November is National Native American Heritage Month. Teaching students about the history, culture, traditions, music, art, and world views of Indigenous peoples is important to celebrating our shared sense of humanity. Listenwise has a thematically-curated Native American Stories podcast collection featuring a variety of voices and experiences, past and present. Browse this collection, use the…
When Andi St. John visited the Listenwise booth at the Computer-Using Educators (CUE) spring 2018 conference, she knew right away that Listenwise was what her students needed! St. John is a 6th grade ELA and social studies teacher at Katherine Edwards Middle School in Whittier, California. Eighty-one percent of students at Katherine Edwards are socio-economically…
Listenwise’s design provides equitable educational opportunities for special education students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and 504 accommodations. A Listenwise user from South Carolina said: “I’m a SpEd teacher and I love the easy-to-use audio file and transcript—it has built-in accommodations for all students!” Check out the list below to learn more about Listenwise’s audio…
We hosted an EdWeb webinar to share how educators can teach listening skills to promote literacy, including five research-based practices for teaching listening that work for all students. Some of the practices are especially effective for English learners and students with learning differences. See below, or watch the webinar here. Pre-teaching vocabulary is critical because…
Listenwise has published seven new collections that explore aspects of people’s identities: Black and African American Stories; Latino and Hispanic American Stories; Asian American and Pacific Islander Stories; Native American Stories; LGBTQ+ Stories; Stories of People with Disabilities; Women Making History. Our content philosophy guides our story curation and the instructional materials we create. Our new collections can be used to…
Many educators who use Listenwise report that they love Weird News! These are less-than-30- second current event podcasts about unusual occurrences are published every Sunday. They include academic vocabulary words featured in the stories, which are incorporated into the accompanying comprehension and discussion questions. Teachers can focus on one or more of these featured words…
We’ve curated three new collections to engage your students in meaningful conversations! Our new Youth Voices Collections feature kids and teens speaking about their perspectives, innovations, and civic action. We are excited about these three collections because they include stories that appeal to elementary listeners as well as stories for secondary listeners. Additionally, we’ve learned…
During our Teacher Talks webinar series last fall, we spoke with Erin Reaves, an English Language Development (ELD) instructional coach at Taylor Elementary in Santa Maria Bonita, CA about how she leads teachers to use Listenwise, not as a supplement, but as the core of instruction for a week of lessons in ELD classes. Reaves…
Lots will be different (but maybe more familiar) when you return to the classroom for this upcoming school year 2021-22. Listenwise is no exception! We’ve been making Listenwise the best it can be to help accelerate learning for the new school year. Read on to learn about the Top 10 Listenwise enhancements this year! We’ve…
Talk of fake news is everywhere but how do you begin to teach about it in the classroom? Start with an exploration of the rise of fake news, and why kids should care. Then, delve into the media literacy skills that students need to evaluate news critically. Dictionary.com recently added a definition for the term…
Experts say fun is what students need this summer after two school years of pandemic disruptions and trauma. School districts across the country are rethinking summer programming to address students’ social and emotional and literacy learning needs in engaging and enjoyable ways. Listenwise’s collection of more than 2500 audio stories fits the bill for meeting…