This blog post was written by 起点传媒members Karen Sheriff LeVan and Marissa E. King.
Sleepy-eyed Thiago* rarely speaks up in writing class. He keeps his stocky shoulders squarely hunched over his well-worn notebook and averts his eyes during discussion.
On the page, Thiago鈥檚 ideas twist and turn through his latest story and tiptoe around the second language he鈥檚 still learning. He has much to say but is often silent because his expressions are not yet fluid, and that bothers him.聽While some students love speaking up or sharing with the class, students like Thiago require consideration; they might not want to talk in front of others at all鈥攅specially about untested ideas and budding writing plans.
For the past two years, Marissa鈥檚 middle school students have been using independent audio recording as a low-risk space to explore their writing ideas.
When they need to process their writing plans or test out new ideas for revision, students have the option to talk quietly into a battery-powered recorder instead of speaking up in front of peers.
For students like Thiago, the contrast is sharp. Instead of the uncomfortable silence he typically adopts in classroom discussions, Thiago jabbers easily on his independent audio recordings.
For example, in one recording, he lays out a colorful description of a delicate, felt-winged creature in the fantasy novel he鈥檚 writing. He charges on with his writing ideas for nearly four minutes, past long pauses and mispronounced words. For his teacher, Thiago鈥檚 audio recording offer a rare insight into that鈥檚 not always obvious on the page.
Between his quiet voice and his graphite-smeared pages, it would be easy to miss Thiago鈥檚 crisp planning and multi-layered vision. But once his teacher hears his audio, she has far more information to help him focus in on the most important skills.
Thiago does not need another lesson on brainstorming; now his teacher knows and can adjust feedback accordingly. When the teacher reads a clumsy, generalized description in his first draft, she knows not to press him to do more planning–he has it in his head and on his audio. Instead, she can ask him if his writing matches his vision.
Is 鈥渂ig鈥� a good enough description for the 鈥渄elicate creature with felt wings鈥� that he described on tape?聽 With the audio, both Thiago and his teacher can better access and build on his strengths. The audio is leverage.
In addition to offering a private space for students to explore ideas and for a teacher to access latent strengths, audio recording offers a safety net to test out new vocabulary. In more public settings, we鈥檝e seen many students crumble in embarrassment when they can鈥檛 seem to reach the right word or mispronounce a term. And it can be even tougher for new language learners.
In audio recording a mispronounced word is no big deal. We鈥檝e listened to many students mess up, pause, and try again without derailing their ideas.
In one audio recording, Thiago eagerly describes a new chapter but can鈥檛 quite put his finger on one word. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to have a lot of excitement and a lot of, um, kind of like sappy things. You know how, um, in like action-packed movies, or in like movies where there is like a twist at it?聽 Like that.鈥�
Even Thiago seems to know 鈥渟appy things鈥� may not be the right expression, but the point is that a missing word won鈥檛 make him stall out or remain silent.
Audio recordings carve out a judgement-free zone for students to explore their ideas and result in recordings jammed with information for teachers to learn from.
*Student names are pseudonyms.聽
Marissa King聽(at left) currently works for the Teaching & Leading Initiative of Oklahoma. She is also a regular contributor to Education World and Edutopia. @KingMarissaE
Karen Sheriff LeVan聽(at right) teaches writing and literature courses at Hesston College where she also directs the Writing Fellows Program. @KSLeVan