“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

—Frederick Douglass

Educators will agree that literacy (the ability to read and write) is the cornerstone of learning. Literacy opens the world and allows one to be a lifelong learner. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) summarizes it well:

“Literacy empowers and liberates people. Beyond its importance as part of the right to education, literacy improves lives by expanding capabilities which in turn reduces poverty, increases participation in the labour market, and has positive effects on health and sustainable development.”

So, literacy is not just an essential skill; it is a human right and a social justice concern. We have a concerning declining trend in literacy in the United States. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 32% of 12^th graders in 2024 were below “basic” performance in reading, which is down 3 points when compared to 2019 data, and 10 points compared to 1992. Many factors contribute to this decline, but we educators need to focus on solutions. One thing we can do to change the trajectory of literacy, specifically at the secondary level, is adopt a whole-school approach and a content area literacy focus.

• Truth #1: The majority of secondary educators do not have a background in reading and/or literacy instruction, including English teachers.
• Truth #2: A lack of literacy skills has a detrimental impact on society. According to ProLiteracy’s synopsis of the Organization for Co-operation and Economic Development’s (OECD) 2023 survey of adult skills, “28% of American adults read at or below the lowest level assessed” on the survey. This means roughly 59 million American adults lack the skills needed to successfully navigate daily life. ProLiteracy also states that “The World Literacy Foundation estimates that low literacy skills cost the U.S. economy $300 billion annually” and “94% of employers surveyed said they have employees who do not have the literacy skills to meet the requirements of the job, costing an estimated $46 billion in revenue annually.”
• Truth #3: Developing literacy skills is not easy, nor is it natural. In order for us to read, we repurpose parts of our brain to recognize letters, add sounds to those letters, and then add meaning to those sounds. If this is something interesting to you, I highly recommend the video below about the work of Dr. Stanislas Dehaene, a leader in cognitive neuroscience.

All of these truths add to the urgency of an all-hands-on-deck approach to literacy. The good news is there are many content-specific literacy-focused skills that you can bring into your classroom. I implore everyone to seek professional development in the Science of Reading, which helps educators address reading deficits with decades of research-backed practices (start by checking out TeachersFirst’s Science of Reading Resources and our professional learning units on the subject). Maybe send your principal the link to this blog with the above portion highlighted as a wink-wink hint. In the meantime, there is no one-size-fits-all literacy approach, so here are some best practices to try so you can see what works for you and your team:

WIDA Recommends

WIDA is a consortium that develops tools and standards to help multilingual learners along their educational journey. Here are a few suggestions from the article “Four Tips for Teaching Reading in Content Areas.”

• World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) is a consortium that develops tools and standards to help multilingual learners along their educational journey. Here are a few suggestions from the article “Four Tips for Teaching Reading in Content Areas:”
• Teach the organization and purpose of a text before reading it. Content area literacy depends on students’ reading and comprehension of content-specific texts, and the organization and purpose of a chemistry lab report are very different from those of a short story in English 10. Readers need deliberate and specific instruction on the purpose and organization of texts in every class.
• Have text-based discussions with the class. Present a question to students prior to the reading that they will need to answer. Ask students what a specific term in the text means, or have them explain the main topic in their own words.
• Identify the struggle areas in the text and pre-teach them. If there are any challenging or new vocabulary words, teach them to the class before the reading. If the overall concept is challenging, like stoichiometry in chemistry, explain the general concept or demonstrate a basic stoichiometry process.
• Conduct an examination of literacy skills to understand each student’s needs. WIDA suggests that educators have students complete a literacy mapping activity or conduct an empathy interview to learn about their literacy backgrounds.

Lenses of Literacy

This wonderful resource from Dr. Mikkaka Overstreet and Dr. Lymaris Satana, “Literacy Lens: Effective Literacy Practices for Secondary Students,” helps secondary teachers bring the Science of Reading into their instructional practice. These are merely highlights, so check out the resource in its entirety for more in-depth suggestions.

• Teach morphology in an authentic way. Take discipline-specific vocabulary and break the words down to their morphemes; explain the morphological meaning of the word parts and help students understand the connections between the parts and the whole—bonus if they can think of other words that use the same parts!
• Explicitly teach reading comprehension skills for content-area-specific texts. Give students math word problems and talk them through as a class before solving them.

Back to the Basics

Lindsey Barrett wrote “How To Teach Reading When You Didn’t Go to School for That” for We Are Teachers in 2023. It’s aimed at an upper elementary audience, but there are practical tips that should become standard across grade levels.

• Meet with your content area team and analyze student data. Use the data and the standards to guide a plan for these classes.
• Have students write. Students crafting meaningful sentences about what they read helps them process what they’ve learned, and is also a great way for teachers to check for understanding.

Further Suggestions

To help you navigate this a bit more, here are a few more resources that I recommend looking over:

• “How to Work Literacy Instruction Into All Content Areas” is an Edutopia article that shows how literacy inclusion works across all content areas.
• “Integrating Literacy Across the Curriculum: An Easy Way to START” is a how-to guide from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) (reviewed here) on implementing a school-wide approach to content area literacy. START is an acronym for the steps and tools needed to support teachers in this process.
• “Applying Literacy Standards Across Content Areas” by Peg Grafwallner offers detailed examples of literacy implementation in Physical Education and Science, demonstrating the same process in each.
• “Content-Area Literacy” from AdLit (reviewed here) provides teachers with lessons across a variety of content areas that focus on literacy skills and content-area standards.
• “Introduction to the Science of Reading,” “Morphology PD Part 1,” and “Morphology PD Part 2” come from the Louisiana Department of Education (reviewed here) and offer a great overview.  
• TeachersFirst has a host of blog posts about reading and The Science of Reading that focus on resources, reading methods, and enhancements that can work in all content areas.

There are many resources available to help teachers easily integrate literacy into their daily curriculum practice. Students have a basic human right to literacy, and we all need to help ensure that our students have all the skills they need to have the bright futures promised to them. 

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

—Will Durant, summarizing Aristotle

If you’ve ever looked out at your classroom and felt like you were competing with a dozen glowing rectangles for your students’ attention, you are in good company. We’ve all been there: a student nodding along to instructions while their eyes dart to the corner of the screen where an email notification just popped up. Or maybe you’ve noticed a full tab forest growing on a laptop—thirty open windows, none of which seem to be the assignment at hand.

Technology has the power to make learning more immersive and accessible than ever before—but it also has a unique ability to fragment focus. Here’s the key shift: healthy technology habits are not a personality trait; they are a literacy skill. Just like reading fluency or scientific inquiry, digital regulation requires explicit instruction, guided practice, and a whole lot of grace.

We often tell students to use tech responsibly, but for a developing brain, that phrase is incredibly abstract. It’s like telling a student to do math without teaching them the operations. To a fifth grader—or even a high school senior—responsible use might just mean don’t get caught on YouTube.

To move past compliance and toward genuine digital agency, we need to treat tech habits with the same pedagogical rigor as our content areas. Supporting healthy tech use means moving through a cycle of defining norms, modeling behavior, and reflecting on the results.

Instead of handing down a list of things not to do, try defining 3–5 shared norms that prioritize a focused classroom atmosphere. When students understand the why, they’re far more likely to buy in. Consider norms like these—and give them catchy names students will remember: 

• The Single-Task Rule (aka Tunnel Vision) – Keep only the tabs needed for the current mini-lesson open.
• The Notification Pause (aka Ghost Mode) – Silence banners and notifications during independent work to protect focused time.
• The Help Signal (aka System Alert)– Establish a digital or physical signal for when a student is stuck, preventing the “boredom browse” that can happen when they hit a roadblock.

