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This space is used to collect examples of different styles of book reviews.

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My view on why it is important for students to present information in many alternative formats.

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The place for everything you want to keep track on, but don't know where to put!

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Assortment of streaming KPop radio stations

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Listen to the top K-pop radio stations from United States and more than 50000 online radio stations for free on mytuner-radio.com. Easy to use internet radio.

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A place to put all those random thoughts we all have to promote the library.

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Just a little bit of fun to brighten your day!

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These are ideas that can be developed to create library/information literacy lessons.

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Some of us had interesting ways to entertain ourselves while we were sheltering in place.

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Mr Bookman is my hero

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A few ideas for next year....

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I know, I know, summer reading just barely ended and you've been working on/in your library all summer anyway. But fewer hot, humid sticky days, the return of football on my TV and endless flyers, coupons and emails for notebooks, pens and folders says it must be Back to School time! After so many years in various levels of school, my brain still operates on an academic calendar and I think of September as the New Year. Back to School applies to libraries as well, so time to get your booktalks prepped, your new folders ready, your orientations oriented, sharpen your e-pens and fill up your 3D Makerbots. Let's get schooled!

Top thoughts, trends and topics I've seen and read about on libraries at back to school time - ideas for you to use

School Libraries

Have you added different formats of books to your school library? Ebooks? Audio books?

Bringing literature, pop culture and some seriously cool design and art together - schools decorating lockers to look like books! See this project in Biloxi, MS

Featured on the Mighty Girl site and Facebook page

Does your library do a special back-to-school event, meet-n-greet, table display, festival or other outreach and promotional events? This isn't limited to school or academic libraries, public libraries can and should get in on this by pairing with local schools and community organizations, neighborhood groups or associations or PTAs.
Is your library prepping for (or has already done) something like that this year?
Open House style - ideas from other libraries:

Set up a table with other 'non-class' groups - PE, music, the Arts, sports teams, clubs, after-school groups. Band together and gain voice and visibility.

Use the opportunity to survey parents about library awareness, resources and use. Hand out goodies and info.

Get parents involved - craft time! Make bookmarks - card stock, stamps, stencils, colored pencils - or print coloring book type patterns out on heavy paper or card stock and let them color those. Origami with book themed paper?! Lucky enough to have a 3D printer? Make 3D bookmarks! Or ... much more clever and attractive bookmarks in simple DIY crafts in this video [retro cassette tape, ribbon+bungee, cats and more - beware the paper clip though - they can leave stains]

Do a quick scavenger hunt or other game to introduce basic resources, library spaces, lesser known collection items - to parents, staff and students. You can give parents the same scavenger hunt (shortened for time) you give their kids - see how well they do!

Slideshow loop (or infinitely scrolling slideshow):

Parents attending each class - do they get library time? Be sure to lobby your administration to include this!

Consider having a table outside the library (esp if your library isn't open during BTS and these 'classes') so parents still see you while they 'go to class' near you. Handout bookmarks, posters or flyers to passersby.

Maybe roam to the classes and drop in - plan with a few teachers to stop in and talk for a minute about how the library and teacher collaborate and the projects the students will be doing research for this year.

If you can open the library, maybe use a running loop slide show of your services, databases, tools, events, pictures of your happy kids and more!

The tween and early teen years can be tough - how about welcoming middle schoolers back to school and to the library: https://groverscornerofthelibrary.wordpress.com/2016/08/20/welcoming-staff-students-back-to-school/ - don't forget to include staff and all teachers (especially new ones) in your back-to-school welcome and outreach. Have you done new Teacher orientations as well as new student talks?

Have you thought about video(s) for your orientation or welcome? Such as Solon HS (Iowa) SCSD Media Center's 'This/NotThis' intro to staff and expectations (several years old - you could take similar idea and update it). Or their more recent Zombie/Walking Dead approach?!

What about getting your middle and high school students to make the intro/orientation videos themselves - giving their perspective and talking directly to their peers.

Consider having a different team/group make a short video to introduce different areas of the library, concepts, a tour of the physical space or spell out policies.

Ask your students to give their favorite spots in the library, fave book read, how the library helped them with a project, what they wish they knew at the beginning of the school year (can make it seem like a secret they are passing on to new students).

If you don't have time to make this video now - start planning to get your students involved throughout the year so you'll be ready for next BTS time!

