podcast pitch of two other students and make useful comments; they may be critical, but your goal is to be helpful.

Assignment #4: Produce & Edit Podcast Open

The goal of this assignment is to create your podcast open. Use music and voiceover narration to introduce your show, edit the audio and upload them to your own free SoundCloud account. There is an audio example at the end of this exercise.

Find and select music for your podcast open using royalty-free tracks or original music, see Ch. 11
You will submit a written sheet that tells exactly where you got your music and that you have followed all copyright rules. i.e., if credit to the musician is required then signal that you intend to do that in oral credits at the end of the podcast and on your show website.
This show open is the standard podcast open used each week, not the individual opening. It should include the show name , your name and a brief description of what the podcast is about . You can voice the intro or have someone else do that. An example is included below.
Lay down the music track on one channel and put the voice track on a second channel
Edit the tracks so you start with music at full strength, then lower the sound when the voice track comes in with the podcast show title and host. Once you have finished speaking, have the music come back up to full strength and then fade out within a few seconds.
Export as an MP3 audio file and send to your instructor.

{Audio Example}

Assignment #5: create & edit a sound story.

The goal of this assignment is to understand how audio storytelling differs from written text. When using sound to tell a story, the listener must be able immediately to identify the sounds being heard. The power of sound in audio storytelling crosses all languages. There is an audio example at the end of this exercise.

Create a short fictional audio story of 50-to-90 seconds that uses sound effects, sounds you record, and uses only one to five words of narration.
Edit into an MP3 audio file, upload it to your SoundCloud account and send me the link.

In the example below, the story is that of a person walking to their car, getting in and starting the car, pulling into the street, fiddling with the radio, sighing, texting while driving, then screaming as she gets into a car accident and ends up in the hospital.

https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/3202/2022/06/Assignment-3-Sound-Story-1.mp3

Assignment #6: Descriptive Writing & Recording

The goal of this assignment is descriptive writing – which is what audio storytelling is all about. Write to make a scene come alive in the mind of the listener so they can imagine what’s happening from the rich detail you provide.

You will pick a historic photo and use descriptive language but without using words that explicitly tell what is in the photograph. There is an audio example at the end of this exercise.

Select a photo from http://100photos.time.com/
Research the photo and write about it without telling the audience what the photo depicts. Use descriptive language with adverbs and adjectives that are strong and colorful.
Record what you have written, using vocal energy and clear articulation.
Edit into an MP3 audio file, upload it to your SoundCloud account and send your instructor the link.

https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/3202/2022/06/Assignment-4-Descriptive-Writing-1.mp3

Assignment #7: Deconstructing Audio Stories

The goal of this assignment is to research and analyze how audio in podcasts is used in storytelling. By carefully listening to every use of audio and looking at a story transcript (or creating a transcript yourself), you will dissect how the story was put together. Write your analysis and submit to your instructor.

Analyze NPR podcasts that use audio beyond just interviews in their storytelling. That may include natural sound from events such as a protest rally, historical archival audio, actor dialogue, news clips, music, person-on-the-street comments, an author reading sections of their book and such.

Listen to the NPR podcast , “ Thoroughline ,” in an episode called “The Long Hot Summer,” from July 20, 2020.The podcast recalls the 1960s racial unrest in the context of the racial injustice protests of 2020. You can download the audio file, the transcript is here .
Listen to the NPR podcast , “ Radiolab ” in an episode called “Dispatches from 1918,” broadcast July 17, 2020. You can download the audio file; I did not see a transcript.
Identify how the story begins : Is it narration? Sound?
What are the audio sources used and how long are they? Is it an interview; natural sound from a public event like a protest rally; archival audio from newsreels or current news shows; music; sound effect?
What do you notice about the writing? Are descriptions used of what a person or event looks like; is the writing style giving straightforward information or is the style building suspense?
What observations can you make about story structure? Does narration last long before you hear audio or is there limited narration; are the audio clips long or short?
How does the story end?

Assignment #8: Create & Edit a Mini-Podcast

The goal of this assignment is to create a mini-podcast, using previous assignments and putting them together with some new elements.

You will add three new elements – a narration, a bumper, and the show ending. The bumper reminds the audience of the program they are listening to and can be used to break up a long interview or to cover an edit. There is an audio example at the end of this exercise.

This podcast pilot show begins with your podcast open , then adds the audio sound story;
Make a voice recording of your descriptive writing-photo story , then add that to the audio file;
Create a bumper for the podcast by writing a short reminder of what the audience is listening to, for example: “You are listening to “Home Gardening Newbies’ – the show to help you develop a green thumb,” and then add that to the audio file. You could also use the name of the host.
End your show by thanking the audience for listening and giving them a call-to-action – how to find your podcast or website. You could also tell them what the topic will be for your next episode if you know that. But every story needs an ending.

