Since my student teaching experience, I have seen a tremendous increase in schools pushing for ELA teachers to make use of Podcasting. In my final placement, a 12th grade IB course, I had my students use podcasts for their summative assessment of The Catcher in the Rye. The assignment was for them to come up with a theme song for Holden and speak about it on their podcast episode. This project created the opportunity for so many conversations relevant to all types of writing. It was a valuable experience for students to learn about textual features, affordances, and how to use them in their own 
writing/speaking. By breaking down podcasts to a class that was not totally familiar with them introduced transferrable skills to traditional literature and all other types of media. Having students look at conventions and features of podcasts produced incredible results in their own podcasts, such as music and sound effect incorporation, advertisements, theme songs, etc. The creativity and engagement students displayed in their podcasts enhanced their analysis in ways that a traditional paper report lacked. Further, having students create an analysis in this type of medium placed more emphasis on the song choice than the writing, which engaged the students even more. Students spent more time picking a song than they probably did the recording, which is exactly what would have been the case with a report as well. This way, students were able to engage in a much more organic, natural, and intrinsic product creation. I’ve shared some samples below!
Student Samples:
https://www.spreaker.com/show/ariana-aghilis-show
https://www.spreaker.com/show/lo-show-di-thomas-caputo_1
https://www.spreaker.com/show/alexa-speciales-show
For more reading on Podcasts in the classroom or teaching writing through textual features, check out:
Gray, Collin. “Podcasting in Education: What are the Benefits.” The Podcast Host. January 24, 2017. https://www.thepodcasthost.com/niche-case-study/podcasting-in-education/.
Hicks, Justin, Laura Winnick, and, Michael Gonchar. “Project Audio: Teaching Students How to Produce Their Own Podcasts.” The New York Times. April 19, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/learning/lesson-plans/project-audio-teaching-students-how-to-produce-their-own-podcasts.html.
Dean, Deborah, “Framing Texts: New Strategies for Student Writers.” Voices from the Middle 11.2 (Dec 2003): 32-35.
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