See this example of an orientation/welcome video from West Hills High School Library

More thoughts and tips for outreach to your teachers and your larger community for the beginning of the year from Knowledge Quest blog of AASL. Examples:

Have you contacted local businesses to specifically support the library via donations, materials, coupons or to buy needed supplies? Many have kids in the local schools and want to see the kids and school succeed.

Meet with all the new teachers at the school as soon as possible - go to them, offer your help and gain a new advocate and friend.

Orientation and Getting Ready for Action - a collection of resources, blog posts, tweets gathered by author and expert Joyce Valenza from NeverEndingSearch. Orientation, welcomes and BTS nights are an opportunity that librarians can't miss for advocating, promoting and raising visibility.

College/University Libraries

Are you talking citations, proper sourcing and avoiding plagiarism -

There's this Plagiarism Spectrum discussion/infographic from TurnItIn on the 10 common types of plagiarism - each given a clever name and examples. E.g. The Ctrl+C - when students just copy/paste chunks of text with no changes, edits, paraphrasing

Then you might want this awesome infographic/chart [$14.99 for poster size] and share it with teachers, put in the computer lab, include in your syllabus, etc. (psst - he also sells a poster for 'Can I Use That Picture?' - another common library marketing issue).

Open Houses, Welcome to Your College Library ideas:

Temporary tattoos for students (and staff) at high schools, colleges, medical libraries! Let your users and fans help do your marketing for you! Loved seeing this idea online from a librarian in Kansas [the comments include a how-to and here's temporary tattoo paper from Amazon and more laser printer tattoo paper from Papilio and they looked AMAZING - well done KU!]

Charts, infographics, flyers - use the cool available graphic tools (e.g. Piktochart) to make useful flyers to take home, hang up, insert in welcome folders or kits, send in emails, etc.

g. from the Kaplan Family Library and Learning Center at MSMC (Mount St. Mary College):

Love that they don't forget the transfer students! This special group needs extra love since they haven't been on campus as long as other students, may not be getting the same 'new student' experience but still need to know about library resources.

Great discussion of the flyer in the comments - maybe use fewer fonts and colors, add some images or photos? Would this need some tweaks to make it a readable poster vs. a physical handout? Does your library have to use only university-approved colors or fonts because of branding concerns?

Academic library friends - how do you deal with those face-palm, head-shaking moments when students - and their parents - seem genuinely surprised the college or university HAS a library, and it has books, and DVDs, AND computers and why it is loud?!
Or parents who seem sure their student won't need it 'because everything is online' (uh no, but also yeah - you know the library and its catalog, resources, guides and databases - they're online!)How can we make ourselves more visible and known to parents as well as their students? Are you using the tools and platforms that both the students and their parents use, to SHOW them the real library at work (and not just tell them or hand out pamphlets, bookmarks or guides)?
What's working best for you?

Great response from an academic librarian seen online:

"yes the students still use the library. Tons. Or I wouldn't have a job here. And it would be very lonely and I would feel silly ..."

Oooh, 'snap'! Another tart but timely response:

"Well, yes, the serious students with the good grades do (use the library). Those are the ones who have an easier time finding work after they graduate - on time."

Do be sure to smile and use this politely. After all, you're just noting the truth and hitting a point parents care about.

If parents come to orientations, remind them when their student calls in a panic at mid-terms, 'send 'em our way to the library! We're in the best position to help them succeed in their studies.' Give parents a business card, bookmark, magnet or postcard with the library's phone number, email, online chat info. Give them prompts to tell their kids "why don't you make an appointment with a librarian to go over this project?" or "have you looked to see if there's info on at from the library website or their databases?" - help the parents point the students in your direction.

I've seen several presentations in past few years about gamification of library instruction and library awareness by a variety of colleges and universities. Here's nice local press pick up on another instance of a popular game used to help students understand library resources (Kansas State, Hale Library, life-sized Monopoly).

Public Libraries

Of course September is Library Card Sign Up Month - so a perfect time to remind parents to get library cards for the whole family to boost the odds of a successful school year. [You can get a blank version of this if you click the image or go to the ALA Library Card Sign Up Month page(s)]

New school year excitement might mean noise levels are amped up - is this an issue in your public library?

What are your noise level policies? Do you have a policy?

What is your signage like?

Is there a designated quiet area or group study rooms for the noisier studiers to go?

Do you issue warnings? How many before additional action - such as ban for the day, week or month?

Or do you remind other patrons that 'hey, today's library is a busy place! We try to accommodate everyone, but don't actions to interfere with other patrons' and hope it balances out?

