Today in Educ 504 was really a tale of two classes. The first half was with teacherK discussing how podcasts can help with instruction and letting us loose to create our first podcast. The second half was with teacherJ. With TeacherJ we participated with partners in a decoding activity.
Before I came into class today, I was a bit nervous to create my podcast. I will let a little secret about myself slip about why I hate the sound of my own voice. Through out elementary school I went through speech therapy. Most of my issues derived from slurring my words and speaking too quickly. I still have problems at times, which makes me extremely self-conscious about my voice.
However, I found the podcasting activity fun. In class yesterday, we were to create a podcast up to 2 minutes to advertise one of the edubloggers we follow. I chose to advertise Quantum Progress, To create the podcast we used the audio mixing tool at Aviary. The podcast besides including our recorded advertisement, had to have an opening and closing hooks along with intro and closing music. I could see how this could be a creative way to get students creating creative projects to present course content. I can also see how this can get shy students or those that are self-conscious like myself that do not like speaking up in class.
The second half of class was with TeacherJ working on a fun decoding activity. I worked with cohortS to decode a story written in all common symbols found in the airplane safety literature. I had an easier time decoding the story than my partner. When I look back, I think my past educational experience with mathematical language aided my ease of decoding. This activity can easily be related to how a students learn how to read. Basically, when you read you are decoding symbols in a systematic manner. When you teach beginning students you cannot assume they all come in with the same past knowledge to where decoding the symbols in a textbook are automatic. Us teachers, must also not assume students are able to decode the messages written in course texts from individual sentences to the big picture we are trying to portray. . In order to make decoding reading more automatic, we need to teach our students tools that help out decoding. Students could look at nearby words or sentences in order to learn the meaning of confusing passages and words. I found this activity very powerful and help me appreciate the need to help students "unpack" new and confusing material.
Thanks for sharing about your past speech therapy. I think it's really important for us teachers to keep student insecurities and how we might address / allow for them in mind when assigning projects to students.
ReplyDeleteFunny, but I felt like it was a mini-class, too. Glad Aviary was fun for you (even though you used some sneaky Ninja strategies with yours!).
ReplyDeleteHope you are enjoying CARBON DIARIES, too!
The decoding activity resonated well with me. It is difficult to envision how many of our topics will be applied in my mathematics teaching. This activity reminded me that there are many different forms of reading literacy. It is a reminder that in my mathematics classes, there may be some excelled readers, but not necessarily in decoding the text related to math. It is so important to understand multiple perspectives! It will make us better teachers.
ReplyDeleteJosh, thanks for this great post. I agree that before class I was also worried about the podcast. I appreciate your sharing about your speech therapy, and am glad to hear that you enjoyed the podcasting. I don't like hearing my voice at all, and I found out it wasn't so bad after all.
ReplyDeleteI like your assertion that as teachers we need to teach our students skills that help them "decode" the work that we give them, so that they can keep pace in the class and not feel frustrated or discouraged and want to give up. Great post.