To increase student buy-in, Canva for Education (reviewed here) to have students design norm posters. Display them around the classroom and refer to them often to reinforce the shared expectations.

Meaningful habits develop through small, consistent actions rather than sweeping changes. Look at classroom transitions and consider how simple digital routines might reinforce healthy habits while also creating smoother workflows.

• Clearing tabs reset (Digital Shred): End each period with a 30-second digital declutter—closing tabs and organizing Drive files.
• Visual Transitions (Analog Mode): Use a red-light/green-light system. A stop sign on the interactive whiteboard signals Lids Down/Screens Off for direct instruction; a green slide signals that devices are okay.
• The Focus Sprint (Deep Breath): Use a digital timer such as a Pomodoro Clock (reviewed here) for 15 minutes of focused work, followed by a brief 2‑minute, screen‑free brain break where students can stand up, stretch, or move their bodies before resetting.

Modeling matters, too. Project your screen (after checking it carefully) and narrate your own thinking, “I have five emails I want to answer right now, but I’m going to close that tab so I can meet with students at stations. I’m silencing my phone and putting it in my drawer because it helps me focus. It’s hard for me too.” By showing both the struggle and the strategy, you turn an abstract expectation into a visible, repeatable skill.

Throughout the day, we constantly check for understanding through formal and informal assessments. Tech habits deserve the same treatment. At the end of a tech-heavy lesson, take two minutes for a quick technology audit.

• Scale of 1–5: How much did your device help you learn today versus distract you?
• Reflection: What was the biggest distraction you faced today, and how can we beat it tomorrow?

These quick check-ins provide valuable data. If an entire class struggled with the same distraction, it’s a signal to adjust the routine or the environment—not necessarily to remove technology altogether.

Building a healthy digital culture isn’t about a full reset. It’s about layering. Pick one habit—maybe just closing extra tabs—and commit to it for a week. Celebrate small wins. When a student silences a notification on their own, name it.

Technology isn’t a hurdle we have to clear to get to learning; it’s the landscape we’re learning in. By giving students both a map and a compass, we help them do more than survive the digital age—we help them thrive in it.

What are your biggest challenges in teaching healthy technology habits? We would love to hear routines and strategies that help your students stay focused and intentional with their devices.

If you’ve ever held a well-worn suitcase—one with scuffs, scratches, maybe even a frayed handle—you know it carries more than just belongings. Suitcases hold stories. Memories. Hope. And for millions of immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island after it opened on January 1, 1892, that suitcase represented the bridge between the lives they left behind and the ones they hoped to build.

At the height of immigration, that bridge was crossed at an astonishing pace. On April 17, 1907—the busiest day in Ellis Island’s busiest year—11,747 people passed through its doors in a single day. Each carried a suitcase, and each one held a story waiting to unfold.

For students, that minor detail—a simple suitcase—can open the door to deeper understanding. It makes history feel human and personal. One of the most powerful ways to bring that humanity forward is through the authentic voices of children who arrived through Ellis Island and the many other routes that brought families to America.

We can introduce the story of Ellis Island and the pursuit of the American Dream through the authentic voices of Emma and William Greiner, siblings who arrived in 1925. Their memories offer an accessible and genuine perspective on immigration suitable for all grade levels. Furthermore, their personal story provides students with a relatable touchpoint for exploring this historical topic.

When Emma and William shared their memories for the National Park Service’s Ellis Island Oral History Project, they talked not about “big history,” but about the tiny decisions children make when they know everything is about to change. Their stories are part of the larger Oral History Project featuring interviews with over 1700 Ellis Island immigrants.

Eleven-year-old Emma packed mostly practical items for her journey, including clothing, wool blankets, and a few treasured pieces of family china. Despite her fear that “we may not be able to get here,” she prepared for the trip as best she could.

Twelve-year-old William’s memories focused on comfort items: greeting cards he had saved, his tin-soldier collection, and his cherished “Magic Lantern”—a small projector toy. His suitcase contained not just belongings, but imagination, play, and a tangible sense of home he brought to unfamiliar places.

Together, their choices paint a picture that resonates with students of all ages: two children, standing at the edge of something new, deciding what mattered most.

Once Emma and William’s story has been shared, integrate picture books that focus on the experiences of other immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island and other entry points.

Grades K-2: Include books that focus on feelings and objects:

• An Ellis Island Christmas by Rhea Leighton is inspired by the author’s own family history. It emphasizes the hardship of leaving home and the practical, difficult choices a 6-year-old Polish girl, Krysia, faces about what to pack, such as which of her two beloved dolls to bring on the journey.
• Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story by Amy June Bates is based on the true story of a young girl separated from her mother. Gentle but powerful.
• The Memory Coat by Elvira Woodruff tells the tender story of a girl afraid her old coat will keep her out of America.
• Dreaming of America: An Ellis Island Story by Eve Bunting recounts the story of Annie Moore, the first immigrant to arrive at Ellis Island, using beautiful storytelling.
• I Was Dreaming to Come to America by Veronica Lawlor features short oral histories paired with illustrations, making it excellent for teacher read-alouds.

After reading about Ellis Island, ask students to draw the items they would bring in their suitcase if they had to move to a new country. Use Pixabay (reviewed here) to find free clip art, such as this suitcase, to create a coloring page.

Use ClassTool’s Image Annotator (reviewed here) to share items students would bring to a new country. Upload an image of a suitcase, then add hotspots with a picture of each student’s item and their name. When finished, share a link to your interactive image on classroom computers so students can explore it independently.

Grades 3-5: Offer books that encourage upper elementary students to compare their experiences to those of immigrants and consider reasons why families immigrate from their home countries. 

• We Came to America by Faith Ringgold is a poetic exploration of the many reasons people have journeyed to America, whether by choice, seeking hope, or forced to flee fear, and the cultural heritage they bring to America.
• Sugar in Milk by Thrity Umrigar is the tale of a young girl who recently moved from India and feels homesick until her aunt shares a story about the migration of their community to an unknown land, illustrating how new homes can be created while honoring one’s heritage.
• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi: This book follows a Korean girl who is self-conscious about her name and considers changing it to an American one. It’s highly relatable for discussions on identity, fitting in, and cultural differences in a new school environment.

Ask students to create maps of immigrants’ journeys using Google My Maps (reviewed here). Include links to videos, stories of immigrants, and information about the country they left.

Use Google Slides (reviewed here) to make a digital suitcase template and create a collaborative presentation for students to share what they would put in a suitcase if they left the country. Add a slide for each student that includes an image of a suitcase, a list of items they would bring, and an area to discuss their choices using this example template.

Middle School: Students are mature enough to explore the emotional and historical complexities of immigration. Using picture books with sophisticated illustrations and concise text can help students explore complex themes such as war, trauma, and resilience in an accessible yet profound way.

• The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a sophisticated, wordless graphic novel that uses surreal, intricate illustrations to capture the feelings of displacement and awe an immigrant experiences in a new, utterly strange land.
• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is not strictly a picture book; however,  this short, impactful novel (often used in middle school curricula) weaves together the true story of Salva Dut, a “Lost Boy of Sudan” who becomes a refugee, with the fictional story of Nya, a Sudanese girl in 2008.

Share audio clips or transcripts from the National Park Service’s In Their Own Words collection to share relatable stories from immigrants, including trying pizza for the first time or starting school for the first time in a new country. Ask students to create short podcasts featuring the stories of immigrant children, focusing on the emotions they felt and the difficulties they encountered. Encourage students to think about common themes found across different children’s experiences and how these stories connect to larger historical events or immigration patterns.

