Connection Between Podcasting and Reading Fluency: Teaching With Technology, Podcasts, & Reading

It doesn't sound earth shattering that the more that children read aloud, the more fluently they will read. That is pretty basic. But the question is, "How can we motivate students to practice reading aloud?"

In the "olden" days teacher would give students a tape recorder and have children read into it. In today's technology age there is a whole new dimension and reason for improving reading fluency. The trick is to activate student enthusiasm for a project! Creating audio tracks to be shared with the world as a podcast is an excellent motivator. Not that improving reading fluency for the teacher isn't motivation enough for students, but by making the audience world wide highly changes student drive and performance.

Any piece of writing can become a podcast. It doesn't have to be long. Quite simply, the writing may only be a few sentences. In this case, all of the children, or a group of students may be responding to something in common. The response might be to book, to an informational topic, or just a creative response to a question. Have the child write it, practice it, and then record it. This can be through a computer and microphone or through a voice recorder and then uploaded to a computer.

A longer, more involved piece of work might include an interview between a narrator and a historical figure, a complete written piece, or interpretation of a concept.

Whatever the length, students will practice, record, listen, practice, record again until the piece is error free for the world to hear. And this practicing is actually a practice in reading fluency which can happen without students even knowing that is one of your biggest goals in the project!

The more projects and compilations of student voices and responses that your class creates, the more savvy your students will become in their podcasting skills. To make this especially easy, choose a couple students to become your podcasting experts who can help teach the other students. Before long your class will be creating podcasts and audio tracks effortlessly and you will notice that the reading fluency of your students improves greatly. The other advantage you will find is that students will be asking for more projects of this nature! Amazing learning happens when students ask for more....I've never had a student come up and ask me for another worksheet to complete!

Inspire your students to become fluent readers by using this tool to share with the world.

Visit http://ipodsatschool.com/ to hear some podcasts by children and download a free sampler.