the power of words

I want to briefly talk about the This I Believe podcast, and one specific segment in particular: "Never Give Up" by Mary Curran Hackett, broadcast June 1, 2015. Listeners to this podcast hear inspirational moments, experiences, reflections, and lessons from the narrators; Mary Curran Hackett, for example, tells a story about her father's (in)famous speeches to her and her siblings about never giving up. Her narrative form takes the listener from her childhood impressions of her father's lectures to the moment when she realizes the importance of what he tried to impress upon her, and how he never gave up on her. This segment, like many on the podcast, provides reassurance of the meaning behind struggles or challenges.

Podcasts such as This I Believe are narratives read out loud, while others are informational, editorial, persuasive, entertaining, etc. Just like teachers try to expose students to various modes of written text, podcasts provide the same variety, only through audio. If a student can explain the nuances of a written text, then she should also be able to explain how an audio recording is put together with a specific audience and purpose in mind. Thus, by listening to podcasts in the classroom, students can learn more about structuring messages and how stories are told, with the added bonus that they learn about inflection, pacing, and emphasis, and even background effects.

Podcasts, such as the segments from This I Believe, reinforce the importance of telling and sharing stories. Once students have experience analyzing and evaluating the messages of others, they will be adept at telling stories of their own. Podcasts can become an important part of almost any curriculum if students are guided to inform, persuade, or inspire others and reflect on their effectiveness.

This upcoming school year (yes, this one has just ended and I am planning for the next), I want my overarching theme for American literature to be "What is your story?" The more I play around with tools like the image editing and audio sites, the more excited I get about ways I can have students share stories and evaluate stories. (By "story," I mean anything that has a message, which includes pretty much everything.) As I explore American texts with my students, I want them to recognize that explorer accounts, Puritan poetry, revolutionary pamphlets, Gothic short stories, and on and on, are all just the stories of the people who lived throughout American history and who explained their values, beliefs, and experiences in slightly different ways. I hope that by the end of the year, my students have a more defined idea of what their values, beliefs, and experiences are and can decide on a way they'd best like to share this story with their classmates. Podcasting--ideally creating, but at least listening--seems like an integral part of getting my students to that "place" next year, and I hope to use segments from This I Believe to motivate and inspire them.