High School: Students can extend their understanding of immigration by evaluating immigration stories through political, economic, and cultural lenses while continuing to connect personally through stories.

• The Journey by Francesca Sanna uses evocative, stylized illustrations and a first-person narrative to describe a family’s escape from war.
• Illegal, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, is a graphic novel that tells the story of Ebo, a young boy from Ghana who embarks on a perilous journey across the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, hoping to reunite with his family.

Use Kialo for Edu (reviewed here) as a platform for student discussions on immigration, using big ideas and questions. For example, begin a debate with a question such as “What is the role of empathy in shaping immigration policies?” On the pro side, mention human-centered policies like what children bring in their suitcases, and on the con side, discuss why policies need to be grounded in law, not individual cases.

Presenting stories such as Emma and William’s suitcases to students of all ages helps them think concretely about identity, change, belonging, and family. Because Emma and William were children, students can naturally relate in different ways:

• Younger learners connect through feelings (“What would I take if I had to move?”)
• Upper elementary students begin to explore context and motivation.
• Middle and high school students dig deeper into historical forces, cultural identity, and immigration policy.

The suitcase, as part of the immigration experience, is more than an object; it’s a story waiting to be unpacked. By engaging with the personal experiences of immigrant children, students can step into the past, explore resilience and hope, and connect history to their own lives. Using books, artifacts, and creative activities, the simple suitcase becomes a powerful tool for teaching empathy, understanding, and the human side of immigration.

That’s exactly what Margaret Peterson Haddix had in mind when she wrote Uprising. In a video conversation about the book, Haddix explains that she wanted students to step into the history of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire by meeting characters they could genuinely relate to — and that the issues those characters faced are ones our nation is still wrestling with today. Sound familiar? Labor rights, immigration, gender equity — these aren’t just historical footnotes. They’re headlines.

Today, April 9th, is Haddix’s birthday — and what better way to celebrate than by bringing her characters into your classroom with intention? Born in 1964, she has written more than 50 books for children and teenagers, spanning dystopian futures, reconstructed pasts, and the tangled territory in between. Across all of them, she creates characters who are trapped — by circumstance, by society, by secrets they didn’t choose. That tension makes her books ideal for two thinking routines from Project Zero: Circle of Viewpoints and Step In/Step Out/Step Back. And the right digital tools can make those routines even more powerful.

Two Routines Worth Adding to Your Toolkit

Before we dive into the books, here’s a quick look at each routine and why they work so well together.

Circle of Viewpoints invites students to inhabit a specific character’s perspective and speak from inside it. The core frame is simple: “I am thinking about [the situation] from the point of view of…” From there, students respond to three questions:

• What do I see or experience from this viewpoint?
• What do I care about?
• What questions do I have that others might not?

The routine shines brightest when a text offers multiple distinct characters, because comparing what each one sees — and doesn’t see — is where the real learning happens. It moves students from summarizing what a character does to genuinely understanding why.

Step In/Step Out/Step Back builds on that empathy and then zooms out. Students step in to see through a character’s eyes, step out to consider how others in the story see things differently, and step back to examine the bigger picture — the systems, forces, and ideas at work in the world those characters inhabit. For Haddix’s books, that final “step back” is almost always where things get most interesting, because her fictional worlds have something pointed to say about our own.

Used together, these routines create a natural learning sequence: Circle of Viewpoints builds perspective and empathy first, then Step In/Step Out/Step Back widens the lens and invites critical thinking about what those perspectives reveal collectively. Think of it as moving from understanding to analyzing — and doing it through story.

Uprising: Three Windows, One World (Grades 6–10)

Before your students even open this book, consider sharing the video in which Haddix talks about why she wrote it. She makes a compelling case for why these characters matter — and why this history is anything but over. It’s a powerful way to set the stage.

Uprising is a fictionalized account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, set against the workers’ strike that preceded it. It follows three young women: Yetta, a Russian immigrant passionate about labor rights who becomes one of the strike’s leaders; Bella, a recently arrived Italian immigrant who feels overwhelmed and like a stranger in America; and Jane, an unhappy wealthy girl who longs to break free from the cage of her social expectations. Readers experience three distinct viewpoints on the same events — the conditions in the factory, the strike, and ultimately the fire — as those perspectives coalesce into a single story.

That structure is a gift for the Circle of Viewpoints. Here’s how to make it work with technology:

Before class: Students read or listen to an assigned section using the teacher-created read-along playlist on YouTube — a meaningful accessibility bridge for struggling readers or students who need to hear the prose to connect with it. An audiobook preview is also available to hook interest before reading begins.

During class: Open a Microsoft Form (reviewed here) built around the Circle of Viewpoints prompts. Students choose their character — Bella, Yetta, or Jane — and respond to the routine’s questions. In presentation mode, the Form gives you something remarkable: a live snapshot of how the class distributed itself across three perspectives, with built-in word clouds surfacing the language students reached for. Whose words dominate? What concerns keep reappearing across all three viewpoints? Those patterns become the raw material for discussion.

The pivot: Once you’ve unpacked the Circle of Viewpoints data together, transition directly into Step In/Step Out/Step Back. Use the aggregate responses to ask the bigger question: now that we’ve heard from all three women, what do their perspectives together reveal about power, labor, and whose voice gets heard — in 1911, and today?

The Form doesn’t replace the discussion. It feeds it.

Among the Hidden: A Single Hidden Life (Grades 5–8)

Luke Garner is an illegal third child in a future where the Population Police enforce a strict two-children-only law — a boy who has lived his entire twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm. A teacher-created read-along on YouTube makes the novel accessible for independent reading at home, setting up the same kind of flipped engagement that works so well with Uprising.

For the in-class activity, try the Iron Chef EduProtocol as your vehicle for Circle of Viewpoints. Inspired by the competitive cooking show, Iron Chef is a jigsaw-format activity in which students work collaboratively using a shared slide deck template — with a strict time limit that adds a game-like structure to the work. Here’s how to set it up:

• Prepare a shared slide deck with one slide per viewpoint: Luke, his brothers who live openly, Jen (the shadow child whose experience of hiding is entirely different from his), and the government officials enforcing the law.
• Assign each small group a slide and a character.
• Give them ten minutes to build out their perspective using the Circle of Viewpoints prompts.
• Each group presents. When everyone has shared, the class has built a Circle of Viewpoints together — collaboratively, with accountability built right in.

The Step Back question practically asks itself: Who decides whose life is worth protecting, and why?

Extend the thinking beyond class with a Padlet (reviewed here). Students post a brief “viewpoint card” — a statement from inside their character’s perspective — and respond to each other’s posts. The result is a visible, asynchronous dialogue between characters that you can revisit in subsequent lessons and that students can contribute to on their own time.

Running Out of Time: When the Truth Is Hidden From You (Grades 4–7)

Jessie believes she lives in 1840 Indiana — until diphtheria strikes her village and her mother reveals a shocking truth: it’s actually 1996, and they are living in a reconstructed frontier village. A YouTube read-along playlist supports home reading for all learners.

