Your Classroom Podcasting Toolkit
Podcasting is more than just hitting record—it’s a powerful way for students to research, collaborate, create, and share their voices with the world. Whether you’re brand new to audio or a seasoned storyteller, this toolkit will guide you through every step of creating a student podcast in your classroom.
We’ve designed these resources to be flexible, standards-aligned, and classroom-tested. From choosing a format to publishing a finished episode, you’ll find everything you need right here.
To Teachers: You can begin by downloading the “Teacher Resources,” where we’ve included a number of helpful resources to get you started planning to make a podcast with your students. You should begin with the Resource Packet, which includes helpful tips, a lesson plan, and suggestions of how to organize and use the rest of the resources.
To Students: Handouts and worksheets are all included in the “Student Resources” tab. Go check it out to download everything you need to get started!
Speaking & Listening (SL)
Grade 3
- SL.3.1: Engage in collaborative discussions with diverse partners.
- SL.3.2: Determine main ideas and supporting details from information presented in diverse media.
- SL.3.4: Report on a topic or text using relevant, descriptive details.
Grade 4
- SL.4.1: Engage in collaborative discussions with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas.
- SL.4.4: Report on a topic in an organized manner with appropriate facts and details.
- SL.4.5: Add audio recordings and visual displays to enhance main ideas or themes.
Grade 5
- SL.5.1: Engage in collaborative discussions, clearly expressing and building on ideas.
- SL.5.4: Report on a topic, sequencing ideas logically with descriptive detail.
- SL.5.5: Include multimedia components to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Writing (W)
Grades 3-5
- W.3–5.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to clearly convey ideas and information.
- W.3–5.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.
- W.3–5.4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task and purpose.
- W.3–5.7: Conduct short research projects to build knowledge about a topic.
- W.3–5.8: Gather relevant information from experiences or sources and summarize.
Language (L)
Grade 3
- L.3.3: Use knowledge of language when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
Grade 4
- L.4.3: Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.
Grade 5
- L.5.3: Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.
Reading – Optional (RI & RL)
Grades 3-5
- RL.3–5.3: Describe characters, settings, or events using key details.
- RI.3–5.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text.
- Podcast Creation Resource Packet Teacher Guide – Teachers start here! Lesson plans, teaching tips, and more! [pdf] [docx]
- Science Storytelling for Kids Classroom Presentation – A guide to help students analyze Tumble episodes and apply what they learn to create their own science podcast—from asking great questions to structuring a compelling story. [pdf] [pptx]
- Podcast Format Handout – A one-page overview of the three main podcast formats—narrative, interview, and roundtable. [pdf]
- Student Podcast Evaluation Rubric – An evaluation tool for grading a student’s podcast, based on writing, research, communication, and presentation. [pdf] [docx]
- Podcast Format Models – Handout guiding kids to think about different podcast formats [pdf] [docx]
- Podcast Topic Brainstorm – Brainstorming worksheet that helps students choose the focus and format of their podcast, and provides guidelines to create a trailer for their podcast! [pdf] [docx]
- Podcast Production Handouts:
- Roundtable Discussion Podcast Handout – Guides students through the process of creating a Roundtable Discussion Podcast [pdf] [docx]
- Interview Podcast Handout – Guides students through the process of creating an Interview Podcast [pdf] [docx]
- Narrative Podcast Handout – Guides students through the process of creating a Narrative Podcast [pdf] [docx]