Creating Your Own Review Podcast on Voicethread.com

Creating Your Podcast- –Planning Stage

Now it is time for you to create a review. You may work alone or with one other person. You have a wide range of types of review you can do:
• Review a group of songs from a band/artist;
• Review a genre of music/art/film (such as punk rock, pop rock…)
• A list and review of the top ____ songs/films of 2008;
• A list and review of the songs/films that represent your generation;
• A list and review of ten songs you should listen to before you die,
• A list and review of ten movies everyone should see;
• A review of the history of a band and how it has changed over the years;
• A review of a film maker/actor and how their films have changed throughout their career;
• A review and history of a certain type of automobile;
• A review and critique of the history of a sports team/star.

• And so on – you get the idea. If you have an idea that is not on the list, see me for approval before you begin.

How many songs/ movies/ artists/ performers/ models/ makes do I need in my review?
If you work by yourself you must have at least four items in your review.
If you work with a partner you must have at least eight items in your review.

Important Things to Consider When Choosing Your Topic:
• Is your topic broad enough that you will have enough items to review?
• Is your topic appropriate for school?
• Can you find enough visuals to go with your audio? (You will need at least one per item.)
• If you select a topic that might have images that are blocked at school, will you be able to find time and internet access outside of school to get the images you will need? (For example, if you want to do a history and review of Metallica you would have to get many of the images outside of school.)
• Do you know enough about your topic to be able to talk about and review/critique it?

What Needs to Be Present in Your Review:

Here’s where your work on the deconstruction of a review graphic comes into play. You did that assignment in order to raise your awareness of how a professional review is constructed. Refer back to the graphic and the outline you made. Use it as a guide, but also feel free to deviate from it.

 A title slide that introduces your topic and includes your name(s);
 At least 4 (working alone) or 8 (working in pairs) of images related to your topic;
 Audio, usually music;
 Your spoken commentary –
 Introduce yourself/yourselves;
 Personal story connections;
 Personal Response and/or connection to review item or time period;
 Personal analysis;
 Clear transitions;
 Criteria for selection and/or inclusion;
 Introduction to genre / style / musical movement/classification, etc…
 Elements of style comments
 Background on band / song/film/actor/model, etc.
 History of band / song/ film/actor/model, etc.
 Transitional comments to the next segment
 Excerpt of song/ film still/ image of item, etc…
 Concluding comments
 A works cited page that documents all of your sources for research, images, reference, etc.

Creating a Review- Planning & Scripting
To do this assignment you can either:
1. Choose to plan and write out your entire script. The advantage of this option is that you might feel less nervous about recording your voice since you already know what you are going to say. The down side is that it may take you a while.

2. Choose to create a basic plan of what you will say. The advantage of this one is that you do not feel tied to a script. However, it can result in a lower quality podcast since there will most likely be a lot of pauses, “Uhms,” “ya’knows,” and so on. You can fix this by recording in Audacity.com. This is a free audio recording site that you can use to clean up your sound.

How to do this:
Get several copies of the StoryBoard Planning template (you'll need to get this from me. I could not make it upload correctly here) and begin to fill them in. Feel free to make your own if you prefer to type instead of write, or you need more room than I have included on the form.

1. If you are working alone you should have at least six images. A title slide, four images related to your content and a works cited page. Feel free to have more.

2. If you are working with a partner you should have at least ten images. A title slide, eight images related to your content and a works cited page. More images is always good.

 Go to Voicethread.com and sign up for an account.
 Watch the short video on all of the things you can do on Voicethread.
 Watch a few samples by clicking on the “browse” button and selecting three or more that look interesting to you.
 Now you need to load your images into VoiceThread. Remember, if you need to access images outside of school you can save them directly to your VoiceThread and not have to worry about saving them somewhere else.

 You can create your title and works cited slides in PowerPoint and post them in your VoiceThread.

 Once you have the images loaded take time to practice a bit before actually trying to record.

 I suggest that you figure out your content then look for images. As you find the right images add them to your VoiceThread. Be sure to put the works cited information on the last slide!

 Practice with your script, and your partner, if you have one.

 Be sure to save your VoiceThread before you add the audio. That way if you screw up the audio you can start from that point, instead of starting over.

 Once your happy you can turn it in. I will have you upload it to the class blog. You will need to let me know when you are ready to do this part.