If you have ever faced a surly and sullen middle school student who tells you that they don’t want to go to speech, then you know there is nothing worse. Well, maybe a group of surly and sullen students who don’t want to attend speech classes..

Research on motivation and podcast use

At this age, you need to get buy-in. Middle School students need to see that attending speech classes will help them to learn and that they can have fun, too. One way to do this is by using podcasts.

Podcasts are enjoyable and effective ways to develop listening comprehension and vocabulary skills for our students. Many of our students struggle to read and therefore, don’t like to read. Podcasts expose them to language-rich material in a fun and engaging way. In addition, research tells us that students will listen to podcasts much longer than they will read. Many adults regularly listen to podcasts so using podcasts at a young age may help our students become regular podcasts consumers.

Check out more information about using podcasts in the classroom here:

In my speech classroom, the Six Minutes podcast is the most-requested activity. Here’s an example of one podcast in the series. It tells the story of Holiday, a 11-year old girl who was found floating in the waters in Alaska. Holiday has no memory of her past and is taken in by the Anders Family. As Holiday searches to find out about her past, we learn that others are searching for Holiday, too. 

grab my Guide to Using Podcasts to Meet Speech and Language Goals

The Six Minutes podcast is engaging for students. Each episode is only Six Minutes long so it allows time for activities to be completed. Students will ask for more Six Minutes again and again.

Other free resources from my shop:

Six Minutes Podcast Resources in my shop