Sarah Bell from Jefferson High School received $2,150 for her proposal, “Podcasting to Proficiency.”

Sarah will purchase microphones, mic stands, mic cables, headphones, and a switchboard/production board for 100 World Language students. In the application, she wrote, “The Podcasting to Proficiency project asks students to use their language skills to create a podcast conducted in a foreign language. Students will work in groups, pairs, or individually to plan, prepare, record, and present a podcast episode on a cultural topic of their choice. These podcast episodes will also be used by lower-level students to practice and improve their listening comprehension. Another way this project could positively affect lessons is by using the equipment to record audio books. Studies have shown that more time reading in a foreign language is correlated with higher language comprehension levels. The project will be successful if higher-level language students are able to create realistic podcast episodes using the language effectively, and lower-level students are able to comprehend much of what they hear from the podcast episode.”