The chapter that I am choosing to summarize is Chapter 6: Flat Stanley Podcast. The summary of this upgrade to the curriculum involved taking the popular Flat Stanley story and transforming it. In the past, elementary teachers in specific, have used the story of Flat Stanley. A little boy who was smashed flat by a bulletin board. He became two-dimensional and decided to use his new “figure” to travel the world. It is often then used or expanded to have the students make their own Flat Stanley and mail it to a relative, friend, or someone they know. The idea is that Flat Stanley makes his way around the country or the world, sending a letter back to the class at every stop. The teacher mentioned in this chapter, Mrs. Cohen, chose to upgrade this unit by creating a podcast for her students, thus connecting the technology and web-based world to her unit.  

After she read the Flat Stanley story to her class, Mrs. Cohen told the students that they would be writing their own story, but instead of making a paper book they would be making a podcast. Each student had to research a country or continent that their own flat version would visit. While they researched, they wrote their introduction and conclusion.  

Once the writing process and revisions were done, the students were able to record their stories. After the podcast was created, Mrs. Cohen uploaded the podcast onto her class website. Mrs. Cohen also asked that anyone who listened to the podcast, leave a comment on the podcast and say their name along with their locations. When comments were made, the students became very invested and engaged. Mrs. Cohen also would look up the locations that were left so that the students could see exactly how far their reach of their podcast was.  

One additional instructional strategy that I chose to research was the idea of introducing and using blogging in the classroom. The main idea is that teachers can set up the use of a blog in a classroom either for their personal use, or for their students use. Not only does a blog allow students to publish their ideas, news, or reports, but it will also give students a real online audience (Crane, 2012). The idea of this is similar to the podcast, a different way for students to communicate or write.