Can you put together a display with books or DVDs about starting school for the first time, going to school, making new friends and other ways to ease the anxiety of the new school year? Help the kids in your community ease the transition.

Are you visiting local schools as part of your outreach, offering literacy help, read-alongs or after school programs? What works best for the librarian on the go? STEM related programs, LEGO clubs (ooh, build something from a recent book they've read? LEGO book reports!), Pokemon Go activities, science books - what's hot in your town?

Examples of Public/School partnerships - Haverford Township (PA) Library presents a case study and tips.

Ack, no! When will awful librarian stereotypes like this die?! Sure, the Mental Floss articles says why school in the past was rougher than today, but did they have to use this image for the header? Sheesh.

Additional Resources and Programming Ideas:

Madelyn's Library Programming blog - from a Youth Services librarian - ideas for tots to teens; e.g. movie and a craft (Shaun the Sheep), Make-and-Take (Pokemon Go t-shirts), life size outdoor (or indoor) games and much more. Site is regularly updated and features tons of photos of activities in progress and how-to's.

School Library Journal's Back-to-School Resources - because you knew SLJ would feature tips for this crucial time of year, right?! Featuring Joyce Valenza and Joy Fleishhacker's tips, trends, tech, tools and book selections.

I like the idea of school librarians writing a 'back-to-school letter' to all parents, taking advantage of this fresh start of the year for advocating for library use, resources and visibility. A model letter is shared in this older post.

From Joyce and the SLJ post found her LessonPaths collection of BTS resources, and discovered fun, quirky, lively blog of Nikki Robertson, The True Adventures of a High School Librarian. Love the tons of photos showing examples of what's going on her library - Bookmark the site now!

From the Digital Public Library of America back to school help - e.g. info on using their 100 primary source sets (this is big to me personally as this was the area I was doing my dissertation research on, once upon a time!). new digital exhibitions on a variety of topics, ebooks and more. If you haven't explored the DPLA resources, back-to-school is a great time to start!

Artstor Digital Library has K-12 LibGuides (joining existing higher ed guides) - how to use the Artstor resources, incorporating into the classroom, incorporating the primary sources, using the database for research, presentations, test prep and more.

Has your library added makerspaces, tech labs or other innovative spaces - and now you're worried about quirks, patrons misusing the tech, the need for added insurance or other issues you didn't know you needed to know?! ALA has new titles offering legal guidance on makerspaces, using meeting rooms and staying 'safe' with displays.

The Library of Congress welcomes teachers and the new school year. Don't forget to check out the LoC's ready-to-use materials, news and more - a great way for your library to partner with the LoC and your teachers. [ Plus the page has this spiffy, clean, postmodern poster for Back to Books from a Chicago, WPA art project]

What Ideas Will You Be Able to Use?

I'd love to hear how Back to School goes for you and your library - no matter what type - and how these activities help your library marketing and outreach.

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I know, I know, summer reading just barely ended and you've been working on/in your library all summer anyway. But fewer hot, humid sticky days, the return of football on my TV and endless flyers, coupons and emails for notebooks, pens and folders says it must be Back to School time!

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Only contains a couple of recipes

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Kinou Nani Tabeta? (What did you eat yesterday?) is a wonderful manga series that features lots of delicious recipes. One of them is a supremely simple recipe for stewed caramel apples.

Filed under: books and media manga japan

When I wrote about dorayaki, the sweet pancake-sandwich that is cat-robot Doraemon's favorite snack for the Japan Times back in October, I promised to post a recipe for making the little pancakes. Well finally here it is!

Yakitate!! Japan is a popular manga series. So popular in fact that it's one of the few manga that's available (legitimately) in English. There was also an anime series, which so far is only (legally) available in Japan. It sort of belongs to a genre of manga called Gourmet (gurume) Manga, manga whose main theme is food-related. The Wikipedia Japan page for Gourmet Manga lists more than 100 titles in this genre, though as far as I know only Yakitate!! is available in English at the moment. (I'll be talking about other gourmet manga eventually.)

The Yakitate part of the title means "freshly baked". The Japan part is a pun of sorts: pan is the Japanese word for bread (the word was imported from Portuguese most likely), and the goal of the main character is to find the ultimate JaPan, or Japanese bread. The title sequence of the anime says that "There's furansu pan (French bread), igirisu pan (English bread), doitsu pan (German bread) but no bread to represent Japan". The story unfolds in the form of several big Iron Chef style baking competitions, where the main character Kazuma Azuma and others vie with each other for fame and glory. A running gag is that the bread creations are so delicious that they make the eaters, especially main judge Kuroyanagi, have extreme reactions like dying and going to heaven, or (from another judge) sprouting a live peacock out of his head.