For the Circle of Viewpoints activity, a Canva template (reviewed here) built around the routine’s prompts gives teachers a flexible tool that works as either a digital activity or a printed one. No device? Print it. Device available? Students complete it digitally and share their thinking with the class. The template can include:

• Character name and role in the story
• Perspective statement (“I am thinking about the village from the point of view of…”)
• What this character sees, cares about, and wonders
• One question this character has that others don’t

For students ready to go deeper, Book Creator (reviewed here) opens up a richer possibility. Instead of a single template, students build a short digital “character journal” — a few pages written from inside their chosen character’s point of view, illustrated with images or their own drawings, tracing how that character’s understanding shifts across the novel. It’s Circle of Viewpoints extended into a sustained creative project, and it produces something students can genuinely be proud of.

The Step Back questions here are some of the most philosophically rich Haddix offers: What do we owe people when we shape the world they experience? How do we know what we know? Students at almost any age can wrestle with those questions — and Haddix gives them a story-shaped container in which to do it safely.

Ready to Try It?

You don’t need to overhaul your ELA or social studies unit to make this work. Start with one book, one routine, and one tool. Share the Haddix video. Build a simple Microsoft Form. Set up a Padlet. The entry point is always a story — and the story does most of the heavy lifting.

So today, in honor of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s birthday, consider introducing your students to Bella, Yetta, Jane, Luke, or Jessie — and then asking them to step into the circle. The thinking that follows might just surprise everyone in the room.

Ready to Learn More?

If any of the tools or strategies in this post are new to you, TeachersFirst has you covered. The OK2Ask on-demand professional learning sessions below are available anytime, and you can earn PD credit for each one you complete. Looking to go even deeper with thinking routines? Check out our full Professional Learning Unit.

Thinking Routines

• Engage and Inspire with Thinking Routines (OK2Ask on-demand)
• Engage and Inspire with More Thinking Routines (OK2Ask on-demand)
• Thinking Routines Professional Learning Unit

Microsoft Forms

• Microsoft Forms Basics (OK2Ask on-demand)
• Microsoft Forms for Differentiation (OK2Ask on-demand)

EduProtocols

• EduProtocols for Student Engagement and Choice (OK2Ask on-demand)

Padlet

• Tech Made EZ with Padlet (OK2Ask on-demand)

Canva

• Canva Basics (OK2Ask on-demand)

Book Creator

• Tech Made EZ with Book Creator (OK2Ask on-demand)

You’re staring at a new unit plan, trying to figure out how to weave in media literacy, find credible primary sources, and keep thirty different students engaged—all while hitting your state standards. It feels like a solo mountain climb. But here’s the thing: you aren’t alone on that mountain. Just down the hall—or perhaps right in the heart of your building—is a professional who is literally trained to be your copilot.

Today’s school librarian is a tech-savvy information architect, a literacy champion, and—most importantly—your secret weapon for lesson planning. Whether you’re an elementary classroom teacher whose librarian works on a fixed schedule or a middle or high school teacher with access to a more flexible library program, collaboration with librarians is essential. When classroom teachers and school librarians collaborate, the pedagogical magic doesn’t just happen—it scales. Research consistently shows that schools with strong collaborative cultures between librarians and classroom teachers see higher reading scores and improved student inquiry skills. This isn’t luck; it’s what happens when two instructional experts stop working in parallel and start working together.

I bet it’s something that’s probably happening in your building right now, at least some of the time. Maybe you consistently loop the school librarian in during your research units or during grade-level team planning meetings a few times a year. That’s real, and it matters. The question is, “How do we make this happen more consistently, with more teachers, across more of the school year?”

Collaboration doesn’t have to begin with a full co-designed unit. It can start much smaller, and it usually does. Think of it as a spectrum. At the most basic level, there’s simple sharing—you email your upcoming unit topics and the librarian sends back a curated list of vetted websites, relevant databases, and ten books worth putting on your classroom shelf. That alone can save you an hour of searching. From there, cooperation looks like both of you teaching around the same theme at the same time in your separate spaces, creating coherence across the building without requiring joint planning sessions. Integration is where it gets truly powerful: you co-design a rubric, co-teach the lesson, and share the assessment. The research gains are most significant at this level, but you don’t have to start there. The best first step is the simplest one: send your librarian your syllabus for next month. You’ll be surprised how quickly they can come back with a resource, an idea, or an offer to step in that you didn’t know was available. For school librarians, that step can be creating a Library Learning Menu—a one-page document in plain, teacher-friendly language that describes what they can bring to a unit.

Keep in mind, not every collaboration needs to be a month-long research project. Here are some suggestions on ways to work together:

1. Resource Curation (Grades K–5)
   The Idea: The classroom teacher gives the school librarian a unit topic; the school librarian builds a digital choice board or a physical book crate.
   Example: For a 4^th-grade unit on weather, the school librarian curates a mix of leveled nonfiction, a virtual reality tour of a storm chaser’s van, and a vetted list of primary source weather logs from the 1900s.
2. The Side-by-Side Co-Teach (Grades 9–12)
   The Idea: The class is divided into stations. The classroom teacher handles the content; the school librarian handles the tool or the source evaluation.
   Example: In a 9^th-grade biology class studying genetics, the classroom teacher leads a Punnett square station while the school librarian leads a station on scientific lateral reading—teaching students how to fact-check online sources.
3. The Lateral Reading Challenge (Grades 6–12)
   The Idea: Students practice digital citizenship by learning to fact‑check online information through lateral reading. The school librarian teaches the core digital literacy strategy, while the classroom teacher grounds the skills in curricular content.
   Example: During a unit that includes a controversial or debatable topic, the classroom teacher identifies claims connected to the curriculum. The school librarian introduces lateral reading by modeling how to open multiple tabs, compare perspectives, and investigate an author or organization’s credibility using curated “real” and “fake” websites. Together, the teacher and librarian help students apply these skills to determine accuracy, bias, and reliability.
4. The Multi-Sensory Story Walk (Grades K–5)
   The Idea: This approach transforms a picture book into an interactive, movement‑based experience that deepens student understanding of narrative elements and vocabulary. The school librarian designs the literacy stations, while the classroom teacher connects the experience directly to instructional goals.
   Example: At each station, the classroom teacher and the school librarian co-lead a small activity: a vocabulary pose (acting out a word), a prediction post-it (writing their story predictions), or drawing what they imagine happens next. The classroom teacher ties it to the narrative elements and vocabulary instruction from the classroom curriculum. Students experience the book as an event rather than a sitting, and the comprehension depth tends to be noticeably richer as a result.
5. The Genius Hour Makerspace (All Grades)
   The Idea: Inquiry‑based learning thrives when students have access to both strong instructional guidance and flexible resources. In this collaboration, teachers manage the learning process while librarians support exploration and creation.
   Example: Students choose a problem to solve or a topic to master during a Genius Hour project. The classroom teacher manages the project checkpoints and rubrics; the librarian manages the “resource buffet.” The school librarian can set up a makerspace corner with 3D printers, cardboard, or specialized digital tools [like Canva for Education (reviewed here)] to help students present their final findings. Together, the teacher and librarian support students as they move from curiosity to creation.
6. The Primary Source Investigation (All Grades)
   The Idea: Primary sources offer powerful opportunities for inquiry when students are taught how to analyze them effectively. This collaboration pairs content expertise with information fluency.
   Example: The classroom teacher identifies a topic connected to the curriculum, such as a historical event, scientific discovery, or cultural movement. The school librarian provides relevant primary sources from platforms like the Library of Congress (reviewed here), DocsTeach (reviewed here), or the Digital Public Library of America (reviewed here), then teaches a structured primary-source evaluation process from the Library of Congress or Teaching History. The classroom teacher then guides reading comprehension, discussion, and writing that emerge from the investigation, with both educators facilitating the final debrief.
7. Book Creation (All Grades)
   The Idea: Students investigate a topic and show what they know by creating an original topic-specific book. This collaboration allows students to demonstrate understanding through writing, visuals, and design while practicing responsible use of images and information.
   Example: Students research a classroom topic identified by the teacher, such as a science concept, historical figure, or social issue. The classroom teacher supports content accuracy and narrative development, while the school librarian introduces students to copyright‑friendly image sources, such as Pixabay (reviewed here) or Creative Commons, and teaches them how to use a digital book creation tool such as Canva for Education (reviewed here) or Book Creator (reviewed here). The result is a polished, student‑created book that reflects both strong subject knowledge and responsible information use.

