Limetown - Mystery Podcast for the Classroom

EDUC 5313 Audio Assignment

Soundcloud Link to Podcast
Podcast Script: Keisha Morris and Savannah Greenwood

Podcast Part 1: Podcast- A Thrilling Mode for Classroom Projects

[Suspenseful music to lead into podcast]

Audio: [Asylum]. (2024, January 17). Aggressive Horror Trailer [Audio File].
Retrieved https://soundcloud.com/sbrfm/asylum-aggressive-horror-trailer?
si=68e9b96b0a074277836de585fdfa192e&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_ca
mpaign=social_sharing.

Savannah (S): Wow, with music like this, we are SURELY about to tell a thrilling story. Maybe
one with mystery, murder, a few scares, and a problem to solve before things get…worse. We
will not tell that kind of story, but if you are interested in it, you can definitely check out
Limetown on Spotify for a thrilling tale that pulls you from episode to episode.

Podcasting has become a significantly more popular media for information consumption. Young
and old people are discovering podcasts that cover topics ranging from parenting to makeup to
weird facts about nature. In summary- there is a podcast for just about anything you are
interested in, and people worldwide are catching on.

As two language arts educators, one of the first things we wonder as we learn new things and
experience new mediums is how this could apply to the classroom.

Keisha (K): Absolutely! I think there are a wealth of ways we can use podcasting in the ELAR
classroom. I love how the use of intro music helps set the ambiance and mood for the story to be
told. In the language arts classroom, this could be an excellent tool for students to extend their
knowledge and show an understanding of tone and mood in different works of fiction.

[Cue heartbeat sound.]

Audio: [Epidemic Sound]. (2023, March 23). Heartbeating Thrills [Audio File].
Retrieved https://stock.adobe.com/search/audio?
album=&attribution=&current_page=1&duration_max=1200000&duration_min=0&keywords=h
eartbeat&loop=false&order=relevance&page_limit=50&tempo_max=300&tempo_min=1.
K: I can just imagine a tenth-grade student adapting Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart” with
this type of medium. They could incorporate the sound of a muffled heartbeat to imitate the heart
beneath the floorboards!

I also think that another great aspect of podcasting that can be beneficial to the language arts
classroom is to extend conversation outside the classroom. I, personally, enjoy listening to book
review podcasts. The Readheads Podcast does this and it would be an excellent opportunity for
students to discuss and analyze novels while applying it to real-world skills they could use in
their future. Who knows, one day we could have students with their own version of New Heights,
like the Kelce brothers.

S: As we think in this direction, it is absolutely essential to also address the academic elephant in
the room. YES- a project like this would meet multiple academic standards. There are many tiers
to projects such as this one, and students would have space to practice many skills because of it.
Considering my school context, the standard frameworks that I adhere to are the Oklahoma
Academic Standards, as well as the ISTE Standards, which are the standards that have developed
as technology also develops. Keisha has some things to say on ELAR specific standards that may
be addressed, but I’d like to highlight some of the standards that are addressed surrounding
collaboration, use of technology, and presentation.

Podcast Part Two: The Content Standards

[Transition Sound ]
Audio: [Epidemic Sound]. (2024, February 8). Drops of Rain [Audio File].
Retrieved https://stock.adobe.com/search/audio?k=331430633

S: The ISTE Standards- more specifically known as the International Society for Technology in
Education Standards- We’re going to spotlight necessary skills that students ought to learn so
they may best be prepared in a digital world. The ISTE has multiple sections of skills, but the
sections that are best met in a podcast project like this build students into the following types of
humans: Knowledge Constructors, Creative Communicators, and Global Collaborators.

