Audio Commentaries Foster Student Voice and Research Skills (10th grade English)




Student Audio Commentary Examples


What did students create and share?

Students created a 1-3 minute persuasive audio piece on a social justice issue of their choice. In the past, students had done this project and created a presentation on their issue.  

Goals/Objectives

  • Student will Identify and use credible sources to research a social justice issue of their choice
  • Students will create a concise and persuasive audio piece to educate, persuade, and inspire an audience to take action


Audio recording: Students primarily used their school-issued Chromebooks or personal cell phones to record their audio pieces. Some students also used headphones, either school owned or their own.

Audio editing: Although we offered that students could use any software or site for audio creation, students used Soundtrap or Podcastle. Soundtrap was the suggested resource from KQED. In addition, some students had used this platform in another class and had some familiarity with it.

Bundle Pack: Podcast Resources helped keep students (and us) moving through the media-making process.  


Context and Classroom Roll-Out

We began by examining the argument that PIC abolitionists make, leading into asking the question: What are the conditions needed in society for people to not cause harm to each other? How can we create those conditions?  

Prior to beginning the project, students were introduced to a variety of issues from multiple perspectives as they studied literary analysis ( through fiction, poetry, drama), rhetorical analysis and research writing. During these previous units students were introduced to several issues ranging from racism, immigration, gender equalities, civil rights, etc.

Why: We thought that creating an audio piece that would be published online and heard by a wider audience would be more meaningful and engaging for students, especially at the end of the school year. Audio was a medium that we felt was accessible for all students to create.

Project Outline 

Step 1: To help students choose their issue of focus, they explored root causes of harm and also worked to envision what a society where people did not cause harm would look like. They also interviewed people in the school community: staff, students, and parents about what they thought was needed to create a society where people were less likely to cause harm to each other.

Step 2: From this, students were able to choose the issue, then researched and wrote the script for their persuasive audio piece. 

Step 3: Students recorded and edited their audio pieces. They then published their pieces on KQED's Youth Media Showcase. As part of the project, students also had to invite two people from the community (other students, staff, parents, etc) to listen to their piece and fill out a response about what they learned and what was most persuasive about the audio piece. The responses showed that the learning definitely spread in the community, and engaged folks beyond just our classes.

Modifications 

English Learner students were supported through a variety of supports that are also in place for our diverse learners. Some of the supports were scaffolded instruction, visual aids, pre-teaching vocabulary, and extended time as needed. By implementing these strategies, it allows for a more inclusive classroom , and for our ELL students to be actively engaged in creating their podcast. Our team of teachers included our DL teacher who worked with us to modify any materials and support our students with IEPs.


Students made media both in and out of class. Although students were provided enough time to mostly complete it in class, some students wanted to do their recording outside of class, as they had more control over the background sound environment.

Finding a place to record: We had to reach out to teachers during periods where they were not teaching to ask if students could record for about 15 minutes in their classrooms. Some students had to record in the hallway during class, others stayed in the classroom, and others were able to find another classroom with a teacher present to work in. We set up a few quiet spaces where students could go to record: the library, hallway spots, and empty classrooms. Finding a quiet space for our students was the difficult part; however, we made due with what we had.  


We wanted to assess students’ ability to present their research in an engaging and persuasive way. We used the rubric linked in the project sheet to assess our students’ final projects.






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