Class Podcast with The Moth as Inspiration

Ask students about the last good story they heard. Ask students what makes a story good. List their ideas.

Tell students that they are going to write a personal story from their lives to preserve it with their voices in the form of a podcast. Ask students if they ever listen to podcasts, and if so, which ones. This can be an opportunity to share with students that podcasts are a good way to build their listening comprehension and vocabulary. You can later provide a list of ESL-specific podcasts for students to practice outside of class. 

Use one podcast episode from The Moth that will appeal to your learners. Prepare students for their listening by pre-teaching any unfamiliar vocabulary used in the episode and activate any prior knowledge with selected images  discussion questions related to the story or the theme.

Have students listen to the podcast episode. Provide a transcript or if the episode is from the YouTube channel, include the captions. You may choose to have students listen again outside of class, in order to differentiate learning for students whose listening skills are at a lower level.

Then model writing a 20-word gist of the episode. Elicit from students words they would use to describe the story.

Using the attached handout, explain to students what a personal narrative is.

Have them complete the vocabulary section in small groups. (Note: depending on your students' level of English proficiency, you may want to change the vocabulary words to suit their level). Go over the vocabulary after students have completed it with pronunciation feedback. Elicit explanations for words students do already know. For those words students do not already know, be prepared to provide definitions and/or examples.

Now assign students to select a podcast episode from the site or the YouTube channel. You may want to pre-select a list for them to choose from. They will work individually or in pairs to complete the handout to write a word to describe the episode and a 20-word summary.

Have volunteers share their summaries with the class or have students share in small groups.

Now go over the written assignment. Have students free select some of the topics listed on the handout and freewrite. Then help students to draft their narrative scripts for their podcast episode. Have them choose a topic, write a title, work on a hook, chronologically tell their story, and include some sort of conclusion, such as a lesson learned, a tie back to the hook, etc. Give feedback along the way, focusing first on meaning and the storytelling and later on mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation).

After students' written drafts are revised and edited, have them practice reading aloud with each other or you or tutors. Provide feedback on prosody, emotion, stress, pacing, pausing, intonation, etc. Optionally, as time permits, they can record their scripts with you giving oral feedback to work on volume, stress, intonation, pausing, prosody, and pronunciation.

Show students how to use whichever audio recording tool you select and how to share their audio files for posting to the podcast hosting (or other) site you select. Include the script to accompany the audio recording to the site you post. As a reminder, ensure that you have students' permission to post. Optionally and depending on the hosting platform you select, allow students to include a photo or image with their episodes. You may want to have students sign your agency's permissions release. Some students may choose not to share their stories with others if they are personal.

In a "podcast reveal listening party," play students' podcast episodes as a whole class or assign students to listen to their classmates' oral narratives and give feedback.

Ask for group feedback: What stood out? What did you learn about your classmates?

Include a student reflection activity. For instance, students can be asked to talk or write in response to this question: What did you learn about storytelling and yourself?

Use a rubric or checklist to give final summative feedback on students' work.

Students will be able to understand the structure and elements of a compelling personal narrative, develop and revise their own story, and improve language, pronunciation, and delivery/prosody.