Filed under: books and media bread japanese manga

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Kinou Nani Tabeta? (What did you eat yesterday?) is a wonderful manga series that features lots of delicious recipes. One of them is a supremely simple recipe for stewed caramel apples.

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Talks specifically about podcast Serial

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Ironically, they can encourage students to read more.

wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock / Kara Gordon / The Atlantic

Two years ago, I was practically begging a student to read a novel in my high-school English class. This isn't an unusual problem. The girl, who's a relatively bright, college-bound athlete, told me that she "just gets too distracted after five minutes" of reading. When she promised that she would listen to the audiobook of the novel on the team bus that afternoon, I was less than enthused. "Reading is like getting in physical shape," I told her. "This time, try to read for seven minutes and then take a break." But a few minutes later, I could see she had spaced out again. I considered the implausibility of students such as her reading the novel for homework, outside my quiet classroom.

In contrast, I recently discovered my students voluntarily reading a story together, all at the same time. And they were inspired by an unlikely medium-podcasts-which is obviously ironic, as many people like podcasts precisely because they don't have the time or inclination to sit down and read. In fact, Serial has an explicit warning at the beginning of their transcripts: " Serial is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read." Of course, teenagers are infamous for enjoying exactly what they're told not to do, but I was nevertheless surprised that while listening to an episode of Serial in class, their collective eyes fixed on the transcripts displayed on a screen at the front of the room. And I was startled-happily so-by their shouts when I was tardy in scrolling down.

I already knew that my students enjoyed listening to contemporary podcasts in class, and I've found value in using them as primary texts. In a unit on racial bias, my students were visibly moved by a This American Life episode called "Is This Working?" To learn about slander, libel, and defamation, they loved listening to Bill Simmons's rant that led to his suspension from ESPN. And we studied the first season of Serial for a variety of reasons, most of them related to critical thinking, listening comprehension, and the art of storytelling. While I felt guilty the students weren't reading very much during this unit, their engagement with a relevant and timely story-their eagerness to ask questions, their intrinsic motivation to use critical thinking-seemed to make it worth it, at least temporarily. The students voluntarily studied maps, evaluated clues, argued with each other, and wrote twice as much in their journals as they previously had. Perhaps most satisfying to me, they were engaging in adult conversations with teachers, parents, and administrators who were listening to the same podcast.

I also already knew that podcasts, whose popularity continues to grow- one in five Americans listened to a podcast in the last month-were catching on in other classrooms across the country. MindShift's Linda Flanagan has written a series of articles about students listening to and creating their own podcasts, and Edutopia has listed " 8 Podcasts for Learning." TeachersPayTeachers.com, an online marketplace for lesson plans, reports that annual downloads of lessons based on podcasts increased by 21 percent in 2014-and then 650 percent in 2015 (the year after Serial launched).

What I know now is that high-schoolers-at least my students-like reading and simultaneously listening to podcasts even more. Although many observers attribute the growth of podcasts to recent technological advancements in production and access, relatively little is said about the latest in voice transcription. Unlike the first season, Serial 's second season features almost perfectly accurate transcripts of each episode. I knew it would be a bonus to my lessons this year; I didn't know it would be a game-changer. I turned off the lights, projected the words, and told them, "Here's the script in case that helps anyone." It apparently helped everyone. They all turned their heads, and some of them shifted their desks.

Apparently there were teachers who were at least a year ahead of me with this discovery. Rich Hovey, who teaches English to at-risk high school students at the Grizzly Youth Academy, recently told me that he let his students voluntarily read along with Season 1 of Serial using transcripts found on Reddit, and they jumped on the opportunity. "It was thrilling," Hovey said, "to watch them so focused on their reading, excitedly scrolling down on their Chromebooks."

Earlier this week, I asked each of my own students to write down what they'd honestly like to do for the rest of the semester: read a good book together, listen to another podcast, or listen to a podcast with the words on the screen. Sixty-two voted for the latter, while just two voted for podcasts alone, and one for reading alone.

