7th Grade Podcast Work

With one year of podcast work under their belts (see previous podcast posts), seventh graders were ready to move ahead with some different podcast activities.

Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash

At the end of their podcast work as sixth graders, students completed a reflection that provided some important information to consider moving forward with podcast work. Overwhelmingly, 84% of all students said they "liked" or "really liked" the podcast unit, and 93% wanted to do more with podcasts in school. The two areas that students said needed improvement were time and choice; in their written responses, students said they wanted to have more time to listen to podcasts in class, and they wanted to be able to choose the podcasts to listen to.

So, in planning and revising and creating a new seventh grade podcast unit, students got what they asked for: time and choice.

The updated lesson for seventh graders became a digital notebook activity with background graphic organizer work to help shape their review writing. Even before that work began, students used Jamboard to include notes about things they recalled about our podcast work from the previous year. Many, many thanks to our school AEA technology consultant Cathy Hines who developed the digital notebook and graphic organizer! 

Before setting to work individually, we took two class days to listen to a podcast together and work through a graphic organizer example. Students listened to the first episode of "Six Minutes," then as a group filled in the graphic organizer. 

“Six Minutes.” Gen-Z Media, 5 Feb. 2021, gzmshows.com/shows/listing/six-minutes/.

The items included relate directly to the Iowa speaking and listening standards, as well as the AASL Learner standards.

The students' graphic organizer work will transfer directly to their digital notebooks that include a cover or title page for their podcasts and a review page.

Addressing students' request for more time to listen to podcasts was only a matter of structuring the lessons over plenty of calendar days. The request for more choice, however, was a little more tricky. After many conversations with Cathy and with the students, they were able to refer to a recommendations list as well as use Google Podcasts.

Screenshot of some of the podcast recommendations for students

Over the course of several class days, then, students had the opportunity to choose a podcast based on their interests, listen to it, and complete the Slides work. While many chose to continue to listen to more episodes of "Six Minutes," others returned to "The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel," which reflected their interest in last year's podcast work. With access to the Google Podcast search engine, students were also able to listen to podcasts about hunting and fishing, football and hockey, and dogs and cheerleading!

Students' work isn't quite finished; they'll be sharing out their work and reflecting again on the revising of the podcast unit. Stay tuned for a future follow-up post!

Resilience Literature

 Years ago author Laurie Halse Anderson spoke about MG/YA literature she called "resilience literature," and this seemed like a good time to share the idea with students. If there was ever a time for resiliency, now is the time! Seventh graders had class discussions about resilience lit based on a short Slides presentation we walked through together in class.

CLICK HERE to access the full presentation

While our conversations focused primarily on realistic fiction titles, students soon began offering titles that covered a wide range of genres. In a Google Form ticket-out quick assessment, students provided dozens of titles that we later looked at in a Google Sheet:

This collective knowledge then became a stepping-off point for students as they worked on a resilience literature triangle to show their understanding of the topic. Students worked on a Google Slide that included a book with examples of the bad things characters overcame to be resilient. Because students were including images with their explanations, this was a good time to remind them about Unsplash.com images (and its add-on) and clipart.com, both places where students can access copyright-free images.

With Covid-19 protocols in place, sharing our work with one another took on a slightly different look. Students revised their sharing settings, then provided the URL for their work in a Google Form. The spreadsheet of Form responses was something they could access from a link emailed to them, and from there, students could see one another's work. After some time, students participated in a 3-2-1 response activity based on what they'd seen from their classmates:

You can see examples of students' work below:

Genre Work

 Recently sixth graders have been talking about genre in their reading classes, so we picked up the mantle in Literacy Studies for a little "show what you know" activity in Google Slides.

After a class discussion about genre and books in those genres--along with examples of elements from the stories to support the genre--students began their work:

Because this was our first project of the year, we took class time to talk about copyrighted images and places where we can go to get copyright-free images, like Unsplash.com. We're able to use the Unsplash add-on in Slides, so this becomes an even easier way for us to include images in our work.

Students had class time to work on their Slides before sharing their work.

With Covid-19 protocols in place, sharing our work with one another took on a slightly different look. Students revised their sharing settings, then provided the URL for their work in a Google Form. The spreadsheet of Form responses was something they could access from a link emailed to them, and from there, students could see one another's work. After some time, students participated in a 3-2-1 response activity based on what they'd seen from their classmates:

You can also see some examples of students' work below:

Using Google Slides to Build an "App"

Recently seventh grade Literacy Studies students completed a long-term assignment that combined fiction books with nonfiction reading in our AEA databases. My colleagues Lacey Sedrel and Melissa White recommended that students use Google Slides to create what appears to be an app so students could show what they learned in an unusual way. Thanks to Gina Rodgers and and Amber Bridge, digital learning consultants from Grant Wood AEA, who shared their presentation "Google Slides: The Swiss Army Knife of Google Tools" at a fall technology conference session that Lacey and Melissa attended. It was the inspiration for students' work for this unit.

First, students used our Destiny catalog and Destiny Discover to identify nonfiction topics associated with a fiction book of their choice. Students also talked with one another about common books read to get feedback on nonfiction topics not listed as subject headings in the catalog. We also used our class read aloud Solo by Kwame Alexander as an example:

What we noticed was that several nonfiction topics we identified with the story weren't listed as subject headings, such as adoption, Ghana, guitars, and music. Ultimately, students would choose two nonfiction topics from their reading to become the basis of their research in our AEA databases.

Once fiction books and nonfiction topics were solidified, students worked in Slides to create their "apps." Along the way, students learned a few new tricks in Slides--namely, how to orient their Slides vertically and how to link Slides within the presentation to one another. The template from which they worked included five Slides:

1. Front page
2. Home screen
3. Fiction book
4. Nonfiction topic #1
5. Nonfiction topic #2

Students' nonfiction topics became the focus of their work in our AEA databases. Students briefly worked with SUPERSearch, which allowed us to discuss how to narrow a search and search particular types of resources.

Students also returned to familiar databases like Britannica and CultureGrams to complete some of their work. 

Students turned in their work through Google Classroom, but we also shared our links with one another using Padlet. This allowed different classes to see their classmates' work and read about a variety of topics. 

Accessing one another's projects and viewing the work in presentation mode allowed students to move through Slides as though they really were using an app based on the fiction book. Below are some Slides from students' work:

Finally, students responded in a Google Form in a ticket out after looking at one another's projects and reading about several books and nonfiction topics.

Podcasting, Part II

Once Literacy Studies students had a basic understanding of podcasting elements--specifically related to fictional, storytelling podcasts like The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel--we provided students with options, opportunity, and time to explore a wide variety of both fiction and nonfiction podcasts.

Students had class time to listen to all/most/part of a podcast, and in preparation for a sharing out activity, they completed a Google Slide that included podcast information, a recommendation, and a visual retelling using emojis. 

With their recommendation and visual retell Slides, students shared their podcast reactions with one another in a variety of ways, including rotating partner groups, small groups, and with the full class. 

Examples of students' work appears below:

Finally, students also completed a Google Form that generated a full-class list of recommended podcasts to be shared on our library main page later. With one click from our library page, students will have access to student-recommended podcasts arranged by genre, all for their browsing and listening pleasure.