Listening Skills Podcast Activity, Listen & Learn #1, PDF & Google Drive, CCSS

Students need to be able to sit and listen to a passage or short audio program, take notes, recall information, and then answer critical thinking questions about the material. To help prepare students for our e-learning world, I’ve scoured the internet to find high-interest, school-appropriate podcasts that fit within one class period.

In this Listen & Learn activity, students will listen to a 19-minute podcast focused on the case of Tony, the tiger, an animal that serves as a roadside attraction at a truck stop in Louisiana. This high-quality podcast presents both sides of an argument and allows the listeners (our students) to draw their own conclusions.

The easy prep lesson materials in this download include:

• A list of suggested lesson procedures for the teacher (or just print and leave for a sub) with several links to use to access the podcast online. Several of these sites also allow users to download the program and keep it on their personal mp3 players, a great option if the internet isn’t always reliable in your classroom. (PDF)

• A handout with questions for students to answer both while they listen and after the program is finished (PDF and Google Drive versions)

• A two-page answer key to make grading easy and to provide talking points as you review answers with your students (PDF)

This lesson, designed for students in grades 7-12, will take about 40 minutes to complete or a bit longer if you review answers/allow students to debate some of the questions.

Want another podcast-based listening skills lesson? Click the links below to find more high-interest topics, including:

Listen & Learn #2, an adventure that follows a police officer diving deep into a tar pit

Listen & Learn #3, a mystery involving fraud and a teenager’s identity theft

Listen & Learn #4, the case of an 11-year-old boy who was the sole survivor of an airplane crash near Los Angeles

Listen & Learn #5, the story of a Muslim teen’s heartbreak when the parents of his white friend wouldn’t allow her to attend prom with him

Want all five of these Listen & Learn lessons at a steep discount? Click here to grab the Listen & Learn 5-Pack and save 20% off the cost of purchasing each item individually.

NOTE: This item is included in my English 9-10 full-year curriculum. If you already own the full-year download, please do not purchase this item here individually. If you’d like to receive this item plus everything else needed to teach 180 days of English 9 or English 10 at a deeply discounted price, click here to learn more about the full-year curriculum download.

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Cover image credit: Marcus Quigmire, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0