The reasons were as varied as they were compelling. Many of them said that reading along with the audio helped with their focus and kept them from "spacing out" while listening. Others, paradoxically, wrote that they were able to multi-task-they could take notes or write on their worksheets and could keep up with the story even with their eyes off the screen. Some explicitly recognized that they could look back and re-read something they didn't understand when they first heard it; others said they read slightly ahead and then could write down a quote while they listened to it. A student with eyesight problems said he appreciates the ability to take reading breaks without stopping his enjoyment of the story. A few students learning English as a second language wrote that they like how they can read the words and-as one student put it-promptly "hear how they're supposed to sound."

In an Atlantic piece about "the podcast brain," the writer Tiffanie Wen quoted Emma Rodero, a communications professor at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, as saying that "listening, unlike looking at a written page, is more active, since the brain has to process the information at the pace it is played." My student Roberto offered similar insight: "I think it helps me out with my reading since I have to keep a pace up."

I shouldn't be surprised they like the transcripts. Ever since my 5-year-old daughter learned the advanced functions on the remote control, she intentionally puts closed captions on her cartoons. My students-particularly those who are learning English as a second language-enjoy a similar motivation to master new words, albeit at a much higher level. Jose Aguilar wrote that the podcast-transcript combination is "so much better than reading because it allows me to read the right pronunciation of the spelling." His classmate Jon Rios reads the transcripts because, in his words, "It is so helpful, both hearing and seeing the words, so I can kind of know where I'm at."

A similar situation in India was observed on a much larger scale when-starting in 1999-certain networks started supplementing some of their television shows with "Same Language Subtitling" (SLS), and the country's literacy rates soared. The Boston Globe reported on the phenomenon in 2010, claiming that "in the last nine years, functional literacy in areas with SLS access has more than doubled. And the subtitles have acted as a catalyst to quadruple the rate at which completely illiterate adults become proficient readers."

According to a study on the SLS project by the academic and social entrepreneur Brij Kothari and others at Stanford University that was published by MIT, limited exposure to SLS within a telecast period of six months was "found to make an incremental but measurable contribution to decoding skills ... The potential for SLS in India and other countries is enormous." Kothari's project was ambitious, but the results weren't anomalous. For example, a study at the University of Nottingham concerning the processing of native and foreign language through subtitles concluded that "Many vocabulary-learning studies seem to confirm that having both written and aural form of a word facilitates learning."

Drawing conclusions that sounded very similar to my own students' reflections, the SLS study found that "one's ability to anticipate the lyrics," combined with immediate validation through the audio, cultivated "a steady stream of successful reading events"-presumably scenarios in which students read with accuracy and enjoyment. In this way, the SLS contributed to "a nonthreatening reading environment in which to embark upon, confirm, practice, and enjoy one's developing reading skills."

The study also noted that the low cost of subtitling television shows is "attractive"-and again, I feel the same way in my own classroom. Two years ago, my English department worked for months to convince the district to buy hundreds of copies of a nonfiction anthology for tens of thousands of dollars. For two seasons' worth of Serial, including maps, photos, and links to supplementary articles, a teacher simply goes to the website and presses "play."

Though the similarities with the SLS project are inspiring, I'm not ready to incorporate subtitled movies or television shows. From my perspective, they're simply not as textually dense; and from the students' perspective, they're frankly not as interesting. When I showed Twelve Angry Men and even an episode of Making a Murderer (which has some subtitles) to my criminal-justice class, they were visibly nonplussed, and openly asked for a return to something like Serial.

Again, this could be expected. In the same aforementioned Atlantic article, Rodero explained: "Audio is one of the most intimate forms of media because you are constantly building your own images of the story in your mind and you're creating your own production ... and that of course, is something that you can never get with visual media." Or, as one of my students put it, "listening to the words puts the visualization in my head."

Audiobooks, too, seem to fall short of the podcast's value in the classroom for a variety of reasons. One, from my experience there are few things more soporific to a teenager than listening to a singular narrator read a classically told story. Even an Edgar Allan Poe tale near Halloween fails to captivate, which used to surprise me. Wen cites Rodero's study that shows a story told through dialogue "stimulates listeners' attention" more than a traditional narration. Also, as The Atlantic's Adrienne LaFrance recognizes in her analysis of Serial's "fandom," the listener can participate in many contemporary podcasts rather than feel like a novel is being read to them.

It should almost be remarked that podcasts are, as Kevin Roose explained in New York Magazine, experiencing a renaissance at least partly because they're "simply better" than they used to be. And in the Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Alter points out that today's authors are realizing that "writing for audio requires different techniques," which they're utilizing. Take Serial, for example: Sarah Koenig's first-person narration never goes very long without the infusion of somebody else's voice, very subtle music, slight shifts in volume, and transitions from a formal to conversational style.

