Another way to add Sound Bites to Explain Everything projects

One of the things I really love about sharing my ideas via this blog is others sharing back and suggesting ideas and different ways of doing things.  One such suggestion came from Innes Kennard who suggested I give QuickVoice a try for adding sound bites.  While I do like Garage Band, after trying QuickVoice, I found it much quicker to add the sound bites than using Garage Band.  The simplicity of QuickVoice allows me to record my soundbites and insert them into Explain Everything quickly.

This short screencast shows how I use QuickVoice, including a trick for recording if you have a longer instruction and you'd like to include exactly what you have written on your Explain Everything project word for word.

Using Garage Band to record a soundbite for my Explain Everything projects

I find inserting audio instructions into my Explain Everything projects really helpful as a way to scaffold my learners that may not be able to read (or remember) my instructions.   I use Garage Band to create the soundbite rather than record the instructions directly onto the slide so that my instructions don't detract from the recording the learner will do on the slide when they push the red record button.  The soundbite is also shown visually on the screen so the learner knows to click on it and hear what I say if they struggle to read the instructions.

I've been helping other Manaiakalani Schools recently and am often asked "how do you do that" so have made a short screen recording which I can link to as needed.

Adding audio files to Google Sites

As I start working on my Class Site for this year, I wanted to incorporate some audio files for my learners to listen to, without having to download them onto their devices.  I've created a Listening Post page in my site, and plan to add titles each week for learners to choose from.

As the Google Audio Player gadget is no longer available, I had to find an alternative gadget to use.  This website has proved extremely useful and in order to use the gadget, insert it by URL from:

https://sites.google.com/site/basler45678/home/html5-audio-player.xml

Importantly, the .wav or .mp3 files that you are wanting to embed on your site must be uploaded to your site first.  You can do this by uploading the file(s) as an attachment to any page or by using a "Filing Cabinet" page which is what I've chosen to do.  All my .mp3 files have been uploaded to this File Cabinet page (use the Add File option, not Add from Google Drive) and then embedded into my site.  

This screen casting steps through the process using the File Cabinet page method.

Sound bites for comprehension

As my learners move up through the reading levels I want them to be aware they are reading for a purpose and that they need to understand what they are reading.  One of the ways we do this are through comprehension questions which ask them about what they have read.

While I often ask follow up questions during my guided reading session, I am also keen to include comprehension questions in my follow up Explain Everything projects which the learners work on independently.  I have done this in the past but found that learners can sometimes be tripped up by having to "read the questions."  They understand the question if its given to them orally, but may not be able to read all the words used if they have to read it - and its not always possible to phrase it in a way that it uses words that I know they will be able to read and understand.

I've recently tried using sound bites to ask the comprehension questions as part of their project, which is proving extremely successful.  The learner is able to listen to the question and then find the answer in their book and write it onto the page.

An example of this, for the book "The Duck with a Broken Wing" (this is one of six slides in the project for one group of learners who are reading this book later this week):

I've found using soundbites so successful that I am beginning to add them to many of the pages I create.  This allows the learner to listen to the instructions again and prevents them having to return to my desk if they have forgotten what I said when I scaffolded the project.   In most cases the sound bite is exactly the same as the text on the page so the learners are able to listen and follow along with the words.