Soundwalks,Community,and the Secondary General Classroom

Brainstorm Character, Plot, and Genre Ideas Before Location and Route

Although this might seem counterintuitive, I have found that students who decide on a location before considering a narrative often end up creating walks that rely too much on their own experiences with the space. This can confuse the listener.

Explore Your Surroundings

After brainstorming a few story and character ideas, have your students explore their surroundings. Students should be reminded that they must use locations that are accessible. This means they cannot go into classrooms, bathrooms, or any space in which one would not reasonably expect to have access at most times.

Decide on a Route and Document It

Have your students document their route in a way that will help them in the future. Oftentimes, it can be useful to take pictures of important landmarks or take a video of your entire walk. While completing this step, it is important to look for visual landmarks that can be referenced during the soundwalk. The landmarks will be used as points of interest to help guide the listener between Points A and B.

Time the Walk and Write the Directions

Some students take videos of the walk and then create their soundwalk audio file on top of that (with GarageBand, you can watch the video while creating sounds). Over the past couple of years, however, I have found that simply timing how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B is the most useful. This means that your students might write down, “12 seconds between doorway and end of hallway; 8 seconds from end of hallway to water fountain.” By keeping track of the distances, it is much easier to add or subtract time later in the process. Students who rely on a video recording often feel constrained to the route and ideas they initially brainstormed.

Test the Directions

Have your students record an audio track that properly spaces out the directions that they have written. Then, have another student test out the audio track and provide specific feedback on moments that were unclear. The directions should be written so that the listener is aware of the next step before they arrive at their destination. For example, if your student wants the listener to turn right at the end of the hallway, shortly after they initially enter the hallway they should say something like, “Look down the hallway. You are going to head straight down the hallway and then turn right.” By writing directions like this, you ensure the listener is never lost.

Record Your Audio With Character and Plot

Once the timing and directions have been tested and any confusing moments have been corrected, your students can record their final narrations. In my personal experience in creating soundwalks, I found it useful to record my narration while watching the timer within the recording software. This allows me to understand how my narration fits the flow of the walk. Your students can take multiple takes of their narration and edit them together.

Add Sounds and Music

The inclusion of sounds and music is what turns a simple audio tour into a truly immersive experience. Hopefully, you have guided your students through this process with this idea in mind. Listening to and participating in a well-constructed soundwalk feels similar to being thrown into the middle of a movie. Students should explore the full sonic landscape, panning things to the left and right ear as appropriate. Additionally, because students have a tendency to have the volume of their sounds at a level that covers their narration, they will need to be reminded that hearing the directions and character is of the utmost importance.

Unless a very good reason exists not to include them, I believe that the sound of footsteps is an important component of the soundwalk. First and foremost, they confirm to the listener that they should be walking or stopping at any given moment. Second, if your students want to, for example, change the hallway into a swamp, the sound of feet walking in shallow water would really help to complete the illusion. Although students can download footsteps online, creating the sounds themselves is often the best approach.

Test and Revise (Repeat as Needed)

This step cannot be emphasized enough. The soundwalks need to be tested multiple times by people who do not know the route beforehand. The testers need to take diligent notes and provide as much feedback as possible. Ideally, every time a change is made, the entire walk should be retested.

No Elevators

Although it might seem obvious, some students need to be reminded of this. If you use an elevator, there is no way to ensure the timing will work out correctly every time. If the student has made it to the testing phase and not figured this out yet, then they are probably not testing their soundwalk properly.

As Much as Possible, Avoid Cross Streets

Depending on where you create your soundwalks, this may or may not be an issue. However, take the timing issues of an elevator and combine it with large vehicles, and you should see how complicated crossing the street might be. That said, sometimes a soundwalk story requires a street be crossed. If this is the case, then two things must happen. First, instruct the listener to cross the street carefully, making sure they look in all possible directions. Words like “carefully” and “watch and listen for vehicles” are a necessity. Remember, the listener is wearing headphones and is immersed in a world that the students have created. Second, allow plenty of extra time for the listener to cross the street. Tell them to cross at their earliest convenience and then wait on the other side. While the listener is crossing the street, tell them more of the story that you have created. Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, then the listener can be directed to their next destination. Another option would be to have the listener pause the audio until they have crossed the street.

Use Only Areas With Public Access

Often, students will want to go into a favorite teacher’s classroom. Obviously, you cannot have students creating projects that could potentially interrupt someone else’s class. With this in mind, remind students to stick to common areas that will not be disruptive. While your students are planning their soundwalk, at every location, instruct them to ask themselves, “Will there ever be an occasion when the listener would not have access to this location?” If the answer is “yes,” then choose another location.

As intimated above, creating a soundwalk is composed of numerous small components. I recommend using groups of two to three students and creating several small, intermediate checkpoints throughout the process. The final grade is based on the group’s ability to meet all of the deadlines, the quality of their final project, and the teacher’s ability to successfully navigate the soundwalk from beginning to end.

Every semester, the quality of the soundwalks increases. Although this is somewhat related to my comfort level in teaching the project, I believe that the increase in quality has more to do with the fact that my current students have had the opportunity to experience high-quality soundwalks from previous students. These experiences have pushed my students to create the soundwalk format even further than I could have imagined—playing with notions of timelines and self, all while expanding the role of soundtrack (music) in their finished product. If you are teaching this project in a new space, creating an example that your students can walk will be of immense value. Additionally, you can show them the YouTube video listed in the “Resources” at the end of this article so that they understand the wide variety of approaches that people take when creating their soundwalks.

If this seems a little daunting, I can assure you that the final products are definitely worth it. Also, once you get the ball rolling and students are working on their soundwalks, you have plenty of time to give each group the individual attention they need to be successful. A combination of traditional creative thinking and our notion of 21st-century skills, the soundwalk project is a great way to encompass a variety of technical skills into your classroom while pushing your students to think in new and creative ways.