Freakin' Out Loud

After reading Freak the Mighty by Rodham Philbrick, students will analyze the literature by engaging in student-generated interviews with characters from the novel. These interviews will allow students the opportunity to explore the complex concepts of multiple perspectives as they work to discover how a character’s point of view affects their words, thoughts, and ultimately, actions.

Students will begin by learning about the basics of Podcasting. Once students have a general understanding of their tools, they will begin to work in groups of no more than four people to write a script with a talk show/radio show format in mind. Students will write a script involving a show host(s) as well as one or more characters from the novel. The host will lead characters in a discussion focusing on some of the areas of depth and complexity within the novel including, but to limited to: theme, character traits and motivations, story plot, and point of view.

Once the script is completed and approved, students will then prepare to record the interviews posing as the show host and character(s). Once recorded, students will edit their waveforms, adding sound files where necessary and rearranging text to optimize the recording. Students will also take digital photos of the host and characters (dressed as characters from the novel) to supplement the eventual publication to the web.

Once the recording is edited and finished, students will publish their recordings and photos to the web.