Our students are growing up in an information-explosive world. They don’t just need to know what happened in 1776 or how a cell divides—they need to know how to navigate the overwhelming, often contradictory, frequently manipulative landscape of information they encounter every single day. You bring the subject expertise. Your librarian brings the information fluency. Together, you are genuinely unstoppable. As always, check out TeachersFirst resources and blog posts for more information!

Middle school students are shifting from passive consumers of technology to active, engaged digital citizens. They’re building their perspectives, experimenting with social media, and discovering the power of their voices. Teaching AI literacy means more than showing them how to write prompts — it means demystifying the technology and pulling back the curtain so students see that AI doesn’t replace their creativity or agency. Additionally, students shouldn’t over‑rely on generative AI as a substitute for their own voice. Instead, it serves as a powerful tool to help them express themselves with assurance and clarity.

Students need a balanced understanding of AI. They should see how it can support creativity and research, while also recognizing limitations such as bias and misinformation. As educators, our goal is to help students become thoughtful, skeptical, and empowered digital citizens.

Below are three classroom-ready approaches to help your students grow from simply being AI-curious to becoming AI-literate.

Approach 1: Teach Students to Question AI Outputs

Shift from “Is this right?” to “Why did AI generate this?”

When students focus only on whether an AI response is correct, they miss the deeper thinking that AI literacy requires. This approach encourages students to look beneath the surface and ask why AI generates certain outputs. It reinforces the idea that AI should support their thinking rather than replace it—acting as a brainstorming partner that helps refine ideas and strengthen their voice. By helping students analyze patterns, assumptions, and potential bias in AI responses, we guide them toward becoming thoughtful and empowered users of AI tools.

Try These Activities

• Have students research a historical event, a science concept, or a topic such as bias in AI image generators or social media using Google Learn About (reviewed here) and Have students research a historical event, a science concept, or a topic such as bias in AI image generators or social media using 
• Use an AI-audit checklist for student detectives to assess AI-generated content, including checkpoints on researching bias, AI hallucinations, missing information, and source verification.
• Try the Broken Mirror Experiment, a common metaphor that depicts AI as reflecting only fragments of reality or distorting what it sees, to explore AI-generated bias and content.
  Write a simple prompt such as “Write a story about a brilliant scientist.” Discuss assumptions in the AI’s default output (e.g., gender, ethnicity).
  Then revise the prompt — “Write a story about a brilliant scientist from Kenya.” Compare how the story changes, and discuss how students can generate more accurate, inclusive prompts while identifying what to look for when evaluating AI responses for factual, unbiased information.

Approach 2: Use AI as a Collaborative Partner

Shift from “AI works for me” to “AI works with me.”

Students can learn to use AI as a brainstorming and revision partner rather than a replacement for their ideas. When we teach students to focus on prompt engineering and use AI responses as feedback to clarify and strengthen their own ideas, they develop stronger writing, clearer arguments, and a more confident sense of voice.

Try These Activities

• Introduce students to reverse outlines using a chat tool. Students paste a drafted paragraph into a chat tool like ChatGPT (reviewed here) and prompt the AI to generate a bulleted outline of the main points. If the outline doesn’t match the student’s intent, they revise for clarity.
• Use AI as a debate partner using Google Gems, such as AI Debate, available on the EduGems site by Eric Curts. Begin using the Gem by typing “hello” and following the prompt to add information, including the debate topic, grade level, stance (pro or con), number of rounds, and who begins the debate. Using AI to conduct a debate helps students learn to state their points clearly and develop facts that support their opinion.
• Build vocabulary and develop complex sentence structure using AI as a partner. Provide a simple sentence, “The fox was quick.” Ask AI to generate five vivid, sensory-rich alternatives. Have students choose the best version and explain why it fits the mood of their story and enhances their writing.

Approach 3: Show Students How Algorithms Shape Their Online World

Help students see the hidden systems behind what they’re shown online.

Understanding algorithms can be a “Wizard of Oz” moment for students—pulling back the curtain to reveal that AI isn’t magic at all, but a series of fast, data‑driven decisions shaping what they see online. When we help students look behind the scenes, we empower them to recognize how recommendation systems, filters, and automated decisions influence their digital experiences and why it matters.

Try These Activities

• Play A Game About Algorithms from Media Smarts (reviewed here). It’s an unplugged activity that helps students understand how recommendation engines work. Give five students five “interest” cards (likes cats, tennis, etc.) and give another set of five students “content” cards (a baking recipe, a video tutorial about soccer). Designate one student as the “algorithm”; their job is to deliver content to users. Each time a user “likes” a card, the algorithm must find more cards with similar tags. Make this even more interesting by adding a “viral” card that everyone receives, regardless of their interests. 
• Use Google Teachable Machine (reviewed here) and have students train a model to recognize a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down using the computer’s webcam. Point out that as students add examples, they see how the model becomes more confident — and where it fails. Next, to illustrate AI’s limitations, try confusing the machine by using a different hand or a drawing. This activity helps demonstrate what AI can and cannot recognize, and how these limitations apply to the algorithms and social media tools that influence the content users see.

AI isn’t going away, and our understanding of it is continually evolving. As educators, we play a key role in guiding students through that evolution—helping them move from seeing AI as “magic” to understanding it as a tool to investigate, a partner to question, and a machine to unpack. When we frame AI in these ways, we empower students to become competent, curious users who know how to work with AI tools rather than be dazzled or misled by them.

The goal isn’t to turn every student into a computer scientist; it’s to ensure that when they encounter an AI-generated image, a social media recommendation, or a chatbot response, they have the critical thinking skills to ask questions like:
Why was this generated?
What part of the story is missing?

Which approach will you try first? Share your experiences in the comments below to keep the conversation going. Together, we can help our middle schoolers navigate this new frontier with confidence and clarity!

But in the back corner, there’s Leo. He’s still processing the question. He has great insight, but he needs more time to organize his thoughts. By the time Leo is ready to share a response, Maya has already answered, the class has moved on, and his opportunity has passed.

This “participation gap” isn’t about who is smarter; it’s often a divide between the fast and the reflective. When we rely only on raised hands, we’re measuring speed and confidence more than deep understanding. To give every student an equal opportunity to participate, we must offer multiple ways to share thinking, provide intentional wait time, and design structures that help all students make their ideas visible.

Using Question Progressions to Support Thinking

Research consistently shows that most classroom questions stay at the recall level, which means many students never get the structured scaffolding they need to move toward deeper thinking. Strategic questioning helps solve this by intentionally sequencing question types along an inquiry continuum:

• Surface Level (Recall & Facts): This is where we ensure everyone has the foundational information. It’s the “what.”
• Deep Level (Analysis & Connections): Prompts students to explain, analyze, justify, or compare ideas. This is the “how” and “why.”
• Transfer Level (Application & Creation): Encourages students to apply what they’ve learned to a new scenario, problem, or real‑world situation.