1. As they strive to become Knowledge Constructors in this podcasting work, students will
more specifically meet two specific learning standards:
1.3.c. curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to
create collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions. So
this is just the fancy way of saying that students will gather as many different sources and
places for information and using different tools to make sure that they are giving their
best presentation and giving reliable information.
1.3.d. build knowledge by actively exploring real-world issues and problems, developing
ideas and theories and pursuing answers and solutions. They’re using their prior
 knowledge, they’re exploring the world around them, the issues and problems in the
world around them and a lot of times they will answer make up conclusions.
(International Society for Technology in Education, 2023)
2. As Creative Communicators, students will truly meet all of the ISTE Standards in that
category. I won’t list them all for the sake of brevity, but just know that they definitely all
apply due to the communicative platform that is podcasting and the creative process that
goes into writing, recording, and publishing a podcast. They will be using a platform that
is communicative and collaborative and used all around the world.
3. Lastly, Students who podcast become Global Collaborators, considering that they may:
1.7.a use digital tools to connect with learners from a variety of backgrounds and
cultures, engaging with them in ways that broaden mutual understanding and
learning and
1.7.b. use collaborative technologies to work with others, including peers, experts,
or community members, to examine issues and problems from multiple
viewpoints. (International Society for Technology in Education, 2023)

S: Podcasts are often done with teams, working side-by-side with others on a similar mission to
explore, find answers, and share them with the world. Other podcasts may be there to simply
entertain with engaging stories, and depending on the subject or purpose of a specific podcast,
the aforementioned standards may or may not be met.

K: Absolutely, and that addresses the ISTE standards. We’ve got the collaboration, we have the
communication, and the knowledge construction. But, apart from the technology standards, we
also get to address our state standards for our specified curriculum. For me, for instance, that’s
going to be our Texas TEKs for the English II classroom. And so, TEK 10.6.B talks about theme
and motif. And when you take a podcast such as Limetown, which has that suspense and mystery
you can really talk about how an author uses vocabulary and certain elements to create a mood
for the story. And you can even go further into talking about elements of fiction. So it really
covers author’s craft and purpose. As well as some of those literary devices such as situational
irony that you could discuss. It’s a great way for students not only to express their understanding
of these standards and to show it, they’re also addressing their understanding of digital
citizenship and learning useful skills for their future life. They could turn this into a career
someday. Whether it's being able to close read and analyze a text or using technology to
communicate with the world.

K: True. I think that, if using podcasting for a project-based assignment, a benefit would be
having a clearly defined rubric so that students would have clear expectations. This could also
help with the writing process, because, again, ELAR classroom. Students could work in pairs or
groups and develop an outline or a script so that the teacher could hold writer’s workshops with
them to discuss what they are doing well and help give direction in areas that need more growth.
Another thing that strikes me as beneficial for using podcasts is that there are so many students
who simply do not want to be seen, but are comfortable expressing themselves digitally. Mauve
that’s just the generation we’re in. This gives many of those timid students an opportunity to
shine without having to be at the front of the classroom to show their understanding. It’s a much
more organic way for them to express knowledge without having to feel so exposed.

S: I agree! Students do not want to be seen, nor do they have sufficient confidence to stand and
present materials in front of a classroom full of their peers. Podcasting presents information free
of visuals, on-the-spot speeches, and explanations. And best of all, it gives students permission to
use their voices. Not just in writing and trying to make their written voice sound like them, but
it’s their actual voice and I don’t feel like there is this pressure to use “perfectly precise academic
language” that satisfies MLA formatting and sounds professional and use certain pronouns.
When they’re podcasting, they can just be themselves- it is just people having a conversation or
telling a story. They can talk naturally about the information and share it from their unique
world.

K: Yes! And, taking out that aspect, yes, formal academic language and writing is important, but
more than that they need to express their understanding. This is something they could use to gain
confidence to do that. Just getting comfortable talking about the subject material and the content
matter can help them develop that academic vocabulary in a more organic setting.

I think this is a great tool to use in the classroom. With clearly defined limits and direction,
students can really show their understanding of materials in a format that is engaging, enhances
learning, and extends beyond the classroom. It’s something that I believe would facilitate
authentic intellectual work because it requires students to construct knowledge, strive for in-
depth understanding by having disciplined knowledge inquiry, and it’s totally relevant to life
beyond the classroom.

