Speech Podcasting/External Peer Review

During the Fall semester in 2010, I got to teach 4 speech classes at Fossil Ridge, and we worked on a great project while I was there. We created podcasts of rough drafts of speeches and posted them on a web page with the written text. These were then anonymously peer reviewed by Greg Pierson's Forensics class and Kim Salz's AP Language classes using google docs. The speeches were then revised and the final versions were posted.

A significant portion of the class--over 10% of all students participating in the four classes, and I would guess maybe 80% of the students who actually submitted to the national project--were then published on the This I Believe webpage.

The rough drafts and the podcasts were all available on Fossil's Web Page before they created a new layout for their system. The links for This I Believe still work.

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90468/
http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/fish.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90586/
http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/feeling.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90800/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period6/flip.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90465/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period6/freedom.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90673/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/goal.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90462/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period6/shines.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90687/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period5/important.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90589/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/life.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90755/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period6/slowing_down.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90536/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/starting.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90645/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/average.html

http://thisibelieve.org/essay/90519/ http://schoolweb.psdschools.org/frhs/LangArts/SP/Buteau/period2/probability.html

Since the main focus of the project was to have students meet the requirements for getting published on this nationally recognized program, I think the anonymous external peer review process with podcasts is another successful way to use technology in education.

Creative Writing Cross Campus Peer Review

In the spring semester of 2010, I participated in a fun project with Jason Clarke, who is doing fantastic work in educational technology. We conducted a cross-campus peer review in which his AP students read and reviewed the work of students in my creative writing class. Mr. Clarke's students used the track changes and insert comment features of word to give peer feedback on short stories and personal narratives that my students had written. They then filled out a peer review feedback form to help my students produce their final drafts and to help all students think about writing, editing, and revision.

You can check out all of the student's web pages here. The peer review papers are under each student's personal web page under "peer review paper." Yet another example of how technology can be leveraged to create unique opportunities for students to learn!

Here is a video of my students talking with a Technology for Educators class at CSU:

Thank you Jason for everything you did, including writing this summary of the project.