We’ve been developing instructional strategies for teaching K-12 students with podcasts, and along the way, we discovered an amazing educator community resource: HyperDocs. HyperDocs are digital lesson plans that are designed by teachers, for students. They give students access to all the content and instructional resources for a lesson in one organized digital space (learn…
Teachers using Listenwise with their students through remote/hybrid instruction have observed that Listenwise helps them engage students in learning and cultivate student agency. Many also note that Listenwise broadens accessibility to curriculum content and allows them to differentiate instruction to support all learners, including English learners and those who struggle with literacy. We have collected…
Today’s guest blog is written by English Runyan. She has taught ELA at the secondary level in the Fort Worth, TX area and is pursuing an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is passionate about developing curriculum that infuses culturally conscious and responsive teaching with rigorous academic subject matter. Having previously taught high…
Today’s blog highlights educator Julie Waugh, a Listenwise advocate and 8th grade social studies, English, and ELD teacher at Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy in Denver Public Schools, CO. Relationship building is key to Julie’s success with her English learners. Her school is currently fully remote. She exited 67% of her students from EL status last…
Guest post by Robbi Holdreith, a middle school ELL teacher and coordinator at Sojourner Truth Academy in Minneapolis, Minnesota As I began to plan lessons for the new school year, I knew that Listenwise would be a part of my coursework for grades 5-8. For me, one of the top benefits of the Listenwise platform…
Guest blog by Alexis Bryant, Fifth and Sixth Grade Literacy Teacher, Language Arts Department Chair, at The Avery Coonley School in Illinois. Alexis joined The Avery Coonley School as a Literacy teacher in 2013. Ms. Bryant has worked in education for the last twenty years, with the majority of the time spent as a middle…
In early 2020 we wrote a blog post in response to George Floyd’s death and police violence towards Black Americans (ie: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, etc). As we head towards a new school year, we want to support educators in creating intentional spaces for students and community members to engage more…
Guest post by Listenwise Advocate Laura Krenicki, a 6th grade world cultures/geography teacher at William J. Johnston Middle School in Colchester, CT Part I of our series on App Smashing with Listenwise. Last year, Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water was the Global Read Aloud middle grades book selection. We had used this…
We are excited to share a free download to a new instructional toolkit. The toolkit contains sample strategy lessons focusing on two of the eight listening comprehension skills that are assessed via Listenwise quizzes (understanding vocabulary and identifying main idea). These strategy lessons have been developed by Dr. Michael Opitz, co-author of Listen Hear! in…
Today’s guest post is written by one of our teacher advocates, Sebastian Byers, about his experience at ISTE. Sebastian is a science teacher at Union County Virtual in North Carolina. He is a North Carolina PBS Digital Innovator 2017 and Digital Innovator All-Star 2018-2020, a panelist for PBS Climate Conversations webinar series, featured in this PBS blog,…