In 2016, George J. Ryan Middle School in Queens, New York joined the Listenwise community. We recently highlighted a snippet of our conversation with the George J. Ryan Middle School assistant principal in our Educator Experience Spotlight. Check that out here.
We would like to expand on the George J. Ryan Middle School story by highlighting some more of the great things we heard when we talked to assistant principal Ajith Satya. Listen to what he says about the value of Listenwise and other quality curriculum materials.
Ajith talks about how Listenwise was implemented at his school, and he makes the point that the teachers at George J. Ryan Middle School try to hit “all the different modalities in a lesson.” Listenwise stories have helped teachers at his school address the listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills they want to develop in their students.
Next, we hear Ajith talking about a feature that we hear educators mention all the time. In the Listenwise platform, teachers and students are able to listen to the audio with interactive transcripts, making it even easier to follow along with the story. He mentions how this is especially helpful for English language learners.
Students who have trouble following an audio story or who want to cite a quote can look at the interactive transcript and know exactly what was said. The transcript also has a few special features that provide students with additional support. For example, they can look up words that they don’t know using the TextHelp Toolbar or click on a word in the transcript to take them directly to that spot in the audio. Teachers can also choose to disable the transcript if they prefer to have students practice listening without the additional support.
Next Ajith mentions curriculum mapping, which is one of the additional services that Listenwise provides for customers. With information about the topics and texts taught in specific classes, we can map Listenwise content to the curriculum to help teachers find stories that align with what they are teaching. If you want more information about these implementation support services, please email sales@listenwise, and our team will be able to help you.
Ajith mentions that the other thing students love about the Listenwise Current Events is that they are relevant, which helps students make connections between their lives and what is happening in the world beyond the classroom.
Ajith also talks about how George J. Ryan Middle School is committed to integrating a variety of technologies in their school and how Listenwise fits into that plan. He returns again to this idea of using Listenwise to engage students in practicing a variety of skills in new and interesting ways.
As Ajith explains, there is value in integrating different technologies into the classroom and school. Providing students with different ways of engaging with their studies and building their skills is really important. Listenwise provides opportunities to teach listening, and other literacy skills, in new and engaging ways.
We would like to thank Ajith and George J. Ryan Middle School for talking to us about how they use Listenwise and for being valued customers. We would also like to say thank you to all the educators doing the important work of helping students learn.