Once all of the various audio clips are edited into an MP3 audio file, upload it to your SoundCloud account, and send your instructor the link.

https://pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/3202/2022/06/Assignment-5-The-Final-Mixdown-1.mp3

Assignment #9: Create an Original Podcast

The goal of this assignment is creation, writing, hosting, producing and editing your original podcast episode.

Create an 8-10 minute podcast using at least one guest interview. Required elements include a show open with music, interview(s), bumper and show end.

Assignment #10: Create a Podcast Trailer

The goal of this assignment is to create an audio trailer to promote your podcast on social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Create a :30-:50 trailer of your podcast that showcases the best of what you have to offer.
Free tools to create audiograms are outlined in Ch. 8 , using the Headliner app. A video tutorial shows the process of how to do this.
Examples of audio (and video) trailers are included in Ch. 9 .Assignment #10: Create a Podcast Website/Blog

Assignment #11: Create a Podcast Website

The goal of this assignment is to create a website for your podcast.

Create a blog or website for your podcast using WordPress or another blog tool.
Embed the podcast audio.
Include a host bio ; photo ; contact information; name & description of the podcast; use of the podcast artwork.
Include a show transcript , show notes , links to additional resources.

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Six Minutes Podcast Lessons

Six Minutes Podcast lessons can be a challenge to find since podcasts are a relatively new medium in the education sphere.

The Six Minutes Podcast is mysterious and mystifying with lots of twists and turns.

All these words describe the storyline of this Six Minutes Podcast . I love Season 1 Holiday’s season.

Everyone loves to be entranced in a story so intriguing that they leave their lives for a few minutes and enjoy quality storytelling, whether it be fiction or real life!

Eleven-year-old Holiday is pulled from the icy waters of Alaska with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Are her mom and dad really who they say they are? And when she begins to develop incredible abilities, she’ll soon discover she’s not alone in the world.

These short episodes will keep you guessing and wanting more every time! A good old-fashioned “whodunit” is great for critical thinking and problem-solving skills; however, most true crime or mysterious podcasts aren’t appropriate for the classroom; however, this Six Minutes Podcast is a perfect fictional podcast that is safe to listen to with your classes, without losing the mystery!

Why Use This Podcast In Your Classroom

How many times have you struggled to reign students in at the beginning of class? Or did you have an extra 5-10 minutes after a lesson before it was time to change classes? It’s not enough time to start something new, but it’s too long to let students sit and wait. This podcast is only 6 minutes per episode (except for the season finale).

At the beginning of class, it can be used for students to calm down and get their brains working and focused and ready to learn. At the end of class, it is the perfect activity to fill extra time or focus on something different. We ALL need brain breaks at any (and every) point in the day – this is the perfect activity that resets students’ brains and lets them work on deeper thinking skills (without even knowing it!)

No matter what subject you teach, you witness every day the lack of listening skills students have. Just this week, think of a time you gave oral instructions and how many “What do we do?” “What did you say?” “I don’t know what to do!” – I’m guessing a whole bunch of them.

Students struggle with listening and applying what they hear. They also struggle with figuring things out on their own. This Six Minutes Podcast not only gives them a chance to practice listening skills, but it also gives them a chance to let their brains explore lots of new options and think critically about this storyline.

Six Minutes Podcast Lessons

There are lots of ways you can use the podcast in your classroom. Here are some Six Minutes Podcast Lessons.

Comprehension Questions

Comprehension questions may seem old school, but they are effective and straightforward for students and for your Six Minutes Podcast lessons! If you are pressed for time or just want an easy-to-grade assignment, this is perfect to go along with the podcast! We all need a little help, right? So, to make it even easier on YOU, comprehension questions are provided for you (to print or assign virtually) in this Six Minutes Podcast Unit Bundle .

Free Lesson – Season 1 Episode 1

You can try out a free Six Minute podcast lesson for Season 1 Episode 1 here .

Journal Entries

Another Six Minutes Podcast lesson idea is journal entries after each episode! And guess what? Journal entry prompts WITH a journal entry rubric are also included in the Six Minutes Podcast Unit Bundle ! You can print them all out and have students create a folder/journal/binder for all their entries, or you can have them all in a digital folder for students to access. You can try out Six Minutes Episode 1 for free here .

One Sentence Summaries

Students can write a quick one-sentence summary of each episode in a journal, class binder, or online in a running Google doc or a discussion board post. This concept can help students learn how to write short, concise sentences and get their point across. This will challenge students’ writing skills in a way that they probably aren’t used to.

Character Stations

Who doesn’t love a good stations activity? You can set up stations for different characters throughout the episodes. You could do this in several different ways. Have students create a profile for the character at each station. Students could write personality traits about each character on a Post-it note and post them on a poster about each character.

Visualization Activities

For visual learners, podcasts might be difficult to follow. You (and your students) can get creative with some visualization practices! Have students sketch the scenes from each episode or select a key scene and mould it out with materials.

