Audio Literacy - Requires attentive listening and deciphering important message components to connect with prior knowledge, as well as to produce meaningful audio communication.
Enhance Learning with Audio - Using audio in the classroom allows an opportunity for students to deepen and expand their learning experiences.
How Teachers Use Audio - There are many ways teachers can use audio in the classroom. Teachers can record supplemental instructions for students such as writing sentences using vocabulary or word cards. They can also model pronunciation of words by recording themselves of saying the words. This is also a great way to help ELL students as they are learning English. Teachers can use audio to help differentiate learning for students. Teachers can use it as a learning tool by recording music and/or an introduction that can be played in the classroom to prepare students for that days lessons. It also helps as the teacher is preparing themselves and it eliminates lost learning time. Lastly, audio can be used as an assessment tool. A teacher can record clips of famous speeches or music and ask students to identify the piece, who created/read it and/ or its historical significance.
Ways Students Learn from Creating Audio - Students can use audio to record oral histories of not only community members but their families too. This is a great social studies lesson. Students can use their cell phones to record these histories and then upload them to class websites and often they can be sent to the local library or even the Library of Congress. Students can also use their cell phones to record what they experience on a field trip so they can play back what they saw or learned to help with discussions, papers or projects. Audio recordings can also be used for book reviews. Students can practice their persuasive speech to try and convince other students to read their books. These reviews can also be upload to the class website or to the library. Students can record themselves reading to work on their fluency. They can listen to what they recorded and hear how they sound to make improvements. It is a great tool to use with you ELL students as they can then hear how they sound and help with their enunciation and reading. Students can also listen to a recorded story and follow along while listening. This will encourage letter and sound recognition and help with reading. Audio can even be used to encourage movement. a teacher would play a song for students and they would get up and be able to move or perform exercises to the song. Audio can also be used as a prompt to let students know it is time to move into a new activity. As students arrive in the morning, they are working on their morning "Do Now" and when they hear the music, they would know it is time to move on to morning meeting. Audio can be very useful for students learning and growth.
Using Audio for Storytelling- Stories are important to help children learn and grow. They love to hear stories and to create their own stories. When a child is encouraged to use their creativity, they begin to believe in themselves and experience growth. Teachers are also able to find what interests their students and begin to craft lessons that will interest them and encourage learning. It also helps teachers understand their students and help them pick books that they will enjoy and encourage their reading.
Storytelling is an important skill. It teaches children how to express themselves verbally and increases their level of communication. Using Audio helps students develop this skill and gives a teacher a recorded audio assessment that can be referenced and shared with the student and their family.