New instrument to teach about the courts: podcasts

By Jasveer Sandhu

Mrs. Esser, a social studies teacher here at McLoughlin High School, is using a podcast series in her government class to teach students about a real life case. Her government classes are listening the Serial podcast. She herself was introduced to this podcast by Ms. Hammer, and she was hooked after the first episode and listened to all of them.

Serial is the most popular podcast of all time, with more than 40 million downloads during its first season in 2014. It tells a true story of Adnan Syed who has been convicted of his ex-girlfriend’s murder and is serving in the prison for his whole life, and this case is still active. Because this case is still in news, students can research and discover more about this case on their own.

Mrs. Esser said she decided to choose the podcast instead of a textbook because integrating new forms of technology in the classroom is important for students, and it exposes them to other media of information. She explains that she chose only the Serial podcast and not the other ones because even though there are other podcasts which are great to (like Undisclosed), they are hard to follow along for students. She said, “The Serial podcast connects to what we were learning in class – the court system, the criminal justice system, one’s rights, the appellate court procedures, and how an appeal works.” She also likes it because it is a real story with real people.

Additionally, Mrs. Esser said, “Serial works because the narrator is an amazing storyteller and sucks people into the whole series.” She likes that because it encourages students to listen to the information and really analyze what they heard over multiple episodes to justify their opinion. The case that the students are listening to in her class also involves high school students and it makes students more interested to listen and see what happens because they can relate to it. Mrs. Esser says that the appeals process in this case is a perfect fit for understanding how our court system works.

She just wants students to know more and have a better understanding of the US judicial system. As one of her students, I say it is great to try something new and engaging in order to better understand what we are learning.