For your Six Minutes Podcast lessons, students can draw the characters or the actions that are happening throughout the episode. You could also do this activity digitally by having students create comic strips with Google Slides or Google Drawings of the events that happen throughout each episode.

Individually or as a class, students could create a timeline of events throughout all of the episodes. This timeline could be on one page for individual assignments, or the timeline could be posted around the room and added to as you go throughout the series.

Short Research Assignment

Students need to develop strong research skills, and this is an excellent way to incorporate them! For your Six Minutes Podcast lessons, use this as a quick research assignment as a way to help students not feel overwhelmed by researching topics. You could pair it with a short, brief research assignment about any topic from the podcast the students might be interested in. This activity can help students work on writing and citation standards. This hits informational/expository writing and research standards/expectations – and could also hit citation standards/expectations.

Create A Large Plot Diagram

Help students keep track of all of the events with a large plot diagram posted up somewhere in the classroom. This can help students take notes of significant events.

Choice Board

A Choice Board is an excellent tool to help students choose how they are learning and is a great addition to your Six Minutes Podcast Lessons. One choice for this podcast could be to write a new ending for the story! This will allow them to think outside of the box and get their creativity flowing.

Another choice could be for students to design a new podcast cover for this series. This will catch the eye of your artistic students and students who love working with graphic design.

You will want to fill up your choice board with 6 – 8 different choices for students. If you want a ready-made choice board, I have one that has already been created for this podcast within the Six Minutes Podcast Unit Bundle .

Six Minutes Podcast Lessons Bundle

The Six Minutes Podcast Lessons Unit Bundle has the lesson planning work done for you for your Six Minutes Podcast lessons.

What’s Included In The Bundle?

Podcast Non-Fiction Article (modified and regular levels, mp3 recordings, comprehension questions and writing response prompts)
205 Quizzes (PDF or Google Forms™)
205 Journal Prompts (PDF or Google Slides™)
Podcast Choice Board Summative Task (8 choices)
PDF and Digital Formats

Six Minutes Podcast Lessons Bundle – Teacher Feedback – “My students love 6 minutes and these comprehension questions were an easy assignment to do. It really helped me know who was actively listening and focused based on how they answered the questions.”

These Six Minutes Podcast lessons provide a lot of variety for your students. This 205-episode podcast will keep your students engaged in your class. This podcast is perfect for any middle school ELA classroom to be used as bell work, listening comprehension practice, or nightly homework.

As teachers, we are always looking for new and exciting ways to help students learn and grow. Our purpose as teachers is to help our students learn how to be productive members of society. Whatever path they choose, we are here to help prepare them for life after school. No matter where life takes them, they will need listening and critical thinking skills. That is exactly what this podcast series has to offer.

Find the Six Minutes Podcast Lessons Unit Bundle on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD .

Six Minutes Podcast Lessons Links

Six Minutes Podcast (go to the bottom of the page and find Episode 1 of Holiday’s Season)
Episode 1 Free Lesson
Six Minutes Podcast Bundle

This FREE persuasive writing unit is

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By using highly-engaging rants, your students won’t even realize you’ve channeled their daily rants and complaints into high-quality, writing!

Your Final Assignment Is…a Podcast

Learning to podcast kept my remote students engaged and connected. here’s how to bring podcasting to your classroom..

Bret Zawilski

Bello Collective

The Covid-19 crisis reshaped the landscape of education. While many schools and colleges are pushing for a return to in-person classes, online and hybrid teaching will remain part of the conversation for the foreseeable future. It’s hard to overstate the challenges this poses to creating an effective learning environment: many students don’t have access to reliable internet at home, or face precarious family or work situations that place additional demands on their time. While these are also concerns in face-to-face classes, they’re amplified greatly in online contexts where there isn’t a physical class grounding the experience.

In my online classroom, podcasting became a lifeline. Learning how to transfer their writing skills to podcasting helped my students remain connected and engaged while learning under lockdown.

In this article, I’ll share some ways of teaching podcasting that don’t require you or your students to use high-tech tools or be technological geniuses. This also serves as a continuation and extension of my 2018 article, “ Podcasting in the Classroom ,” about the way that podcasts can foster a series of important literacies for students. If you’ve considered making a podcasting project part of your class, now might be the best time to start.

The Setting

For the past ten years, I taught rhetoric and composition classes that focused on developing university students’ writing abilities. Recently, I accepted a position as a Lecturer of Critical Skills at Maynooth University near Dublin, Ireland. Critical Skills is similar in many ways to the courses I previously taught — it focuses on written and oral communication skills, the research process, and reflective thinking.

On March 19, 2020, the Irish Higher Education system closed its campuses and moved to remote teaching in response to the spread of Covid-19. With six weeks left in the semester, students and teachers were suddenly placed in an unfamiliar situation with little time to adapt.

In normal times, students who are learning remotely understand the challenges associated with taking an online class, which often depend heavily on self-motivation and independent learning. But in this case, no one had been given the choice. It also quickly became apparent that reliable broadband internet wasn’t available to many of our students — or faculty, in some cases.

