Podcasts: "Reading" an Audio Text Through Applying Critical Thinking Skills

While a significant aspect of reading involves making sense of written language, it's also important to support students as they learn how to make sense of audio language.

Many students are not audio learners, so podcasts provide an opportunity to develop this skill set as a facet of whole child literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing).

You Are There is a a CBS radio show that was developed between 1953-1957. As historians, students examine different sources.  This podcast can be used with other primary and secondary sources related to specific events in history. Below, you'll see some great podcasts from many commonly explored historic topics.

Here are the different episodes as podcasts,
You Are There: Radio Podcasts (84 episodes, usually 26-28 minutes each)

• Era of Exploration in the Western Hemisphere
• Signing of the Magna Carta
• Defeat of the Spanish Armada
• Monteczuma and the Spaniards
• Columbus Discovers America - This is an excellent opportunity to examine bias with the word "discovery" or the Euro-centric perspective that Columbus is the one who discovers a nation. Students might consider the Native American perspective in describing this event.
• The Hanging of Captain Kidd (Description)
• The Execution of Maximillian (Description)

• Colonial Era
• Columbus Discovers America - This is an excellent opportunity to examine bias with the word "discovery" or the Euro-centric perspective that Columbus is the one who discovers a nation. Students might consider the Native American perspective in describing this event.
• Sailing of the Mayflower
• New Amsterdam
• Lexington and Concord (Description of the Event)
• Lexington, Concord and Merriam's Corner
• The Trial of William Penn (Description of the Event) 
• Ann Hutchinson's Trial (Description)
• Salem Witch Trials
• The Trial of John Peter Zenger (Description of the Event)

• American Revolution
• The Stamp Act Crisis
• Declaration of Independence
• Mutiny in the Colonial Army
• Philadelphia - July 4, 1776
• Storming of the Bastille (Description of the Event)- I think this is an excellent event to explore, even though it's France. The date (July 14, 1789) allows students to understand that different revolutions were taking place in Europe, with some similar goals. 

• U.S. Constitution
• Signing of the Magna Carta 
• Declaration of Independence
• Ratification of the US Constititution

• Additional Significant Events in US History
• Tom Thumb: Locomotive Built in 1830 (Description)
• The Election of Thomas Jefferson
• The Surrender of Sitting Bull (Description)
• The Oklahoma Land Run
• Women's Rights

Scaffolds that might be needed:
1. an outline of the episode and stopping to check for understanding at different parts of the episode. Students might capture the big ideas (aka take notes) as the podcast takes place
2. teach challenging vocabulary that exists in the podcast
3. opportunities to process ideas in different ways (for example, identify a critical idea within this section and draw a cartoon in a story-board that communicates the key idea within the story)
4. provide opportunities to connect with the concepts that support the use of an episode