Students in Kerry Bootsma’s 8th grade English classes at Stilwell Junior High have been using Audacity to edit and improve their written essays. Audacity is a free software program for recording sound. After drafting their essay, students read and record their essay at the computer. Then they play the recording back and by hearing themselves read their own writing aloud, students are able to listen to the flow of their writing and make changes in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Here is some feedback from students:
“Hearing myself say the sentences pointed out some errors. I shrunk a huge sentence into smaller ones, and I realized some things I had just didn’t make sense.”
“I thought it was really helpful because when you read it in your head you skip over words and only say what you meant to in your head. But when you have to read it out loud, you actually have to look at the words.”
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Kerry Bootsma
7th Grade English Teacher
Stilwell Junior High
bootsmak@wdmcs.org
West Des Moines Community Schools Technology 