And while entertainment writers are gushing about podcasts, educational scholars are excited about the latest findings concerning listening comprehension-and its correlation with literacy. In a 2014 article published in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Tiffany P. Hogan and others review the significant amount of research that indicates that "listening comprehension becomes the dominating influence on reading comprehension," especially as children grow older. In short, word recognition, or decoding, is the most crucial skill for very young or beginning students of English, but as decoding becomes more automatized and texts become more complex, listening comprehension becomes the primary component for learning language. Podcasts offer an opportunity for students to practice their listening comprehension of complex texts that are both conversational and formal, and the corresponding scripts give the student the chance to confirm their comprehension.

Podcasts can also aid in teaching the craft of storytelling-again, Serial is a great example (and perhaps even exceptional-by no means are all podcasts written and produced with the same level of quality). As LaFrance points out, Sarah Koenig has a tendency to explain why she's withholding secrets, to foreshadow later parts of the story, and even to muse about what she should publicly publish and what should stay private. In Season 2, she explicitly cites the children's book Zoom as the model structure for her story, discusses her sources, and even asks the narrative's "characters" what they think of the reporting so far. For obvious reasons, Koenig's self-conscious literary reflections are invaluable in an English class full of kids learning to write, as the students get the sense that the author guiding them through the creative process.

With that said, not everyone is impressed with the idea of audio replacing or supplementing books. Speaking for many traditional bibliophiles, CityLab's Eric Jaffe writes that "the very freedom granted by audio books-inviting the eyes to wander, and then the mind-may make them less intellectually interchangeable with printed ones." To be fair, he's writing about audiobooks, but the Frontiers in Psychology study he cites does explicitly call out podcasts: "While listening to an audiobook or podcast may seem to be a convenient and appealing option, our findings suggest that it might be the least beneficial to learning, leading to both higher rates of mind wandering and less interest in the material." Here, too, however, the study's authors neglect the possibility of reading the podcast, and for good reason-not very many people outside a classroom would even consider the possibility.

Perhaps another reason the podcast transcripts have been routinely ignored is because they're so new-even newer than Serial itself (or at least Season 1). Rather than leaving the transcription responsibilities to sites like Reddit as they did in the first season, Serial is now publishing its own within a week of each episode. Educational sites and other podcasts are also catching on. ListenWise, for example, a education website that curates "the best of public radio," includes the transcripts for their audio clips-along with lesson plans that particularly focus on EL students. This American Life has transcripts of all their shows, as does Freakonomics.

Students like Melissa, who says "I like to listen to story better, but I have to be able to read it at the same time," are now asking for these aforementioned "successful reading events" with enthusiasm. And there's hope that while the podcast revolution won't be televised, it may be transcripted.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Michael Godsey is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and an English teacher based in San Luis Obispo, California.

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Using 'Serial' to Get Students to Read More

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Ironically, they can encourage students to read more. Two years ago, I was practically begging a student to read a novel in my high-school English class. This isn't an unusual problem. The girl, who's a relatively bright, college-bound athlete, told me that she "just gets too distracted after five minutes" of reading.

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Podcasts Promote Reading and Listening Skills

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Podcasts Promote Reading and Listening Skills

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How to sell podcasts to teachers

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If books are a uniquely portable magic, then podcasts are
the wizard in your pocket. When you find interesting podcasts for teens that they want to listen to, you will open up a whole new world of literacy for secondary students. Did you know that podcast listeners are 29% more
likely to have a household income of more than $75,000? And that they are more
likely to have secured a four-year college degree? And that this powerful form
of life-long learning is FREE and accessible on the devices our students are
obsessed with? This is why you need to be using podcasts in your classroom, and this is why podcast units and pairings are such a passion for my English teacher heart.

Here's why you should be using podcasts in English class:

1. Podcasts are a free form of complex, authentic, and diverse texts!

One reason I'm such a huge podcast proponent is because podcasts are FREE tools that give teachers and students access to diverse perspectives,
voices, and content. While I'm not able to veer too far from my British
Literature Curriculum, I can bring in diverse voices that pair with
Shakespeare, multicultural perspectives that enrich my argumentative writing
unit, and informational "texts" that enhance my lessons. With each podcast response, my students make deeper connections across multiple forms of media and perspectives.
*Not sure where to look for rich-text podcasts? Be sure to check my podcast idea list out at the end of this post!
2. Listening is literacy and podcasts help build listening skills!

