Using Audio Boo and Creating Podcasts

This week has been our statewide testing. There have been several incidents of crying and after we've completed the test each day everyone is exhausted (myself, as well!). I wanted to do some creating and have fun in the afternoons and so I asked my students if they wanted to make podcasts.

Using the information from their animal research books, students wrote a fun podcast about their animal. The first student to finish (who is a gifted writer) decided to include sound effects for the rest of the class--couldn't have thought of that wonderful idea on my own! Having everyone participate in this way made it possible to record these with the whole class listening (and they were so excited to hear the podcast being made).

Here's an example of what we created:

listen to ‘Wonderful World of Animals: Elephants’ on Audioboo

Audio Boo is incredibly easy to use. You do have to create an account (I sign the kids in so that the account won't be accessed from home), but recording involves pressing a series of buttons. I use an external microphone as it records more clearly. If students' podcasts will be less than 30 seconds, Croak It allows students to record with out an account.

It's fun and it covers a few common core standards!
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.5 Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.