Using Podcasts in the Classroom

Using podcasts in the classroom is a great resource for anyone who is learning a new language. Podcasts are audio files or video files that anyone can create on any topic they'd like. I use a Spanish podcast to keep up with my Spanish. I listen to conversations and grammar explanations and podcasts about travel, culture and cooking-all in Spanish. I've noticed I learn more when I'm listening to a podcast in Spanish about a subject  I love. I listen to "News in Slow Spanish" and another podcast for Spanish language learners about travel and culture. These are two topics that I love, so I always anticipate when the new podcast comes out. The more I listen, the more I learn! I want to encourage my ELL's to do the same with an ESL podcast in their free time.




I teach adult refugees and immigrants who have recently moved to the U.S.  For the first time, I started to browse some podcasts for ELLs and so far I've found ESL Pod. This podcast has some great episodes in American English. The topics are great for newly arrived immigrants. One lesson that I found here is about meeting a new neighbor. It is a dialogue between a person who is new to a neighborhood and another neighbor. They speak very slowly and this site also provides a transcript of the conversation, as well. In their conversation, they talk about being new to a neighborhood and how to be involved in a community. They use two word verbs and idioms in this dialogue. My students love to learn idioms and phrasal verbs. So I would use this podcast when teaching phrasal verbs. The topic is relevant, as well because it's about a new neighbor who is settling in to a new place-a perfect topic for newly arrived immigrants and refugees!

Phrasal Verbs used in this episode:

• settle in
• come over
• give you the scoop on..
• give you tips on...
• take a rain check
• stop by

I would pre-teach these phrasal verbs in this conversation and then give students a cloze activity where they would have to work in pairs to put these phrasal verbs into the correct sentence. Then, we would listen to the podcast and students would have the transcript in front of them and they could read it as they listen. I would then have the students work in pairs again and do the dialogue themselves. I would walk around and scaffold where necessary. After, I would ask a couple of pairs to read/act out the dialogue aloud.

Since I teach adult ELLs, I'm using the NYS Adult Ed goals for ESL. The two goals that I based this lesson on are:

Adult Goal 2: Learners will gain control of the system and structure of the English language.

Adult Goal 3: Learners will improve ability to understand spoken English.

Ted-Ed Lesson: History of Halloween

Holidays are always great fun to teach ELLs, especially Halloween! I created a Ted-Ed Lesson about Halloween. I used a short video from the History Channel that described a brief history of the holiday.  

My learning objectives were to teach students about American Holidays, specifically Halloween the origins of the holiday. Halloween can be big culture shock for new immigrants. They see people decorating their houses with pumpkins and scary things. They may see someone dressed up in a scary costume and think that this is an evil holiday. My goal in teaching the origins of Halloween was to teach  students where these scary traditions stem from and how they have carried on and morphed through many centuries. 

To be sure my learning objectives have been met, I may ask students to write a summary of the origins or make a timeline of Halloween based on the video. I would also encourage discussion after the Ted-Ed lesson to allow students to share their thoughts and ask questions and compare it to a holiday or custom in their country of origin. I would walk around and assess as students talk in pairs.

NYS Standards : 

ESL.I.5-8.5.1.2: Students will demonstrate a broad range of U.S. cultural and political referents through institutions, functions, and processes at the local and national levels and compare/contrast these with parallels in the students native community.

ESL.I.5-8.5.1.5: Students compare and contrast oral traditions, myths, folktales, and literature from the United States and international regions and cultures, including the students' own and identify similarities and differences and universal cultural themes.

Connectivism through Social Networking: Educator's PLN

The Networked Teacher:

Keeping up with technology is nearly impossible but one way to keep up is to establish a network with other teachers and to explore new technology as much as possible because it changes so often.

It is impossible to know all the answers so it's a great idea for a teacher to network with colleagues to learn from them.

The Educator's PLN is a great social networking site to connect with other teachers. I teach ESL and after a quick search on this site, I found dozens of blogs with teaching tips, lessons, and resources for ESL teachers.

This site can be useful for me if I'm in need of resources on a topic or if I'm struggling with something in the classroom then I can turn to my network for advice. Keeping up with the blogs on this site will help me to get new ideas or to learn from other teachers. This site is great and I encourage you to take a look!

A Learner is Like an Explorer

In the article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, the author, George Siemens, discusses that old learning theories are not relevant in today's technology driven world. Siemens says that Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations and that new information is continually being acquired. In today's information age, one has to constantly search for updated information. This is why I made the analogy that a learner is like an explorer. Learners must continuously search for updated information as the life of knowledge according to Siemens, is now measured in months and years instead of decades, as it used to be.

In the Video, The Conflict of Learning Theories with Human Nature, Siemens says that old theories of learning are at odds with a human desire to externalize. He says, we need to externalize our thoughts to connect with other individuals. A learner must explore various ways of networking with others because as he says, learning is a function of a network. Networking with other individuals can foster this human need to externalize in social spaces and help learners grow.