* Studies*Research*
show that students generally listen two to three grade levels above what

also shows poor listening comprehension directly relates to students who do not
Listening
comprehension involves the same language processes used to comprehend text
except without needing to decode the page. Listening comprehension
requires understanding individual words and sentences, but good comprehenders go beyond single words to
construct a mental model that combines story elements, prior knowledge, and
understanding.
develop adequate reading comprehension skills. If students have poor listening
comprehension, they are poor comprehenders in all. While they might decode words on
a page, they aren't comprehending what they read nor what they hear. This
increases with age. Researchers found that by eighth grade, listening
comprehension and reading comprehension form a single construct.
they're able to read.Therefore, it stands to reason
that listening should be a prime tool for introducing challenging
language, vocabulary, and topics.

3. Podcasts make perfect mentor texts!

As writing teachers, we know the importance of using mentor texts with students. Because of their entertaining nature, podcasts can serve as perfect mentor texts for a variety of writing tasks and podcast responses.

For example, if you want students to write a mini-memoir, nonfiction narrative, or any other plot-based story, have them listen to one of the Goodnight Rebel Girls episodes. These stories showcase strong women throughout history by telling their stories in a succinct and entertaining way. The podcast episodes have everything you would want in a mentor text: rich vocabulary, interesting plots, story elements, and worthy characters- all within 15-20 min of entertainment for your ears.

Another example of a mentor-text-ready podcast would be for teaching students the thought process for using reliable sources and for using evidence to support their claims. This podcast has a lively host who takes topics like "Climate Change... the Apocalypse?" and talks through the evidence that either supports or discounts these stances. *As with any podcast that I have mentioned in this post, you will need to preview the episode before you play it in class or assign it for homework.

4. Podcasts are high-interest for students.

Perhaps the most important reason teachers should use podcasts in their classrooms is because podcasts are a high-interest form of media for students. The best part about finding interesting podcasts is that most students haven't even been introduced to podcasts yet. This means that YOU get to be the person who ignites that spark of curiosity, wonder, and enjoyment for a new form of literacy! There is nothing better in an English teacher's world than converting an "I hate English" student to a lover of the spoken word.

This is why podcasts are a literacy passion of mine. I have seen podcasts transform non-readers into life-long listeners, and I want every teacher to realize the incredible potential of using podcasts in their classrooms!

5. Podcasts make ideal informational text pairings!

As my readers and followers already know, I truly enjoy finding intriguing and unexpected informational text pairings that help students look at literature- and therefore the world-in a deeper way. Podcasts provide incredible opportunities to pair interesting informational text with themes found in your curriculum. You can find an entire blog post I wrote dedicated to podcast and literature pairings here: Podcast Pairings for the ELA Classroom
Read all the way to the bottom to get this printable podcast recommendation list!
Now that you have the why, I want to give some podcast recommendation ideas for your secondary English classes. I don't listen to podcasts to find literature lessons; I let the literature lessons find me. However, I've listened to so many podcasts that I have a pretty good idea of where to send you so that you can find some winners for your ELA lesson plans.
Podcast Episode Recommendations for English Language Arts:
*Remember: PLEASE preview each of these episodes to ensure the content is acceptable for your classroom.

Science vs is an interesting and fast-paced podcast that teaches the listener how to investigate topics using reliable data from science. The host is funny and the topics are relevant for today's students! As with all of the podcasts below, transcripts are available on their web-based platform.

Hidden Brain is a podcast that I listen to each and every week. It is FASCINATING, and the writing is everything an English teacher dreams of. For example, in The Sorting Hat episode, Shankar Vedantam (the host) begins by playing a snippet form Harry Potter then transitions into the controversial topic of personality tests. After giving first-hand accounts, research and his own experience with being branded by a personality, he circles back to Harry Potter to close it out. Brilliant. Simply brilliant. Also, while I'm here, I will go ahead and do a deep dive into how I plan lessons using podcasts. When I heard this episode, I immediately thought of a character sorting strategy that my coworker uses. Here is the strategy:

This made me think of the idea of having students sort each other and the characters they are currently reading as a hook, listen to the podcast through the lens of an employer or teacher researching the best practices for grouping, then close with a discussion or persuasive essay on whether personality tests are harmful or helpful.

I hope this little look inside how my mind thinks of podcast lesson plans was helpful! Now on to more recommendations so that you too can create your own podcast activities!

