night, watching the soap operas, I could absorb a new phrase or word and hear it repeated in a real conversation. Using TV and radio is an authentic way to improve second language acquisition, which I explore later in the book.
Learning another language through listening gave me a window into second language acquisition. As I continued to improve my Portuguese, I started to teach English to Brazilians. Because I lacked the training for teaching the basic grammar and structure for beginners, I taught intermediate to advanced English learners. There again, listening plays a key role. My students were adults who at one point in their lives had been more fluent English speakers but had lost their facility with the language. For them, the most important thing to do was to hear authentic English and respond. Our classes were informal gatherings in which we discussed topics or listened to the news in English. We focused on learning new vocabulary words, hearing each other's pronunciation, phrasing, and expression. Their homework was to read a novel or the news and be prepared to discuss it with each other. While this experience wasn't the same as what you are facing today with your students, where academic language is a key barrier to success for many English learners, I have an appreciation for how difficult it is to learn a new language and to teach a new language. Listening is a crucial part of both activities.
Another lesson I learned as a reporter that applied to teaching is that establishing a connection to and interest in a story makes it stick. It was sometimes hard for me to tell a good story if I didn't care about the subject. When I moved back to Boston and then Washington DC, I worked as a contract reporter for National Public Radio covering Congress and other national stories. Unlike my time as a freelance journalist, I was assigned what to cover. One story I remember was about whether American winemakers were violating the copyrights of French winemakers by calling their wines Burgundy or Bordeaux. This was not a high emotion story, and I didn't personally sit with any winemakers, either in the United States or France, to interview them to write their story. In fact, I didn't even taste any American and French wines. I used Congressional testimony, written reports, and phone interviews. In the end, the story I wrote, “Tax Bill: Wine,” lacked the intimacy of audio that I craved. [4] And you could tell from the final report, which was a straightforward account of facts and counterpoints. There was an interesting way to tell this story, I just didn't find it because I wasn't interested in the story. Does this sound familiar?
You are asked to teach your students so many topics, skills, and standards that it's hard for them to feel connected or interested in all of them. But to learn something, you need to have that connection. Or you need to be interested enough to master the subject. As I found what interested me as a reporter, you, I hope, can find compelling audio that relates to what you are teaching to captivate your students. Even if you are not passionate about a topic, someone else might be.
PODCAST REVOLUTION
A podcast obsession is gripping the nation. More than half of all Americans 12 and older have listened to a podcast, and 40% of people between the ages of 12 and 24 listened to a podcast in the last month, at the time of writing.1 There are an estimated 1,750,000 podcasts to listen to.2 These podcasts will tell you the news of the day or how to make a perfectly fried egg. I see the explosion of podcasts as a renaissance for listening. There is now common acceptance that listening is an excellent way to understand the world or just be entertained by it. Whether listening to a podcast to learn about Ancient Greek history or how to manage their finances, millions of people are learning through listening. And young listeners are also tuning in. Capitalizing on this trend in your class will distinguish your teaching and captivate your students.
This trend shows that I'm not alone in my love of audio storytelling. We are on the forefront of an exciting time when audio can bring the world into the classroom, and students can use audio to share what they know with the world. Thousands of classrooms across grade levels, demographics, and locations are using podcasts in teaching, and some are creating their own podcasts.
I like to hear something that I never heard before and that is exciting!
—Daniel, fifth-grader in Elk Grove, CA
I've continued to see a rising number of conference sessions on how to podcast or use podcasts in the K–12 classroom. In 2019 at ISTE, the largest edtech conference, there were 23 sessions about podcasting during a three-day conference. This podcasting trend makes sense. The technology is accessible. The human voice is captivating. Hearing directly from someone who experienced an event is meaningful. Encouraging students to speak to others who have first-hand knowledge creates a deep and meaningful learning experience. Having students imitate well-written audio narratives helps them improve their writing. And most importantly, when students make podcasts, it gives them a voice. Making podcasts fosters authentic, passion-driven learning.
There has never been a better time, a more perfect moment, for me to share what I've learned about teaching listening through audio stories.
CREATING LISTENWISE
Later in my career, I moved to Boston and joined the reporting staff of WBUR. My husband and I had two daughters. The oldest was a born reader. I don't remember being a part of teaching her how to read. She seemed to have come home from school one day reading. My younger daughter struggled with reading. I didn't immediately recognize it as a reading problem until her second grade teacher recommended she work with the school's reading specialist. Her difficulties made her dislike reading. She would say she “hated reading.”
But she did love listening. She would listen to books we read out loud to her, devouring the stories. She would listen to NPR on the radio every morning with me and ask me questions about the news. Her understanding of complex topics impressed me. It was because of her reading challenges that I thought she and other kids would benefit from learning more by listening. This was my lightbulb moment. I decided to leave my reporting career and start Listenwise.
Listenwise is a digital platform devoted to building listening skills using audio stories. Our mission is to inspire individuals to fulfill their potential through the power of listening. Our collection of more than 2,500 podcasts is organized into current events and standards-aligned lessons for teachers of grades 2–12. Every audio story has a read-along transcript and other scaffolding for struggling readers and English learners. The teaching resources are standards-aligned, and it's easy to assign a listening quiz or written assignment.
Much of the audio collection on Listenwise is free for teachers. And anyone can register for a free trial of Listenwise Premium, which includes scaffolding features and ready-to-go lessons.
It wasn't an easy decision to leave reporting and become an entrepreneur. I had known from a young age that I wanted to be a radio reporter, and I was enjoying my work immensely. But I felt that my love of audio went beyond the stories I could personally tell. My connections in the world of public radio and podcasting put me in a position to make a greater impact. I realized my passion for audio could be spread further if I created a bigger platform on which to share audio for educational purposes.
I also believe that fact-based, balanced reporting has a role to play in our education system. In fact, it's crucial to educate young citizens for our democracy to thrive. I thought it was a shame that every day, dozens of excellent stories about how government works, historical events, scientific discoveries, and human connections were heard once on the airwaves and then buried in the archives. But they held so much potential for educators and students—to build their knowledge and improve their listening skills.
One of the barriers that had to be overcome was sourcing stories that were short enough for use during a class period (~3–5 minutes in length), and that relate to the curriculum in grades 2–12. Anyone can search for Shakespeare on the NPR website, but you will be sorting through nearly 3,000 results. If you search for Shakespeare