By deliberately planning these sequences, we help students build confidence at the surface level before moving into more demanding thinking tasks.

See the full Inquiry Question Examples Table at the end of this post for sample questions broken down by grade level and inquiry depth.

Digital Tools That Amplify Inquiry

Digital tools can make thinking visible, reduce performance pressure, and provide alternative ways for students to participate—even those who need more time, more structure, or less spotlight.

Padlet (reviewed here) – Use the shelf format option in Padlet to create a visual “thinking trail” that documents student thinking by adding columns for surface, comprehension, analysis, and transfer questions. Adapt for younger grades by answering questions together and discussing how they use information they knew, thought about, and applied to something unknown.

You can also use Padlet as an evidence bank in science or social studies with columns for evidence, patterns, interpretations, and claims—or as an open sandbox for observations and ideas using sticky notes.

Students can see their peers’ posts in real time, providing a “safety net” for learners who need models of successful thinking before they share their own ideas.

Kialo Edu (reviewed here) – Kialo creates visual debate maps—often called argument maps—that help students see the “big picture” of a complex issue. Each map begins with a central question or thesis, then branches into pro and con arguments. These branches form a visual “debate tree,” allowing students to follow and contribute to a structured, multi‑layered line of reasoning.

Unlike linear comment threads, Kialo’s interactive design lets students add claims, counterclaims, and sub‑arguments that reveal both the depth and breadth of a topic. This structure naturally supports higher‑level thinking: students analyze relationships between ideas, identify gaps in reasoning, and evaluate evidence as they move through the map.

Kialo’s topic templates offer ready‑to‑use prompts and frames that help teachers get started quickly. They’re especially useful for guiding students toward lively, polite debates that extend beyond simple yes/no responses.

By mapping claims and sub‑claims visually, students can clearly see where evidence is strong, weak, or missing. This structure also lowers the social pressure of a live verbal debate, giving all learners—including quieter or more reflective students—a meaningful way to contribute to rich, analytical classroom discussions.

AI Chatbots: Take advantage of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT (reviewed here) or Google Gemini to boost questioning in your lesson plans.

Try this fill-in-the-blank template, then paste the template into your chatbot to create a set of questions for any topic or grade level:

• Context: I am a [INSERT GRADE LEVEL] teacher covering the topic of [INSERT TOPIC/UNIT].
• Task: Please act as an expert curriculum designer. I need a set of questions to check for understanding and spark critical thinking. Please use the following framework to categorize the questions:
  • Surface Level: Questions that ensure students know the key vocabulary and basic facts.
  • Deep Level: Questions that ask students to connect concepts, explain “why” and “how,” or compare/contrast ideas.
  • Transfer Level: Questions that ask students to apply this knowledge to a brand new scenario, a real-world problem, or a different subject area.
• Output: Please provide [INSERT NUMBER] questions per category. Ensure the language is age-appropriate for my students.

Keep in mind that you can always provide feedback to the chatbot and continue refining the questions until they fit your lesson goals.

Google Gemini has an excellent tool known as “Gems.” Gems allow users to create custom instructions that save time with repetitive tasks. Log in to Google to use this Gem to create a tiered set of inquiry questions for any topic or grade level by following a short set of prompts. Start by saying “hello” and answering the questions to share the topic and grade level of your lesson. Use the plus sign in the message box to attach your lesson if desired, to add additional context to create your response.

Why Blended Inquiry Shifts Participation

Using digital tools alongside thoughtful, scaffolded questioning gives students multiple pathways to participate and make their thinking visible. Maya still gets to share her ideas out loud with confidence, but now Leo has space too—space to draft a response in Padlet, add evidence in Kialo, or work through sequenced questions that guide him into deeper thinking without being put on the spot.

These tools also support higher‑level learning by giving students opportunities to revise, edit, and analyze their ideas throughout the process. Their thinking doesn’t disappear when the conversation moves on; it becomes visible, valued, and part of the collective learning in your classroom.

When we move beyond raised hands and embrace structured, equitable inquiry, participation becomes less about who speaks first and more about ensuring every learner has a meaningful place in the conversation.

What inquiry strategies or tools are helping your students participate more deeply? Share an idea in the comments!

Inquiry Question Examples by Grade Level

These examples demonstrate how surface, deep, and transfer questions work together to support inquiry across K–12 classrooms. Use these question sets to model thinking, scaffold discussions, or guide lesson planning.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”—Albert Einstein

February is full of love, pride, historical connection, celebration, and the annual observation of a precognitive weather-forecasting rodent—but it’s also the birth month of a storytelling legend. Whilem Carl Grimm, the younger of the Brothers Grimm, was born on February 24, 1786. The Brothers Grimm wrote the fairy tales that inspired many Disney movies—but the Cinderella you see on the screen is not the same as the one from folklore. The Grimms did not intend to write children’s stories, but rather to collect and preserve the rich German oral tradition of stories “about children and families and . . . the difficult conditions under which they lived” (as described by Jack Zipes for the National Endowment for the Humanities). This preservation of language and history through stories was the most natural way for the brothers to maintain German Volk culture, which was threatened by society’s progress. These stories are more than just fairy tales; they are moral lessons that shape a culture and teach us to persevere and overcome hardships. Sometimes we don’t live happily ever after, and that is an important lesson.

In honor of Whilem Grimm’s birthday, let’s bring fairy tales, fables, and myths into our English and literature classrooms! These three types of stories are often interchanged. Let’s clarify the distinctions:

• Fairy tale: Short stories that fall under the folklore genre that entertain children with fantastical worlds, magic, and battles between good and evil.
• Fable: Short stories that use personified animals to teach moral lessons with the intention to promote good social behaviors.
• Myth: Stories that explain the natural world or teach larger societal lessons and generally pertain to gods and/or epic heroes. Generally, these stories have a religious ideology and help readers understand the “why” of the world.

One thing that these three have in common is that they stem from the oral tradition.

How can we use these stories in our classes? Let’s look at some practical integration ideas for each story type.

Fairy Tales:

• Fairy tales and fables tend to lend themselves to the elementary realm, as younger children are the intended audience. Use fairy tales to excite students with highly engaging stories of magical curses, dragons, and royal families. Use resources such as Classic Fairy Tales (reviewed here) and Andersen Fairy Tales (reviewed here) to provide students with visual representations of the stories. Students may already know the basics of the story, so use that familiarity to discuss different representations of the stories and characters (Disney’s Frozen versus Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” for example). Get students reading the fairy tales aloud—they’re from the oral tradition after all, so have fun with it!
• For the middle level, kick the foundation laid in elementary school up a notch. Fairy tales follow a formula, making them ideal for teaching students about the narrative arc. Have students identify the exposition, inciting incident, conflict, and other story elements. Fairy tales are also character and setting-rich. Analyze character development throughout the story. Introduce the idea of the setting being a form of a literary character—it’s so much more than just a place and time.
• For high school, have students examine the cultural lessons in the stories (this is why the Grimms collected them in the first place!). Little Red Riding Hood is more than a story of a little girl bringing treats to grandma. Have students analyze the symbols and their meanings to reveal the true intention of the story (check out this article from Owlcation for an example of this type of analysis). You could also have students compare and contrast fairy tales from other cultures. The American Library Association has a great resource by Mary Northrup called “Multicultural Cinderella Stories”, which highlights some of the 500 worldwide variations of a Cinderella story. The beauty of fairy tales is that they are accessible to most high school readers because they’re written for a younger audience; older students can dig deeper with the analysis without navigating a complicated text. Be mindful to read the stories all the way through and encourage students to make no assumptions; some of the original fairy tales are pretty dark and gruesome—that’s why I love the Brothers Grimm!

