The elementary organizers are the heart of the tool. Like the MS/HS set, each is a single force-copy document that runs one whole podcast across all five phases. One prompt, one doc, concept through reflection.
What's different is who drives. The elementary organizers are built to be run by you, not just handed out. You track readiness, run the recording device, calibrate levels, and check audio before the class moves on. The organizer is as much your production dashboard as it is a student scaffold and the phases are shaped around group production rather than an individual producer.
Phases 1–2
Phase 1: Concept
The Prompt, often with a kid-facing definition of the activity built in ("A Round-Robin is when we each add one part to the story, one at a time"). Then Details, which change per prompt: Round-Robin asks who the characters are, where the story happens, what they want, and what's in the way; Meet Your Teacher asks for the guest's name. Organizers also name the Group Shape here. See Prompts Overview for the five shapes and what each means for running the room.
Phase 2: Planning & Writing
Part 1: Plan — The Roles table gives every student a named job, which is the mechanism for individual accountability inside a group episode. Around it sit prompt-specific scaffolds: brainstorm questions, sentence frames, word banks (some organizers carry both a K–2 and a 3–5 bank), a T-chart for Debate, or specialty roles like Our Favorite Animals' two animal-sound parts.
Part 2: Write — the Script/Outline. Students are never facing a blank page; host lines come partly written with blanks to complete.
The script architecture follows the Group Shape, which is worth knowing when you're picking a prompt:
Group Shape | Script looks like |
Anchor | Intro → Questions (one per student) → Outro |
Chorus | Intro → Segments → Outro, with a repeating frame each student fills |
Relay | A sequence of sentence frames or sentence starters — no segments |
Cast | A performed script, scene by scene |
Camps | Intro → Segments with a block per side → Outro, hosted |
Phases 3–5
Phase 3: Recording
Part 1: Practice — a readiness tracker listing every student. Each practices their lines; you flip "No" to "Yes" when they're ready. Nobody records until they've rehearsed.
Part 2: Record — students come to you one at a time. You calibrate each student's volume so levels match, then record. The Recorded / Checked table tracks every line. Confirm each recording is understandable before moving on.
Phase 4: Post-Production
Part 1: Edit — trim each recording at the head and tail, then string them together. The Post-Production Checklist gives students three real editorial checks: Line of Reasoning (does it make sense start to finish?), Tone Check (is it consistent?), and Timing Check (does the spacing between lines work?). Any of the three can send you back to re-record — that's the point.
Part 2: Finalize — listen all the way through, then export.
Phase 5: Release and Reflect
Part 1: Publish — where the episode will be shared so students and families can listen.
Part 2: Reflect — four prompts: Wins, Challenges, Skills, and Knowledge (including what students learned about themselves).
The companion document
Each organizer comes with a companion document — a stripped-down, student-facing extract of just the parts students fill in: the brainstorm questions, the sentence frames, their own line.
This answers the obvious question: no, you don't hand a second grader the whole organizer. The full organizer is your production dashboard — roles, readiness tracking, recording tables, the export checklist. The companion is the student's worksheet. Force-copy the companion for students and keep the organizer for yourself.
It's also the one real structural difference from the MS/HS organizers, and it follows from who drives. MS/HS students work directly inside their own organizer because they're running their own production — the recording plan and edit log are theirs to fill. Elementary students don't need those sections, because you're operating them. So they get a document scoped to their thinking and their lines, and nothing else.
How you use them to assess
The organizer is the evidence trail — you don't need a separate record.
The Roles table and Recorded/Checked tables show each student's contribution inside a shared episode. That's your individual accountability inside group work.
The Practice tracker documents preparation.
The Post-Production Checklist shows the editorial decisions the group made.
The Reflect section is the metacognition evidence.
Because you check recordings as you go, most of the assessment happens during production rather than after it.