The Theory
I created my first screencast while teaching virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, I was figuring things out as I went along, and luckily, my school district provided professional development and training for new technology skills. Screencasting was beneficial during distance and online learning, but I have not had a ton of experience using screencasts in my synchronous, in-person classroom. Once we returned to in-person learning, I seemed to *cast* screencasts aside and channel all of my energy back to in-person learning experiences. Once I began this program at Wilkes, I got back into screencasting for projects for some of my coursework. Admittedly, with many of the theories learned in this ESL-509 course, I often find myself imagining how I would implement in my classroom as the teacher instead of imagining how I could create learning experiences for my students to use the theories. While exploring resources about screencasting throughout the week, I realized that student created screencasts could be just as valuable (if not more!) as teacher-created screencasts. Lindsay Ann Learning (2020) shared many great resources for student-created screencasts such as a gallery walk, small group discussions, reading conferences, and projects.
Link to Resource
6 Ways Screencasting Can “Level Up” Your Classroom Instruction | Teaching Channel
In the article above, Harris (2019) shares great ways to implement screencasting in the classroom. She mentions teacher-led options such as instructional videos, digital sub plans, and getting parents engaged in their students’ learning, but what really stood out to me was her ideas for providing students with opportunities to utilize screencasting. Harris mentions using screencasting to replace book reports and presentations. Instead of having students sit and watch presentation after presentation, they could watch screencasts of their classmates’ presentations at their own pace. She also suggests using screencasts to support fluency practice and highlights the benefits of this practice for students who are learning English.
Benefits and Roadblocks
Incorporating screencasts into the classroom has many benefits. The biggest benefits that stand out to me are the opportunities for students to practice and perfect their presentation skills and the flexibility that screencasting offers. When creating screencasts, users are able to record as many times as needed and can listen back to track their progress. When students do live presentations, they are unable to watch themselves, so they are unaware of their voice level, expression, and speed. It is helpful for students to be able to watch their screencasts back and self-assess so they can determine whether they are pleased with the quality of their projects and presentations or if they would like to continue recording to improve. Screencasting also offers flexibility for students to record projects and presentations at their own pace and for teachers and classmates to view presentations at any time. Valuable class time can be saved by inviting students to watch their peers’ screencasts as an early finisher activity, during independent work while the teacher is pulling small groups, or even at home. Teachers can watch screencasts and pause or replay as needed when grading or evaluating work.
Background noise is a small roadblock that could come into play when screencasting in the classroom. None of my students have headsets or microphones, so if they attempt to record their screencast in the classroom, the laptop’s microphone may end up picking up noise from other screencasters, people conversing, chairs and desks being moved around, etc. There are many quick fixes to this small obstacle, though. I could invest in a few headsets with microphones for students to share, students could record at home, or they could utilize a “recording booth” where laptops are placed inside of a box in a quiet corner of the classroom while recording to block out background noise.
Adaptation for a Third Grade Classroom
This week, my school had our mid-year data meetings, and during our review of student data, the team had conversations about strengths and areas for growth for the grade level as a whole. We identified reading fluency as an area of need, and we are in the process of identifying resources and strategies to support student fluency growth in the second half of the school year. When reading Harris’ suggestion about utilizing screencasting to improve student reading fluency, my recent data meeting immediately came to mind. Incorporating screencasting into the classroom can help third-grade readers grow their reading fluency. Students can record themselves reading a grade-level text and watch the video back to listen to their speed, accuracy, and expression. Then, they can practice with the same text throughout the week and re-record to track their growth and progress. Multilingual learners would benefit from this strategy by having the opportunity to practice reading words, phrases, or passages in English and listening to them back. This could be used as an independent activity during small group centers, a warm-up during class, or practice activity during small group intervention time.
References:
7 Best Ways to Use Screencasting in the Classroom. (2020, June 1). Lindsay Ann Learning. https://
Harris, Marcee. (2019, August 27). 6 Ways Screencasting Can “Level Up” Your Classroom Instruction. Teaching Channel. 6 Ways Screencasting Can “Level Up” Your Classroom Instruction | Teaching Channel
I really enjoyed reading your post! I love how you’re thinking about the benefits of student-created screencasts, especially in the context of building presentation skills and providing flexibility in the classroom. It’s such a great point that students can practice and self-assess when they record their own screencasts. Plus, the ability to re-record until they feel confident really encourages self-reflection and growth. Your idea of using screencasting to improve reading fluency is spot on, too—being able to listen back to themselves gives students a clearer picture of their progress. My special education students work on improving reading fluency and I never thought about how beneficial screencasting would be for that specific area. I want to try this!!
ReplyDeleteScreencasting is a great way to support multilingual learners and give them more control over their learning pace. The roadblock with background noise is definitely something to consider, but I think your creative solutions, like using a "recording booth" or letting students record at home, are really practical. It’s exciting to think about all the ways screencasting can be incorporated into a third-grade classroom!
Even though COVID-19 was a rough time for everyone involved in education, I definitely feel there was a part of it that was somewhat a blessing in disguise. I feel that it brought to light the severe lack of technology use within education. Once the world flipped upside down, education had to kick into overdrive to get everyone acclimated to a world of virtual learning. This brought in a huge influx of technological tools, one including screencasting. Even though screencasts have been around for years, they seem more prominent now after COVID-19. Just the fact a teacher could record an entire lesson and share it with their students was huge!
ReplyDeleteI love that you brought up the idea of students utilizing screencasts to further their engagement into a lesson! I also believe it would benefit them greatly. I also discussed the idea of students using them for presentations and it was nice to see that you went a step further with them using screencasts to practice their presentations! It is a great idea for sure! I also think your idea for implementing it into your 3rd grade classroom, I think it would benefit your students greatly. Keep up the great work!