I always recommend Criminal for those who can't teach Serial because of the content. If you are looking for podcasts like Serial, Criminal is a great one to try! Criminal isn't a long-form podcast like Serial, but the episodes have the same high-interest factor and lend well to persuasive writing.

Smash Boom Best is another persuasive/ debate podcast and the topics work really well with younger students. If you teach 5th-8th, this is a great podcast to try out!

Historically Black doesn't have a lot of episodes, but the ones they do have are must-listens. These episodes work well with giving context and diverse voices. The Harlem episode would make a fantastic pairing to help disrupt The Great Gatsby. #disrupttexts

Goodnight Rebel Girls is absolutely a DELIGHT to listen to. The episodes are short and full of entertaining sounds and storylines. These episodes are wonderful mentor texts for literary nonfiction and narrative writing.

This is Love is by the same group as Criminal, and the reporting, author's craft, and production are the same exceptional quality. While Criminal focuses more on crimes and moral dilemmas, This is Love focuses on the human condition and metaphors that relate to love. Start with "Ugly Club" and become forever hooked.

Though I've given you a great list of podcasts to listen to, I would love for you to explore the episodes under each category on your own so that you can find the episodes that speak to you and your students. Please tag me on any social media @BuildingBookLove if this post inspired you to start using podcasts in your classroom!

If you are worried about students remaining engaged throughout an entire podcast episode, I highly recommend trying podcast listening worksheets and podcast listening coloring notes. I'm always amazed at how focused my students are when they listen, doodle, and learn!

Below is a PDF full of podcast ideas for you! I put ELA Common Core Standards under each category to help you think about which standards you can reach by using podcasts in the classroom. Simply sign up for my Building Book Love Letter, and I will email you the printable along with other helpful English teacher inspiration!

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Why You Should Be Using Podcasts in Secondary ELA - Building Book Love

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If books are a uniquely portable magic, then podcasts are the wizard in your pocket. When you find interesting podcasts for teens that they want to listen to, you will open up a whole new world of literacy for secondary students. Did you know that podcast listeners are 29% more likely to have a household ...

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This is an interesting resource to help people recognize deepfakes.

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Project Updates ‹ Detect DeepFakes: How to counteract misinformation created by AI - MIT Media Lab

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How do you spot a DeepFake? How good are DeepFake videos? How well can ordinary people tell the difference between a video manipulated by AI and a normal, no...

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Original Google Slide that needs to be updated

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This can be used to create book review using Google Slide

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A few ideas to brainstorm for next year's Banned Book Week display

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Banned Book display

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It's Banned Books Week on September 24th-30th. While many of us celebrate this as one of the library world's most important holidays, it's also true that it's not for everyone. If you're just not a fan of huge flashing-lights displays and caution tape banners but would like to celebrate anyway, this article is for you! Kat has compiled some quick Banned Books Week ideas to help you quickly and easily celebrate.

Mad Libs

Remember how much fun Mad Libs were when you were a kid? You fill in the blank spaces of a pre-written story with a word with their correct part of speech, thereby taking an ordinary paragraph and making it very silly. We thought, what better way to have fun with Banned Books Week than by redacting parts of classic banned books and making our own Mad Libs? Please feel free to download (just right click the pictures below and save!) and print these samples for your patrons! We'd love to see any that you make yourself, too; I used Canva to create them, so the hardest part was choosing which passages to use.

Covered Books

I always love the Blind Date with a Book displays that are done for Valentine's Day. Why not cover books and write on them why they can't be read? It might be surprising to some people to unwrap a book that is labeled as "CAUTION: Contains inappropriate language!" and find Harriet the Spy. (Harriet, incidentally, was also challenged because she liked to wear boy clothes, and therefore might be a homosexual.) You can even, as in our sample here, simply mention that "this book is dangerous!"

Mini Protest Signs

Teen Librarian Hallie Fields recently posted about these great mini-protest signs on her blog, Book Loaner. (She also had the covered books idea! Great minds think alike!) These are so easy, it would be a great way to get your Teen Advisory Board involved. All you need is cardstock or index cards, craft sticks, and markers. What a brilliant idea! Thanks, Hallie, for giving us permission to share your idea.

We would love to see how you're celebrating Banned Books Week. Please let us know here in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter.

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It's Banned Books Week on September 24th-30th. While many of us celebrate this as one of the library world's most important holidays, it's also true that it's not for everyone. If you're just not a fan of huge flashing-lights displays and caution tape banners but would like to celebrate anyway, this article is for you!