Fables:

• Fables are tailor-made for elementary readers and are super engaging. Who doesn’t love it when the cocky hare is put in his place by the tenacious tortoise? Fables are not just for teaching moral lessons; you can also use them to cultivate critical thinking skills. Read this article from Edutopia by Vincent Mastro, “Common Core, Critical Thinking and Aesop’s Fables,” for ideas. For engaging visuals, try using the Aesop’s Fables site (reviewed here), where Professor Copper Golith has her Computing in Fine Arts students create visual representations of the fables. Students can read the stories and draw their own representations.
• For middle school, you could use Professor Golith’s Labyrinth of Fables, where students can experience the fables in virtual reality. Students are asked to identify the morals to continue, which helps them understand the text’s central meaning. Students can also work on making inferences. Give them the first part of the fable and have them infer the ending.
• High school students can use fables to improve their creative writing skills. Have students listen to Flyest Fables (reviewed here), an interconnected podcast of modernized fables. Students can then use this as inspiration to create their own modern fable and work together to create a podcast series with a shared frame tale that connects each student’s story.

Myths:

• Myths at the elementary level tend to be watered-down versions, which is not necessarily a bad idea. Readers need a lot of nuanced understanding of culture, religion, and people to grasp myths, but it’s important to connect younger learners with these stories. When Lunar New Year comes around, teach students about Chang’e, the Chinese Moon Goddess. When teaching about the days of the week, sneak in tales of the Norse gods they are named for. As autumn gives way to winter, tell the story of Demeter, who mourns her daughter, Persephone, every time she returns to the underworld.
• Mythweb (reviewed here) is a great resource for Greek myths. Assign students a specific god or hero to research and then teach the class about. Students can play the interactive web game “The Wrath of the Gods,” created by the Mythweb team.
• At the high school level, myths can be used as cultural portals. Crash Course World Mythology (reviewed here) is a great resource for teaching myths from around the world. Create a major project in which students pick a culture to investigate and watch the Pantheon videos for that culture. Students can research stories using Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts (reviewed here) and go further with their chosen culture. Herbel Santiago wrote “Retelling Myths to Foster Creativity and Cultural Identity” for Edutopia, which offers a wonderful project that allows students to share their cultural identity. You could also use the oral tradition to experiment with analyzing how transcription affects the stories. Aimee Gish-Meier, American Indian Education Coordinator of the White Earth Nation, reminds us that, “When oral history is written, that which has been passed down from generation to generation through storytelling, the words lose something, seemingly dulling their spirit, leaving the reader to attach emotion, determine meaning, and find understanding”. Having students look at texts under this lens leads to rich analysis that deepens their understanding of the story’s cultural connections.

Whilem Grimm would rather we use his work for cultural exploration and understanding than mere children’s stories. Let’s honor his true work this year by leveraging fairy tales, fables, and myths to their true potential. 

Adobe Podcast’s free version offers a user-friendly, web-based platform for creating professional-quality audio content without the need for expensive equipment. Key features include automatic background noise removal, editable transcripts for accessibility, and intuitive editing tools. The free version includes one hour of processing time per day, with individual podcasts capped at 30 minutes. Its standout collaboration feature allows teachers and students to invite guests for virtual recordings from different devices without requiring accounts. The cloud-based system enables access from any internet-connected device, and finished podcasts can be quickly downloaded and shared, making it an ideal tool for engaging students through multimedia learning experiences.

Getting Started with Adobe Podcast

As you arrive at the site, click to Sign Up or Sign In. 

Next, create your account using your email, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple account, or one of the additional options shown below. 

Now you are ready to record. Select Start Recording to begin.

You have several options on this main page: you can click to Start recording, Invite guests to record, or Upload audio. There are also options to download and share your finished podcast.

Now let’s look at the tools on the left side of the screen. At the top, you can rename your project by clicking the title field. The Upload button allows you to import documents or audio clips, and the Music option lets you add your own music or choose from Adobe’s built‑in clips. You can also use the Placeholder tool to insert text before or after your recording as a reminder or structural marker. The final option, Enhance, offers audio‑improvement features, though most of these require the premium plan.

Let’s compare the free plan with the upgraded premium plan. The free plan includes options to enhance audio, not video, with a maximum duration of 30 minutes and a maximum recording time of 60 minutes per day. It also offers podcast branding audiograms, AI analysis of your microphone, and more!

In addition, you can start with a free audio template (see some engaging free audio template options below). 

You can also add a free Podcast cover template. The free option currently includes over 360 templates. You can search by topic and even start your own from scratch.

As you record, Adobe Podcast automatically generates a transcript. The Edit button at the top of the screen controls transcript editing, though it is typically enabled by default. To make changes, click any word in the transcript; it will highlight in blue or purple, and you can add or delete text as needed. You can continue recording at any time by clicking the red record button to add more content or start a new take. 

The transcript usually keeps up with your recording, but sometimes it needs a minute or two to catch up after you’re done.

To invite guests to your recording, click Invite Guest on the main screen. You’ll be prompted to choose whether to send an invitation via link or email. Select Create shareable link to generate a link you can copy and share. Anyone with this link can join your recording session—no account or sign‑in required.

Once you complete your podcast, you are ready to export it. The Export button is on the top center, right next to the Edit button.

At the Export screen, you can choose from four output options. Audio exports an audio‑only file without a transcript. Audiogram creates an animated transcript video of your podcast. Transcript provides the text‑only version of your recording, and Original Recordings (a premium feature) provides separate audio files for each participant. When exporting audio, you can choose between MP3 or WAV formats.

Here is an example of a finished and downloaded audio file.

The Export Transcript file offers four options (all free): TXT, DOCX, PDF, or SRT.

Now, let’s look at the Audiogram option. While the free plan offers only a few customization choices, the final product still looks excellent. You won’t be able to choose a theme or background, but this isn’t essential for creating a clean, professional result. You can adjust the size of your audiogram, and the tool generates a polished transcript‑based video that pairs perfectly with your audio. 

Below, find an example of a finished Audiogram.

Tips for Student Podcast Success:

• Start with a Script or Outline: Effective podcasts—including student‑created ones—begin with planning. Before recording, students should develop a script or at least an outline of the key points they want to cover. This is considered podcasting best practice because it helps students organize their ideas, stay focused, and avoid long pauses or tangents. For interview‑style podcasts, scripting becomes even more important—students should prepare all their questions in advance, along with potential follow‑up prompts, so the conversation flows smoothly once the recording begins.
• Set Up Your Space: Find a quiet location with minimal background noise—even a closet full of clothes can serve as an excellent recording booth
• Start Small: Begin with short 3-5 minute episodes to build confidence before tackling longer projects.
• Embrace Imperfection: Adobe’s AI enhancement means students don’t need to achieve perfection on the first take, reducing anxiety and encouraging creativity.
• Create Templates: Develop episode format templates (intro music, standard segments, outro) to help students structure their content.
• Build in Reflection: Have students listen to their work and identify what they learned through the creation process.
• Collaborate Across Classes: Partner with other teachers to create cross-curricular podcast projects that demonstrate real-world connections.
• Set Up Your Project:
  • Name your podcast episode
  • Choose whether you’re recording solo or with remote participants
  • For remote recording, share the session link with participants
  • Click the red record button when ready
  • Speak clearly and naturally—Adobe’s AI will handle most audio issues
  • Use the pause feature if you need breaks
  • Record separate tracks for different speakers when possible

Classroom Implementation Ideas:

Adobe Podcast transforms passive learners into active content creators, developing crucial 21st-century skills including digital literacy, communication, research, and critical thinking. Students report increased engagement with subject matter when they know their work will have an authentic audience beyond their teacher.

