+ Podcast Recommendations For Building Comprehension
When I have the privilege of teaching students in my reading class for all four years of high school, I can’t help but come to love them.
Two of my favorites are graduating this week.
First, Hayden.
Hayden is a tall blonde boy who has learned to communicate and connect with his teachers and peers. I had the privilege of watching Hayden grow over his four years in the high school life skills program. He has severe autism along with physical disabilities that require significant support at school.
Hayden was able to decode and technically read at a 7th grade level; however, it has been extremely challenging for him to demonstrate his comprehension. (This did improve over the years of working with him, though, through repetition and focused Wh-questions after each reading session.)
I have loved our repetitive routines and greetings. Hayden will ask everyone he meets what kind of car they drive. He keeps a catalogue of each make, model, year, color, and features. Then when he sees me, he repeats this interaction of quizzing me about other cars. When he was upset, he used to greet me with the phrase “No truck!” which would be my que to ask “What kind of car do you want to drive?” His favorite car is his grandma’s 2007 gray Mustang with leather interior, but they couldn’t drive it in the winter.
Eventually Hayden learned to navigate the high school independently and thrived within his routines. He would practically bounce-skip through the halls, a head above the crowd of students, saying hi to all his friends and reciting what kind of cars they had on his way to ceramics class. One particularly smiley day I asked Hayden what he did in ceramics class, and he answered “Play with clay.” I asked what he made with the clay and his answer was “Clay” like that should be obvious.
Every Friday Hayden would tell me that it was “Free Fry Friday” with a chocolate milk shake from McDonald’s. He loved to go for drives, and had mental maps of the valley in order to tell me exactly which roads he would take to surrounding towns.
Hayden would eat a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich every day for lunch.
He loves music and requested specific songs for me to play at the end of reading class.
He loves to dance, and today after all his friends signed a musical card that play “Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer he bopped to the music the rest of the day, proudly smiling after pushing the button to play the song during quiet moments in class.
Hayden taught me that the primary objective of a high school life skills reading class is to ensure all students enjoy reading routines. We started class listening to a story-based Podcast. All students enjoyed the routine of settling in with coloring pages to listen calmly together, which helped their transition into class. The sound effects and cliffhangers always get a verbal response from the class. The Podcast and class discussion greatly improved comprehension and ability to predict and infer.
For middle-school level listening comprehension focused on visualizing, predicting, and inferring, I recommend:
The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel
Greeking Out – Season 8 includes a retelling of The Odyssey
OneTeacherOneBook 
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