Evolution of the Lecture: Trojan War Stories

My freshmen students have begun learning about the background information for our study of Homer's Odyssey.  In years past, I would give a two day lecture to the entire freshmen class on the Trojan War, repeating the stories during seven 43 minute periods per day.  It was an epic task-- I had to keep my pace and remembered the tales as I channeled the muses, but I enjoyed every minute of it, modeling age old oral storytelling techniques: pacing, repetition, voice variation, etc.

Years later due to scheduling constraints and other curricular demands, the other freshmen teachers and I decided not to continue with the live lecture. I still would tell the stories to my students in class. But when I started to give the tales last week, something changed.  My enthusiasm waned as it became an epic task to keep my freshmen students focused for the lecture.  I tried. I really did, but when they constantly wanted to interrupt and needed to be redirected back to listening, I realized I didn't have the strength of Hercules to continue.

Not wanting to face defeat, I decided to take a different approach.  Saturday morning, I wrote up a 10 page script to go with my Trojan War Stories slides and I recorded a screencast of the tales.  Using TechSmith's Camtasia to record and edit, my 90 minute lecture became a 54 minute video that still made students focus on listening skills.

Anticipating that playing the video for the whole class would still result in me having to redirect student behavior, I pulled it into EDpuzzle today and spent about 30 minutes putting in questions in the video to check for student understanding.  I purposely chose where to insert the questions, chunking the material.

Tomorrow students will wear headphones, watch my lecture in EDpuzzle, complete the questions, and submit a reflective writing task in Edmodo on the process and comparing/contrast the live lecture to the recorded one. I am looking forward to the formative data and reading what the students write, and I anticipate that most will state that they enjoyed the video more than the live lecture.  I will share screenshots of the data and student feedback later.

For now, you can check out the Stories of the Trojan War as told by me, Mrs. Baker.....

3 Tools for Speaking & Listening

Working in a large school district and being the mom of two girls in elementary school, I'm exposed to numerous germs everyday, and while I know I've built up a strong immunity over the years, sometimes I get sidelined with an ailment. Well, for the first time EVER in 15 years of teaching, I have contracted  conjunctivitis (aka pink-eye). I will spare you the details, but know that it is gross, hurts, and my eye looks like it could be a zombie extra in a Walking Dead episode. I can't wear contacts; my eyes are light sensitive; I can't see that well, but my brain still is working. So, using the proverbial lemons to make the proverbial lemonade, I got to thinking about tools that could help the visually impaired and bolster auditory and speaking skills.

Voice Dictation

Searching the Chrome Webstore for voice keyboards, I came across this Chrome app, Voice Recognition. The navigation is easy to use, and as long as you have a webcam microphone built in, there is no need for an external mic. I also like that I can export my dication to Google Drive and Dropbox or save to computer or send via email. Accuracy, as with any voice recognition program, is dependent on speed and articulation. While I would want the dictation to be highly accurate, it does provide an opportunity for a lesson in revision of text. Pair up students with one doing the dictation and the other doing the editing, and you have an opportunity for a lesson on voice (literally) and intention in writing.

Screenshot of Voice Recognition

While I have to use Voice Recognition in the app, I'd like to find a tool that could be used in any browser window or program on a Chromebook or computer.  On personal devices, I like using the Google Voice keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy S3  dictate into an open Google doc, but I haven't come across anything similar for Chromebooks/computers.  Please share if you know of such a tool!

Read to Me

SpeakIt! is a Chrome extension where you highlight text that you would to have read aloud. After adding the extension to your browser, highlight the text, and click the icon in your browser tool bar. A little pop up box appears and you hear the text being read aloud.  For the visually impaired, this extension is not as easy to use since you have to select text and click on a small icon, but for those who like being read aloud to and to reinforce reading skills, this extension is useful.

SoundGecko is site that will read an entire webpage article to you. Simply visit the site, paste in the URL and your email address, and start listening. SoundGecko can be used on any device or computer using a browser window. I can see (even with my pink eye) using SoundGecko during listening activities, asking students to listen and answer questions based on what they heard. Teachers could also use SoungGecko for BYOD stations where students practice listening skills.


Whether visually impaired or not, these three tools are useful for practicing speaking and auditory skills. Know of others? Please share!