Podcasts are an incredibly fun and easy way to encourage students to reinvigorate the boring book report by asking them to record their own "book review."

The content on of the review can vary according to your classroom standards. For helpful suggestions that your students will be able to digest easily, visit Scholastic's Write a Book Review with Rodman Philbrick.

This quick tutorial can be used to guide students through a step-by-step recording process.

Hardware, software, and other required technology tools:

- A computer with internet capability.

- Microphone for recording (some laptops and computers have a built-in microphone, but inexpensive and effective models are available at your local electronics store.)

- Recording software. Audacity provides a free, downloadable recording software that is incredibly easy to use. Files can be saved as WAV or MP3's.

- An MP3 player to download podcasts after they are created.

- You'll also need to create a forum for sharing the podcasts each student creates.Consider making a classroom blog or Website to house this project. Visit the Blogs and Wikis page for additional information.

Free blogging options:

- WordPress

- Blogger (by Google)

STEP 1:

If you don't already have recording software on the classroom computer, visit the Audacity Website and follow their basic instructions to download the software. When you're done with the download and the software is installed on your computer, open the program. It should look like this:

STEP 2:

Before students begin recording, they will need to make a cheat sheet to follow along with as they record their book review podcast. Depending on their comfort level, they could make something as basic as an outline or as detailed as a word-for-word account from which they can read. Remember to encourage students to write their review with a live storytelling component in mind. It will make their audio recording much more interesting.

STEP 3:

Plug in your microphone as needed. Click on the red "RECORD" button, seen here:

 Begin recording. Click the "STOP" button when finished.

STEP 4:

Press play to listen to the recording. If you like what you hear, you're ready to save your work. If you'd like to try again, simply click on "EDIT" and "UNDO RECORD" to delete the recording and start from STEP 3.

STEP 5:

Save your recording. Audacity will automatically save recordings as .aup files, so instead of using the "save as" option, click on "FILE" then "EXPORT AS..." and choose the appropriate file format.

STEP 6:

Upload the recording to the designated Web site or Blog.

Check out this sample podcast book review for Louis Sachar's Holes.