Moreover, podcasting naturally differentiates instruction—visual learners benefit from researching and scripting, auditory learners excel during recording, and kinesthetic learners engage through the hands-on technical aspects of production.

Below, we share 20 ideas for using Adobe Podcast in your lessons.

1. Book Review Podcasts: Students create episodic reviews of class novels, discussing themes, character development, and personal connections. This moves beyond traditional book reports to develop critical thinking and oral communication skills.
2. Poetry Performances: Transform poetry units by having students record dramatic readings of their original work or classic poems, complete with background music and sound effects.
3. Author Interview Series: Students research authors and create imagined interviews, requiring a deep understanding of biographical information and literary style.
4. Historical Figure Documentaries: Students adopt the personas of historical figures and create first-person narrative podcasts about significant events, bringing history to life through storytelling.
5. Storytelling Series – Have students write and narrate original fiction, historical fiction, or personal narratives, developing creative writing and oral presentation skills. Collaborative groups can work together to voice different characters from the stories. 
6. Historical Figure Interviews or debates: Students adopt the personas of historical figures and participate in collaborative interviews or debates. For example, have Benjamin Franklin interview Harry S Truman about how the world was different in their times. This could be used with presidents, inventors, educators, or anyone else from the past. 
7. Current Events Analysis: Have students create weekly student-produced news shows to encourage civic engagement and media literacy while developing research and presentation skills.
8. Oral History Projects: Students can interview family members or community elders, preserving local history while honing their interview techniques and developing digital storytelling skills.
9. Science Explanation Series: Have students create “explain it like I’m five” style podcasts that break down complex scientific concepts for younger audiences, reinforcing their own understanding.
10. Research Presentation Podcasts: Have students transform traditional science fair presentations into engaging audio documentaries that follow the scientific method from hypothesis to conclusion.
11. Environmental Awareness Campaigns: Students can produce investigative podcasts about local environmental issues, combining science content with community engagement.
12. Language Learning Conversations: World language students and multilingual learners can practice pronunciation and conversational skills by creating podcasts entirely in their target language.
13. Math Problem-Solving Walkthroughs: Challenge your students to explain complex mathematical concepts and problem-solving strategies, reinforcing their own learning while helping peers.
14. Career Exploration Interviews: Students can research careers of interest and conduct real or simulated interviews with professionals in various fields that may interest them.
15. Peer Teaching Podcasts – Students can create instructional episodes teaching specific skills or concepts to classmates, rotating roles as both teacher and learner. 
16. Debate Format Podcasts – Collaborative groups can create structured debate podcasts on controversial topics, requiring thorough research and respectful discourse. 
17. School News Network – Have students produce regular podcasts covering school events, achievements, and community news, developing journalism skills while keeping the school community informed. Different students could create a short podcast each day or week, or you could have small groups work together to develop podcasts. 
18. Portfolio Reflections – Students can create semester-end podcasts reflecting on their learning journey, discussing growth, challenges overcome, and goals for future learning.
19. Wellness & Mental Health Talks – Students can work together to create supportive podcasts discussing stress management, study techniques, or social issues relevant to their peer group. Each group can tackle a different topic. 
20.  Invention Pitch Shows (like Shark Tank) – Students can present their engineering or design projects as if pitching to investors, explaining problems, solutions, and real-world applications. Share a short snippet from Shark Tank as an example. 

Additional Video Tutorials and Articles:

• TeachersFirst Review: Adobe Podcast
• Video: The Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Podcast
• Video: How to Enhance Voice in Adobe Podcast 2025

Adobe Podcast offers a flexible, accessible way for students to create meaningful audio projects while building communication and digital literacy skills. Whether you’re enhancing an existing lesson or designing something entirely new, the platform opens up countless possibilities for creative, authentic learning.

Have you used Adobe Podcast in your lessons? Share your activities in the comments below!

Adobe Podcast gives students a powerful way to capture, create, and share their ideas in meaningful and engaging formats. This free, web‑based tool allows learners to produce professional‑quality audio without needing specialized equipment, making podcasting accessible to classrooms of all kinds. With features like automatic noise removal, editable transcripts, and intuitive editing tools, Adobe Podcast helps students focus on content and creativity rather than technical hurdles.

Beyond its ease of use, the platform supports today’s flexible learning environments. Because everything is cloud‑based, both teachers and students can access their projects from any internet‑connected device, whether they’re at school, at home, or learning on the go. The platform’s daily free usage—one hour of processing time with up to 30 minutes per file—makes it practical for classroom projects, big or small.

One standout feature for educators is the “Invite Guests” option, which allows students and teachers to record collaboratively from any location without requiring guests to create an account. This simple link‑based collaboration enables virtual interviews, group recordings, peer feedback, and authentic learning experiences that reach beyond the classroom walls. Once a podcast is complete, users can easily download and share their work, helping students feel ownership and pride in their creations.

Applying the Triple E Framework 

The Triple E Framework, created by Dr. Liz Kolb, states that “effective technology integration begins with good instructional strategies and not fancy tools” (tripleeframework.com). Dr. Kolb wrote a book, Learning First, Technology Second (ISTE, 2017), which discusses the Triple E Framework and lays out the three main uses of technology in education: to Engage, Enhance, or Extend learning goals. We can use this framework to decipher why we use specific classroom tools. We must understand why we are using technology, not just incorporating it as a time-filler, but rather as a partner in achieving our learning goals. Here is a rubric based on the Triple E Framework that you can use to evaluate whether Adobe Podcast (or any other technology) is a suitable fit for your learning goals and whether it should be incorporated into your lesson.

• Engage in learning goals: Adobe Podcast actively engages students by leveraging their familiarity with podcast media, providing them with authentic audiences beyond the classroom. Students become content creators rather than passive consumers. There are no advertisements to distract students’ focus from the videos and interactives. Additionally, students are actively engaged, rather than simply reading a text or listening to a lecture. 
• Enhance learning goals: The tool enhances learning by developing communication skills, digital literacy, and subject matter expertise simultaneously. The use of technology enables students to create podcasts and demonstrate understanding efficiently. For example, the technology allows students to cancel out background sound, snip the podcast, edit the transcription, and more. 
• Extend learning goals: Dr. Kolb describes extended learning as an opportunity for students to learn, connect, and collaborate outside the regular school day and as a way to create a bridge between school learning and everyday life experiences. This resource would be well-suited for virtual learning days, allowing students to generate a podcast independently at home or create one together virtually. Adobe Podcast extends learning beyond traditional boundaries by enabling students to interview experts, collaborate with peers globally, research real-world issues, and develop professional-level digital media skills that connect to career pathways.

SAMR Connection

The SAMR Model, developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura, describes four levels of technology implementation. Therefore, we can use this model as a guideline to analyze how integrating technology into our instructional plans can create an instructional shift in our lessons. Before selecting classroom technology, continually evaluate your purpose: What specific learning goal will the activity using this tool address? How does it fit your student’s needs? Adobe Podcast can be considered at all levels of the SAMR model. The following table outlines how Adobe Podcast relates to each component of the SAMR Model.  

Come back and join us for Part 2 of the Tech Tool of the Month: Adobe Podcast, where we’ll discuss using the tool and classroom ideas. In the meantime, please let us know how you have used Adobe Podcast in your educational setting in the comments below.