Digital Voice Recorders In Reading & Writing Groups

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

My students need to think of themselves as thinkers. I teach standard level eleventh grade English in a diverse urban school. Although many of my students are musicians, artists and even avid readers, many of them have not even passed the state reading and writing exam required for graduation. Although most of them say that they want to go to college, many of them do not fully understand what it means to participate as a thinker and a scholar in a learning community.

One technique I am inspired to use with my students is to help them hear their own thinking voices. I was in a workshop for the National Writing Project in which a first grade teacher used digital voice recorders with her students to show them, almost instantly, where they were doing "good thinking" during book discussions. I thought that this idea had tremendous potential for both reading and writing groups in high school. However, our school does not have the available funds to purchase a set of these recorders for my classroom.

My idea is that with six voice recorders I can place one within each group of students as they discuss a common reading or a draft of a paper. Then, because of the ease and speed of digital technology, we can instantly listen to snippets of the conversation and identify where the group is doing higher level thinking or probing deeper into the writing process. I think that this kind of immediate accountability and feedback will teach students that they are all capable of doing "good thinking" and encourage them to do it more often. These digital voice recorders (and extra batteries) can also be used in any number of other projects I have done in the past, including digital storytelling and preparing for Poetry Out Loud (a national poetry recitation contest). I would also like to experiment with podcasting with my students.

Your support will help my students to envision themselves as thinkers and learners. Defining oneself as a student is an important step and can inspire more and deeper thinking and learning.