Educators across the world were facing a similar problem: How could we salvage the end of this year while accommodating students facing unpredictable hardships? For my classes, podcasts were the answer.

Podcasting to the Rescue

From the perspective of an educator, podcasts make a fantastic capstone project. Whether, like me, you’re focusing on the process of writing, or your class is more concerned with the analysis of information and theories within your field, podcasting breaks with student expectations in a useful way. Instead of relying upon rigid strategies of addressing a prompt (like the five-paragraph essay), students have to contend with a new medium and the challenge of sharing information in their own voice. It brings together familiar patterns of research with a less familiar medium.

At its core, the process of making an audio text isn’t that different from writing an essay. Sure, the tone and style differ, but in both cases you have to rely upon language to achieve your goal. Podcasts are also frequently rhetorical — they call upon their audience to accept some new piece of information or to take action.

However, transferring written content to a new medium isn’t always a straightforward process. For example, if a student recorded herself reading a school paper aloud, the end result wouldn’t be a podcast. Or at least, not a good podcast. (What this says about generic research papers is another discussion…)

Changing a text’s medium means that you’ve changed the resources at its disposal. Suddenly, students need to consider how writing sounds and whether it’s structured in a conversational way, or if it’s layered in arcane professional or academic jargon.

Simply put, podcasts are great for discussions of audience and working to appeal to an audience. If you already have students researching and writing about topics, then it’s not difficult to transition them into making a podcast on that same material.

So, what did this look like for me?

Podcasting in Critical Skills

Before Ireland’s lockdown, my students were working in teams to produce a White Paper — a professional, research-driven proposal intended for an audience of experts — connected to a social issue currently relevant to Irish society. They’d already done most of the challenging research, but now they had to pull everything together without the benefit of meeting one another in person.

Carrying this forward, the podcast project that I designed asked students to build upon their previous research and complete the following:

Create a podcast on the topic of your White Paper
Situate your podcast for a non-expert audience
Build a simple website for your podcast using wix.com or Adobe Spark Pages

You can find the specific prompt for the assignment here: Critical Skills Podcast Assignment Prompt .

One of the most important elements was the translation for a new audience. Students had to consider their new audience and create an audio text that appealed to that group. They had to ensure they were providing enough context, like explanations of the terminology surrounding their topic. And they had to do this all without seeing one another in a physical space.

Podcasting is a complex and engaging medium, with a lot of moving pieces that work well distributed among a team. Especially when asking students to work in an unfamiliar medium, having groups of collaborators can ease some of the stress of a large project, and reducing the stress on students in the middle of the pandemic was a huge priority.

I also had to consider what technology my students had at their disposal. There wasn’t a guarantee that students had access to a personal computer at home or a reliable internet connection. Many were left with only a smartphone and patchy cellular data.

This meant we had to get creative at times with how individuals would contribute to their teams, all while balancing the anxiety of Covid-19 looming in the background. Again, the structure of podcasting was a strength in this new online mode. Each individual had a set of roles they could choose to fulfill. This separation of the work also eased much of the anxiety students brought with them regarding the podcast itself — the stages of the project provided a scaffolding for them to develop their skills over time.

Now we just had to give students the ability to connect with one another.

Finding a Platform for Discussion

One of the most common challenges associated with online learning is the formation of a peer group learning community, in which students see themselves as part of a social setting rather than just fulfilling a list of checkboxes. In the move to online pedagogy, it’s important to find alternative ways of getting students and faculty to interact, and the learning CMS ecosystem (platforms like Moodle, Blackboard, and Canvas) isn’t always the strongest set of tools to use.

In our case, Microsoft Teams became the program of choice largely due to university licensing — Maynooth is a Microsoft campus. The built-in file storage made it easy for students to organize their documents and meeting notes, while the audio and video calling options meant they could talk or chat in a variety of ways. This also had the benefit of making student collaboration more visible, and as an instructor, I appreciated the ability to spot questions and problems early in the assignment so that I could intervene before individuals reached a critical roadblock.

In the end, the specific tool doesn’t matter as much as how it’s taken up and used. Google Classroom, Slack, Trello, or even Discord can all foster interaction outside of the classroom. As long as you provide a space for interaction to occur, especially one that allows strong collaboration on mobile devices, you’ll be able to maintain the sense of connectedness, even while working remotely. It’s not a perfect substitution for in-person classes, but at least it gives some kind of support.

Once the platform for collaboration was set, students could then get to breaking down the task of creating a podcast.

Writing the Script

When students initially reacted with anxiety to the thought of composing an entire podcast, I pointed them back to the act of scripting. I let them know that they’d already done this kind of work throughout the year, and that a strong script can make the rest of the process so much more straightforward. Even students who didn’t have reliable access to broadband internet could still script content for the podcast, repurposing their previous White Paper for the new medium.

