Last Updated on September 16, 2021
Teachers using Listenwise podcasts with their students continue to share teaching ideas that others can adopt or adapt to fit their particular contexts. Many note that Listenwise’s curriculum resources help students connect what they are learning in class to their lives and the world beyond school. They appreciate the flexibility of the Listenwise platform and share a variety of routines and strategies for implementing lessons. Some describe how they use Listenwise for formative assessment purposes, monitoring student progress and analyzing data to inform further instruction. We have collected some of these teaching ideas below.
Providing Relevant Curriculum Resources
Teachers report that Listenwise offers a vast library of flexible, topical instructional materials that can be easily integrated into the curriculum. They find that Listenwise stories help them connect the curriculum to current events and to topics and issues that are relevant and interesting to students.
Listenwise has provided a rigorous and relevant way to connect to the content we’re teaching. I love the podcasts as well as the activities that go with each podcast. My students seem to really enjoy Listenwise, and I’m excited to use it in the future with different content that I’m covering.
Listenwise has provided interesting topics to parallel with the curriculum and increased vocabulary, fluency, and listening comprehension skills.
Listenwise has provided an easily accessible platform to help improve students’ listening, reading, and writing. It really is a flexible platform that you can conform to your current needs in the classroom and you can customize it for your current students’ reading levels.
For my students, it’s allowed them to deeply understand current events that don’t get as much analysis or coverage in their local media.
It is an amazing way to find interesting and engaging content to connect to and bridge learning.
Listenwise has provided a bank of texts for my students to access while we are fully remote. This is currently unparalleled by the curriculum and resources available in my district.
Implementing Lessons with Flexibility
Many teachers have discovered creative ways to integrate Listenwise audio stories and associated instructional materials into their remote teaching, whether synchronously, asynchronously, or both. Because they are brief, stories can be used in a variety of ways with students at a range of levels, and teachers can modify scaffolding as needed for different students.
Listenwise works great with remote learning. We listen to the story together synchronously, have discussions, and I can even model and guide students through answering the comprehension questions. Students also enjoy watching the videos and accessing the additional content/activities during independent work time.
Listenwise is an excellent asynchronous platform that serves students well. Students can work independently, but we are finding that the Listenwise content provides the basis for deep and rich classroom discussions. Thank you!
Listenwise has now become a weekly routine for my remote students. They can expect that every Friday, there will be a Listenwise assignment that aligns with the work that we have done that week. It’s a great way to end the week and to reinforce our current unit of study.
Listenwise is very good for hybrid/remote learning. You can assign a quiz assignment, have a discussion question through Google Classroom, and a writing assignment that goes along with the discussion.
I teach ESL and assign one story per week (students listen to the story once or twice per day) with different assignments throughout the week:. Monday–vocabulary, Wednesday–comprehension questions, Friday–quiz.
Listenwise has allowed me to continue teaching listening comprehension skills in both my physical and virtual classrooms. Because of Listenwise’s platform, I have been able to keep my in-person and online kids on the same content and schedule. I love the variety and how engaged my students are with the texts.
I tend to run a self-paced classroom, and I really appreciate that Listenwise allows me to incorporate content that can be used to introduce students to a concept, or can be used by students in a research capacity, to build content knowledge, to provide warm-up activities, as a reinforcement activity, to provide extension activities, and more. The flexibility being able to customize the questions, vocabulary, and even the overall focus for each lesson plan is one of my favorite things about this product.
Incorporating Formative Assessment Practices
Auto-scored multiple-choice Listenwise quizzes are very popular with teachers and students. Teachers say that reviewing student assessment data offers insight into students’ listening comprehension skills, both individually and collectively. They use the data from both quizzes and open-response questions to inform instruction, and their students use it to self-monitor and focus their learning and listening practice.
Listenwise has greatly supported my distance learning for my students, as it gives students a chance to practice their listening skills, then they can discuss and share their opinions on the same topics. It also makes it clear for me as a teacher which standards they need help with, and which they are strong in. I love that it integrates with Google Classroom, and that the quizzes are graded. I also like that I can give quick feedback for the writing (questions) and allow the students to make revisions and resubmit.
My students are engaged in the podcasts and find the interactive transcript valuable. After one quiz, many realized they have some areas they need to work on, which is a motivating factor.
Listenwise is a great way to engage students in both current events and topics related to curriculum. It’s easy to implement as part of a regular schedule; I assign one each Monday, so students can anticipate it. I also like how the questions are broken down by skill. For example, I was able to see that my students were struggling to identify the main idea of the interviews and respond by re-teaching this concept. I love having Listenwise as part of my weekly curriculum!
You may also be interested in What Teachers Are Saying about Student Learning with Listenwise, including how the platform helps foster student engagement, broaden accessibility, and support English learners.
For additional ideas from teachers for using Listenwise in the classroom, check out our teacher support center. If you would like to share an idea or reflection of your own, please do so in the comments. Happy listening!