You don’t have to pigeonhole a podcasting assignment. It’s extremely versatile. The way it
blends literary concepts makes it an easy choice for our discipline, but it could be beneficial in
other disciplines as well. It is such an excellent collaboration tool that, really, it’s only limited by
our imagination on how to implement it in the classroom.

S: One hundred percent! So, as we kind of wind down and wrap up our thoughts, we want to
head back to the original place where we started, back to Limetown.

Podcast Part 3: Heading back to Limetown… the informal thoughts of two Limetown-reminiscing
teachers

S: So, with that we were talking about the music, the sounds that we hear. So, the music in
Limetown, it introduces the story. First, it starts with the cluttered voices, almost like an old
radio. It’s chaotic. There’s some scared people. Voices are overlapping. So, already listeners are
confronted with chaos, and it’s not a comfortable feeling. There’s something scary happening.
There are a lot of unknowns. You open with a chaotic mystery and there’s a lot of unknowns.

K: Yeah, they really hook you with that cacophony of sound, and that’s one of the great things
about podcasts, right? You really get to use those sounds to really create an immersive
experience for the listener. That’s one of the things I really liked about Limetown. You were in
the center of the story, and the characters were all around you. It was almost a more intimate
understanding of the story just from that perspective. Just because it really touched on a lot more
of those senses with that auditory input. I think a good podcast really does that. It helps use those
effects to blend in the suspense and the way the characters use their voice; they whisper when
it’s important to show that fear or in one episode they were arguing and you can hear their
emotions get hyped. Whereas in a text, you’re having to infer that from the way that a sentence is
structured, but in a podcast, you can get more feedback from the way you can hear it in their
tone. I think that helps people understand the characters’ emotions a lot better, so it’s a great
mentor text for students to listen to better understand those complex characters.

S: For sure, and I love how with the idea of the hook and building suspense, we as a listener are
pulled into the story in a way where we’re almost hearing all the recordings of the investigator,
the person who’s kind of pushing around and trying to figure out what actually happened in
Limetown. Similar to me in like a found-footage way where we now are listening to the audio
tapes of someone else who is doing this investigative work. And so students can see how they, as
listeners, were pulled into the story, and how they could also, in a creative, storytelling podcast,
pull others into the story. One of my friends who I taught with for a couple of years did a podcast
project where class-to-class they would listen to a murder mystery podcast where students might
need to pick up on red herrings or pick up on the foreshadowing and clues that we might need to
know to eventually solve the mystery or the whodunit of the podcast. She said it was really
successful.

K: When I did upper elementary, we did the Mysterious Disappearance of Mars Patel podcast,
and they started picking up on that foreshadowing, and it was awesome- I loved it.

S: Okay, so that’s just some of our thoughts on the podcast Limetown. This is obviously not an
ad for us trying to rep Limetown- we are not getting paid. But it is a podcast, it is really engaging
and it pulled us in, and we know that there are classroom implications for it. IT could do some
wonders with students and inspire students in their creative works as well. Podcasting, in our
project for podcasting, we are addressing podcasting, and we think it has immense potential.

K: Immense. Absolutely.

S: But thank you for listening and collaborating, and I think we are over-and-out.
[Closing Sound ]
Audio: [Epidemic Sound]. (2024, February 8). Drops of Rain [Audio File].
Retrieved https://stock.adobe.com/search/audio?k=331430633
References

International Society for Technology in Education. (2023). ISTE standards: For students. ISTE.
https://iste.org/standards/students

Texas Education Agency. (2023, June 13). Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Tea.texas.gov.
https://tea.texas.gov/academics/curriculum-standards/teks-review/texas-essential-knowledge-
and-skills

Two-Up. (2015, July). Limetown. Spotify. https://open.spotify.com/show/

1tshi3C3cIBEj6XkyLuo6b