Even though a podcast is a trendy form of new media, it’s important to remember that it’s doing the same kind of rhetorical work as an essay. Start with the familiar and branch outward to the unfamiliar, and students will have a better chance of seeing how their prior knowledge overlaps with their new task.

Recording the Audio

The goal of the podcast assignment wasn’t to teach students professional audio engineering. The goal of the project was to demonstrate how students’ previous knowledge and practices could be used to approach an unfamiliar digital project.

As such, when it came to recording raw audio, we focused on low-cost entry points. Most students made use of their smartphones and built-in voice recorders to gain audio for their podcasts. Others used their computers and teleconferencing software like Zoom to record group audio. The importance, again, was ensuring as many students as possible could take part in this stage, regardless of their home technology situation.

Editing and Polishing the Audio

Mixing audio together is the most challenging part of the assignment, and this is where online resources can be an enormous help. In my previous article, “ Podcasting in the Classroom ,” I ran through a quick list of the kinds of software available. Not much has changed in the past two years — GarageBand, Audacity, and Anchor are still some of the most accessible tools for novice podcasters, and each of them has a lot of tutorials available on YouTube.

Instead of audio quality, this project emphasized organization. Students needed to think about how they presented information and how they would structure their podcasts. Would they take on a conversational interview-based approach like Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard ? Or would they be using the narrative form of Heavyweight ?

Building the Web Page

The web page wasn’t a heavily assessed component of the project, but it did provide a useful way for students to package and circulate their projects. Plus, the web page served as a visual space for students to present information that’s difficult to represent in audio, such as detailed graphs and charts, and as a space to highlight the sources of referenced information.

Tips and Tricks

If nothing else, teaching in a pandemic reminds us that pedagogy needs to be flexible and adaptive to the students we’re working with. No two classes are ever identical, which means that assignments grow and evolve alongside us. The project I’ve described so far is meant to be a scaffold that you can build upon for your own content and classes.

That said, here are the things that I’ve found most helpful in teaching podcasting.

Build Your Own Library

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, nor do you need to be the de facto expert on podcasting to effectively use podcasts within your classroom. Gather your own set of materials over time, using tutorials from YouTube and other online resources. When working in an online setting, it’s important to position yourself as part of the learning community. You might consider making your own brief walkthroughs of the process of organizing the different tasks and actually recording and assembling a podcast using free tools like Screencast-o-Matic.

As an example of this, I’ll point you to what became the main resource for our assignment: an Adobe Sparks Page about Creating a Podcast that students could easily consult throughout the project. I added to this library over a period of six weeks, so it grew alongside the tasks that students were expected to complete. As I made videos, I took particular note of the places where I found myself struggling and spent additional time building resources to help others avoid those same pitfalls.

Demonstrate the Process

If possible, it’s incredibly helpful to demonstrate the process of making a podcast. In addition to video tutorials, I created a sample podcast to demonstrate the capabilities of freely available software and provided a copy of the script to emphasize the crucial role that writing plays in making a polished audio text. I was able to use this as part of one of the screen-recorded videos to highlight how the script grows and evolves as a podcast is developed. In the future, I also intend to use this resource as a way of demonstrating how to proceed from rough outlines to a finalized podcast episode.

While students will have to gain familiarity with a variety of tools to build a podcast, the kinds of revision and alteration that occur in an assignment like this one mirror the kinds of revision that happen in any kind of writing.

In other words…

Don’t Teach to a Specific Tool

I once took a course in Visual Design that turned into a semester of learning how to do very specific tasks in Adobe Fireworks with little attention to broader principles of design. Wait, you aren’t familiar with Fireworks? It’s probably because a year after I finished the course, Adobe discontinued its development. In other words, the verbatim content of the course became mostly useless because we never focused on overarching principles.

It’s important to remember that tools change and programs come in and out of vogue. While a student does need to know how to use certain tools or apps to create a digital text, it’s a mistake to focus only on the surface-level concerns of using a particular program.

A particularly useful source on this is Stuart Selber. In his 2004 book, Multiliteracies for a Digital Age , Selber develops a three-part framework for understanding the way we work with and master digital technology (and tools in general). He also warns us away from the mistake of emphasizing mastery of individual software over broader strategies and principles of communication.

Selber suggests that we look at three broad kinds of digital literacies: functional, critical, and rhetorical. We can view them as progressing from simple to complex, but that doesn’t do it full justice, as all three are intimately connected.

While Selber’s model is broadly targeted to all kinds of digital literacies, it’s incredibly relevant for podcasts. There are a lot of traps to avoid when it comes to teaching students how to write for a new medium, and getting them to see podcasting as more than learning a new piece of software is really important. Otherwise, podcasting will become a one-off experience that might seem disconnected from their education or their future professional goals.

My classes explicitly discussed the different stages of literacy that Selber spells out, and this went a long way toward helping students understand podcasting as a complex process that gives them skills that will be relevant long after the project is finished.

