A Thinglink with podcasts suitable for high school students

Good podcasts for high school students

Podcasts appropriate for high school students/ESL learners:

A way with words 

Grammar girl

Espresso English Podcast

The Allusionist

Bear Brook - New Hampshire Public Radio

Criminal 

This American Life

Serial

Freakonomics Radio

The Radio Vagabond

NPR: Youth Radio

BBC Documentary

Scientific American




Articles about how listening to podcasts can improve literacy:

Mindshift - How Listening to Podcasts helps Students Read and Learn


How Podcasts Can Improve Literacy in the Classroom

Tip of the day - read and listen at the same time - The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

If you want to practice your reading and listening skills, then take a look at www.manythings.org and maybe this classic short story by O. Henry. 

Global Read Aloud - looking forward to reading and global collaboration

I've registered for GRA (Global Read Aloud), starting on October 5. First time for this. Looking forward to doing this project with my 8th graders - and time willing we hope to reconnect with some "old" hangouters from New Zealand from last school year. Reading aloud in the classroom is not something we do very much, but it's definitely something that needs to be done MORE. Kids today are so visually stimulated through their screens (mobiles, tvs, computers, ipads ...) that it's only a good thing to try to turn those eyes away for a while, and to focus on listening - and to listen for a long period of time. To listen and to make up your own visions in your head. Really excited about this!

http://theglobalreadaloud.com/

The book chosen is Fish by L.S. Matthews.

Any good at distinguishing dialects? Test your ear here!

I've always loved trying to distinguish where people are from, based on their spoken English. Through the years I've gotten quite good at it - what about you? Here's IDEA (International Dialects of English Archive) and "test your ear". Listen to 20 dialects and try to pinpoint their home country or state/province. Best of luck!

Reading and listening - ESL Bits

Slowly I'm phasing myself into work again after a wet summer here in the south of Sweden. Next week I'll sit down and do some planning for the coming school year, but I know for sure that I'm going to use ESL Bits again for some reading and listening. ESL Bits is a fantastic page where you can access short stories, novellas, songs and audiobooks for free. Yes, for free.

Right now I'm looking at a short story called "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami and I'm thinking of including this short story somewhere in the beginning of the semester as a reading exercise for year 8 or/and 9.

Another interesting short story is  "You're ugly, too" by Lorrie Moore ...haven't finished reading it yet, but I really liked the beginning....promising. 

Different stories - music project, year 9

On Tuesday week 8 we start with a new thematic project called Different stories. It is about music and listening/analyzing lyrics and also choosing a favorite song and describing why it means much to you. I will explain more when we meet up on Tuesday. Below you have some instructions.

Different stories - here you have the material you need