Digital Audio in the Classroom

Here is just the section of my paper on using and creating audio media in the elementary classroom:

The first and simplest way to use digital audio in the classroom, no matter what grade, is to just play the music. Music has the capability to calm or to excite, to motivate or to entertain. I have found that playing music in the classroom changes the environment like nothing else. Students beg to hear their favorite new song. They demand to know what artists’ names are and where they can get the songs for themselves. They go home and ask their parents what they listened to when they were young, and bring in more music to share with the class. Whether it is during art class, during a language lesson, during a game or during a peaceful reflective period, music makes the classroom a more welcoming and comfortable environment. Compared to the cassette tapes and even CD’s of the past, teachers would have to cart around a huge music collection to have a large variety of songs to play. Now they are all in one place. Whether it is a laptop or MP3 player hooked up to speakers, any song that you want to play is easily stored and waiting. Even radio can’t compete. With digital audio I can program a playlist of songs I know are classroom appropriate with a mix of genres, styles and artists without worrying about the reception.
Now as important as it is to have music in the classroom, it is even more meaningful when it can be used to educate. Integrating digital audio into the curriculum for our students with different learning styles should be the ultimate goal, and this extends beyond just playing songs. While music fits into our language curriculum very nicely (thematic song lyrics, poetry, voice, point of view), there are so many more options available to teachers who want to differentiate their instruction for their students benefit. Find the novel you are reading and download an audio version. Do the same with famous poems. My grade 7 class studied two poems by Robert Frost, “The Road Less Traveled” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. We read them, analyzed them and then I downloaded the poems as read by the author. To hear him read his own work was bone-chilling and it gave us several new insights into how the work was meant to be interpreted. I found the recordings in minutes on iTunes and was able to have them playing in my room before our discussion was even over. The technology has reached the point where we can collect resources and use them in real time so that we don’t lose the Teachable Moment when we recognize it.
Another option for the use of digital audio is what I call the “Guest Lecture Series”. It consists of whatever podcasts or interviews I can find that sync up with the unit or theme we are covering in class. Why reinvent the wheel when the world is full of experts who can come into your class via downloadable audio clips? They can speak with authority on subjects that our students will find interesting, informative and educational. The teacher’s only job is then to moderate discussion, jump start creativity and push the students further in their own thinking and understanding of the topic.
Even something as simple as “Word of the Day” podcasts can add something new and interesting to your word study program. It might be different enough to catch your students’ attention (especially those auditory learners) and the best part is that it is already done for you and waiting on your laptop via iTunes. Depending on the grade level you are teaching at, there are multitudes of podcasts that are capable of easily enriching your lessons and maybe even hitting the learning styles of specific students.

Once teachers are comfortable using digital audio media in the classroom the next step is to modify and even create their own audio resources. Teachers have been making their own audio for years by using cassettes, however the advent of digital media not only improves the quality of those recordings, but also makes it easier. In addition to simply recording our own voices we can modify and edit other audio files to suit our own needs.
As mentioned earlier, poetry is one area of the curriculum that can be made much more interesting by listening to professional poets and famous actors reciting the poetry kids are studying. After listening to those clips the students with the help of audio software like GarageBand or Audacity can try their own hand at reciting poetry in a way that enhances the poems meaning. Teachers will find that they are covering Oral/Visual Language expectations, Drama expectations and Reading expectations all at once. Many educational experts have expressed for years that integrating curriculum expectations is the best way to deliver lessons in the most meaningful way. Using student created audio, the kids themselves are preparing and performing activities that hit on many expectations at once.
Another modification that can be very useful and enriching is having level 4 students prepare listening centres for any struggling readers in your class. This can help those students who need extra time and practice with a text or novel as well as instilling responsibility and ownership in the better readers. The best way to reinforce a concept is to teach it to others. If those students who have easily completed the basic expectations can then create resources to teach other students they will have truly mastered the concept.
Creating songs with your students to reinforce the key points in a novel or concepts in a science unit is another great way to create your own audio study guides. A fellow teacher and I have created multiple songs in the last few years about topics such as the water cycle, parts of speech and novel studies to name a few. We have co-opted such tunes as Burning Ring of Fire (Burning Ring of Nouns), Sweet Caroline (Sweet Salsa Words) and I’m a Believer (I’m a Verb Learner). The kids have fun writing the lyrics and inevitably learn about meter, tempo, rhyme and syllables. When we listen to the song their little brains have no choice but to soak up the information. We have had great feedback from parents who have their own song suggestions, although some playfully complain about having the song stuck in their head for weeks!