Functional literacy involves the literal ability to operate a specific tool. In other words, if you want to make a podcast, then you need to know how to open a new file in your audio recording program before you can actually get started editing. That’s why so many digital tutorials start by teaching how to open a new document and save the file.

Reaching functional literacy doesn’t mean an individual will be an expert on the program, just that they can negotiate its interface. The good news is that most tutorials emphasize functional literacy, so there’s no shortage of resources to draw upon.

Second on the ladder is critical literacy, and this is where things start to get meta. In relation to digital writing (or recording) tools, critical literacies involve a consideration of the kinds of texts created by a certain tool and how they position us as authors and audiences.

If we were looking to gain a critical understanding of Facebook, for example, this would entail understanding how their algorithm shapes the content that we see, as well as the kinds of posts that are most commonly shared. In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Facebook recently instituted a new “care” emoji alongside its other emotional “reactions.” However, some users are annoyed that despite demand, there isn’t an “eye roll” reaction available for use. This limits the options available to users and shapes how individuals can use Facebook reactions.

When it comes to producing podcasts, a critical understanding of GarageBand would go beyond opening a new file and more towards a consideration of how the built-in Loops library enables different kinds of audio cues for a podcast. Or it might involve an understanding of how the default vocal recording settings are or are not tailored to podcasting. For podcasts in general, a critical literacy would also involve understanding what kinds of organizational structures work for the most popular podcasts currently being produced.

The third and final literacy that Selber identifies is rhetorical literacy. If functional literacy provides an understanding of how to physically use a tool, and critical literacy focuses on what the tool specifically allows us to do, then rhetorical literacy is the most pragmatic. It helps to answer the question: How can I best use this tool to effectively communicate an idea and persuade my audience to buy into an idea or take action? In other words, rhetorical literacy involves understanding how to use a tool — or set of tools — to accomplish some kind of real-world action. It moves from the theoretical into the pragmatic.

In relation to technology, this means that when students pick up habits or technologies outside of school or formal situations, they might be effective in using them, but only within a very narrow context. To take up the previous example, a student might be perfectly comfortable creating a Facebook status update for their friends, but they may not be able to expand the reach of their posts based only upon their unconscious functional use of Facebook. However, if a student possesses a critical understanding of the Facebook algorithm and what “boosting” a post through advertisements allows, they can make active decisions that help them effectively promote their content to a broader audience.

The same goes for podcasts. While our students might know how to record audio, if they don’t understand the genre of the podcast they’re working within, then it’s unlikely that they will be able to meaningfully reach their audience. It’s not impossible — sometimes disruptions to expectations are powerful — but if they disrupt expectations without conscious attention, or if it’s just a side effect of a lack of understanding, then their success will be a matter of luck.

I fostered rhetorical literacy by inviting my students to reflect during the process of composing a podcast as well as analyzing why other model podcasts are successful. Critically examining one’s habits goes a long way to understanding why a text might be successful or unsuccessful, so build in these periods of reflection throughout the project.

Podcasting as a Synthesis

A podcast project like the one described here can be a great way of embracing each of these literacies. While the nature of teamwork means that some individuals might spend more time with one aspect of the project than another, meetings and recorded minutes help show everyone what each stage of the task looks like. This ensures that individuals can share and develop their expertise collaboratively.

Students need to employ a functional understanding of the tools at the beginning of the process for the purpose of creating a rough prototype. This ranges across word processing tools, to messaging platforms, to recording software, editing programs, and website platforms.

By listening to models of other podcasts and having conversations about how podcasts convey information, students become more aware of their critical positioning. They can critically listen to individual podcasts and take a critical look at the overall podcast ecosystem. For example, looking at the kind of content that the recently partnered Anchor and Spotify are promoting can help students see how massive platforms can shape the kind of content that gains popularity.

Finally, the act of making a podcast encourages students to consider how podcasts can serve as a crucial part of their rhetorical toolboxes. Students use their own voices to synthesize the research that they’ve conducted and share that information in a digestible manner with a broader group of individuals. This mimics the often complex task of taking very technical information and translating it for new purposes. The combination of literacies required to compose an effective podcast also ensure that they’re gaining rhetorical savvy in more than one medium.

As a whole, the podcast served as a really helpful capstone that brought together skills and literacies that our students had previously developed. By asking them to compose in a medium that is widely circulated in popular culture, we show that writing doesn’t have to yield a words-on-the-page article and highlight the use of writing skills for contexts beyond the classroom. This flexibility also means that a podcast assignment can accomplish a variety of process and content-oriented goals.

Dodging the Pitfalls

Although the podcast assignment was a success overall, our students certainly encountered a few pitfalls. One issue in particular is that while students were spending a good amount of time writing their scripts, the editing process was occasionally left by the wayside. On Anchor, this was the result of a not-always-intuitive process of cutting and splicing together different audio recordings. In other cases, it was the result of students making use of built-in recording options on platforms such as Zoom. While the texts they created were effective, they sidestepped editing almost completely in some instances. You can avoid this pitfall by creating and locating resources that make the editing process more easily accessible as well as critically examining podcast models that have less of an improvisational tone.

