Proofreading with Podcasts
Over at Blogical Minds Mrs. C is trying out a new way to foster better proofreading by the students. The teacher prepared podcasts of their stories as written and posted this on the class blog:
I see your writing as a good start because you have your preliminary ideas on the blog. Now we need to do an initial proofing of your stories. This is something we need to talk about a bit. If you are proof-reading with only your eyes your writing may seem to flow and be OK. I think many times we read it as we are thinking it should sound and don’t always catch errors. What do you think? Sometimes those little bumps and hurdles that the eye does not catch can show up when you proof by reading aloud and listening. Let’s have a little fun today. I am going to do a podcast of each one of your stories. Then you will listen and we’ll all give feedback on this process.
Questions to think about:
- Does my story flow?
- Does it make sense?
- Is it sounding like I thought I had written it?
- Is reading aloud a good way to proof my work?
- Would I have read it the same way?
- Can punctuation help? How?
- Did misspellings change my meanings? How can I look out for that?
The students are on Thanksgiving break now but I look forward to seeing how this works out when they return. Next time the students can make the podcasts. What do you think? Any other proofreading techniques you’ve used that you’d like to share?
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Anne,
Great idea. For years I’ve been telling my students to read their work out loud as their first attempt at editing. I know that if they take the time to listen, they will pick up what their eyes missed.
I’m glad to see you’re suggesting that they do the podcast reading next time.
Cheri - Cycling Through Ed Tech
November 27th, 2006 at 11:48 am
What a great idea! I never thought to teach my third graders how reading written work out loud can help proofread. I do this all the time in my own writing, but did not think to do it with my students. I think students can benefit a lot from hearing their mistakes.
Malini
June 16th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
It is too true about the reading written work aloud as a better way of finding errors versus plain proofreading, and what an excellent idea of using podcasts!
I thought it also might be fun for students to trade work with a partner and read aloud each other’s rather than just the teacher, as a way to jazz up peer editing.