Together While Apart

Overall, the podcast project was an enormous success in the midst of an otherwise difficult semester. Students frequently cited the collaborative element as a benefit during the lockdown and signaled that they were excited to be able to compose a project that felt like something they might be called upon to do in the future. By developing their functional, critical, and rhetorical literacies surrounding the workflow of creating a podcast, students were able to take their academic research and circulate it in a way that otherwise would not have appeared available to them. It highlights the relevance and the vitality of research while also providing a space that brought individuals together while they were forced to remain physically apart.

In the end, we finished the semester without meeting as a class, but the podcasts allowed student voices to intermingle with one another and provided the space for a meaningful discourse community while we grappled with remote learning. I hope that the story of our journey through the pandemic is helpful and that, in the upcoming months, you might consider trying out a podcasting assignment in your own classrooms.

The Bello Collective is a publication + newsletter about podcasts and the audio industry. Our goal is to bring together writers, journalists, and other voices who share a passion for the world of audio storytelling.

Subscribe to the Bello Collective fortnightly newsletter for more stories, podcast recommendations, audio industry news, and more. Support our work and join our community by becoming a member .

Written by Bret Zawilski

Scholar of Rhetoric and Composition. Artist and Writer.

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Project Audio: Teaching Students How to Produce Their Own Podcasts
Project Workshop Step 1: Planning a Podcast. Students should fill out their own podcast planning form (PDF), beginning with their focus question. The form also asks students to think about ...
A Simple Process and Template for Student Podcasting
Step 2: Explore and Choose Tools for Podcasting. Screenshot by author. If your students have cell phones, then they all can record audio. But they may need to check to see that their apps can save and share the files in an MP3 format. Or you may be using school-issued devices such as Chromebooks or iPads.
Teaching Podcasting: A Curriculum Guide for Educators : NPR
Part 1: Small-group brainstorming, 30 minutes. *If your class is creating podcasts in small groups, have them split into those small groups now and spend the entire class period completing this ...
How to Create Student Podcasts in the Classroom: All Your Questions
A: I first had my students complete an outline of their episode based on the type of podcast they wanted to create (see above). They divided their episode up by segment and wrote a series of "talking points" for each. Sometimes they wrote complete sentences, while other times they just wrote bullet points.
How to plan a podcast unit for middle school and high school
Luckily, this post will cover both! To be successful with having students create podcasts, they must first listen to podcasts as mentor texts. Read to the end to get all the podcast unit planning information you will need! 1. Get Inspired to use podcasts in the classroom.
Starting Your Podcast: A Guide For Students : NPR
2. A computer with sound editing software. Once you've recorded your interviews or the sounds you want to use, you'll need to put them all together into your podcast. To do this, you need to use ...
Making a Podcast That Matters: A Guide With 21 Examples From Students
Step V: Write the script. At this point you have a proposed outline for what your podcast will sound like, from start to finish. Now you just need to fill in the details. For Podcasts With ...
How to Use Podcasts in Middle School ELA Classrooms
1. Choose podcasts that align with your lesson plans. Try to make sure there's a connection. Maybe you're teaching your students to analyze character development in stories. In that case, use a podcast that tells stories with rich character development. With the recent rise in educational and storytelling podcasts, this shouldn't be too ...
Podcasting as Instruction
Incorporating podcasting assignments and projects into the classroom provides students another way to connect and engage with the curriculum. It encourages another means of representation and expression and leans into the idea that coursework need not be confined to a restrictive Canvas quiz or assignment format.
Podcasting assignments
Learning goals. Podcasting assignments can encourage creativity, collaboration, and provide a sense of community. Podcasting assignments can provide students opportunities to practice writing and presentation skills, as well as experience expressing themselves through multimedia. As a strictly linear medium, students must focus on the sequence ...
Getting Started with Student Podcast Assignments
Preparing Students for the Assignment. Students will need to be able to record and edit the podcast on either their computer, a tablet, or a smartphone. Typically, the free software package Audacity, supported here at Duke, is used for recording and editing. Students can use OIT's Multimedia Project Studio for recording and editing.
Podcasting in the Classroom: Activities & Recommendations
Using Podcasting in the Classroom: Activities and Recommendations. January 14, 2022. There seems to be a podcast for everything and everyone. And a growing number of people are finding their audio niche: More than a quarter of Americans listen to podcasts weekly, open_in_new according to The Infinite Dial 2021.
A Teacher's Guide To Using Apps To Make A Podcast : NPR
Eric Applen, who teaches 21st century technology and careers at Friedell Middle School in Rochester, Minn., oversees the school's podcast club and says he taught himself how to use Audacity. "It ...
5 Steps to Podcasting for Project-Based Learning
5 Steps to Podcasting. Step 1: Listen. Start by having your students listen to high-quality audio stories. Students need to hear great audio storytelling and what a good podcast sounds like before embarking on creating their own. Step 2: Plan. Creating a 3-minute podcast doesn't take 3 minutes or even 30 minutes.
For Faculty: Using Podcasts in the Classroom
Sample Assignments Using Podcasts Communication Studies This assignment is taken from a course at the University of Western Australia that's meant to explore the medium of podcasting and critically engages with the idea of participatory culture in either the podcast itself or its exegesis.
Appendix C: Podcast Assignments & Examples
Assignment #1: Ethics Discussion. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are now widely available for podcasters - from doing mundane tasks such as transcribing, to the creative work of cover art and music, and more controversial uses such as cloned voices or creating entire podcasts from AI. See Ch. 1 for coverage of AI issues in podcasting.
Middle School Podcast Lessons
Middle School Podcast Lessons. Podcast Listening Comprehension Lesson - Online Orders - Students will learn about why online orders are delivered in separate boxes/packages even if from the same store. Students will love that this lesson examines online shopping. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Six Minutes Podcast Lessons
These Six Minutes Podcast lessons provide a lot of variety for your students. This 205-episode podcast will keep your students engaged in your class. This podcast is perfect for any middle school ELA classroom to be used as bell work, listening comprehension practice, or nightly homework. As teachers, we are always looking for new and exciting ...
Your Final Assignment Is…a Podcast.
Your Final Assignment Is…a Podcast. Learning to podcast kept my remote students engaged and connected. Here's how to bring podcasting to your classroom. The Covid-19 crisis reshaped the landscape of education. While many schools and colleges are pushing for a return to in-person classes, online and hybrid teaching will remain part of the ...
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When students engage with historical materials in creative ways like producing podcasts and photography projects, they find the work deeply meaningful, writes history teacher Sarah Cooper in "6 Takeaways From a History Podcast Project" for MiddleWeb.By working with primary source materials, students not only gain a better understanding of history but also develop skills needed to process ...
Instructions handout for podcast project assignment
Instructions handout for podcast project assignment. Slightly generalized version of our podcast instructions handout for students. Should be tailored to the resources available at a given institution/campus. File 36903 is a 137kB Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) Uploaded: Nov5 12. Last Modified: 2012-11-05 15:27:46. https://serc.carleton.edu ...
Free Podcast Reflection Printable Worksheet
At WeAreTeachers, our staff can't get enough of them. We're constantly trading recommendations for the best podcasts for kids and adults. That's why we created this free podcast reflection sheet for your classroom! If you have a podcast listening station or ask students to listen to podcasts in class or for homework, this reflection sheet ...
Lesson Plans
All free. Starting in 2021, we are releasing teacher-created Lesson Plans from our colleagues in The Cabinet. These all copy to your own Google Docs account so you can edit as you see fit. We're here if you need support or have questions. Email us at [email protected]. Teacher Created Lesson Plans.

A Simple Process and Template for Student Podcasting

How Does Podcasting Benefit Students?

A Simple Podcasting Process

Step 1: Establish Criteria and Define Roles

Step 2: Explore and Choose Tools for Podcasting

Step 3: Determine the Pacing and Process

TIP: Podcast Recording Environment

Step 4: Practice Podcasting as a Class

Step 5: Group Students for the Podcasting Project

Steps 6 and 7: Assign Podcast Topics and Start Recording

Step 8: Check in Regularly

Step 9: Publish the Podcasts with a Template

TIP: Publishing the Google Slide Deck

Step 10: Review and Revise the Process

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Cybersecurity Resources for Planning, Prevention, and Safeguarding Data

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Making a Podcast That Matters: A Guide With 21 Examples From Students

Step I: Choose a topic.

Step II: Decide on a format.

Step III: Research the subject.

Step IV: Create a storyboard or outline.

Step V: Write the script.

Additional Steps: Record, edit and publish.

Podcasting as Instruction

What to do first?

How to integrate podcasting into the curriculum?

Where to go for support?

Getting Started with Student Podcast Assignments

Classroom Podcasting for the Middle Grades

Who Is Podcasting

5 Steps to Podcasting

Don’t Fear the Technology

Go Podcast!

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Podcast Guide

Sample Assignments Using Podcasts

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Appendix C: Podcast Assignments & Examples

Assignment #1: Ethics Discussion

Assignment #2: Podcast Listening & Deconstruct

#3: Podcast Pitch & Post

Assignment #4: Produce & Edit Podcast Open

{Audio Example}

Assignment #6: Descriptive Writing & Recording

Assignment #7: Deconstructing Audio Stories

Assignment #8: Create & Edit a Mini-Podcast

Assignment #9: Create an Original Podcast

Assignment #10: Create a Podcast Trailer

Assignment #11: Create a Podcast Website

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