Listenwise Collections

Listenwise Collections are selections of stories based on popular themes often incorporated into curriculum and addressed in classrooms.

How to Use Collections

Finding the Collections

Collection Themes

How to Use Collections

Collections are essentially audio text sets, which can be used in a variety of ways:

1. Teachers might select a Collection to accompany a literary text (e.g., Death of a Salesman or A Raisin in the Sun) or a topical curriculum unit (i.g., immigration or civil rights) to diversify perspectives on an important universal theme that transcends time and place.
2. Students could select different stories from within a Collection and then discuss as a group how they are connected to each other and to students’ own experiences.
3. Teachers might assign several stories from within a Collection and facilitate a discussion about common threads.
4. A collection like The American Dream includes a diverse group of stories that embody a generative theme. They can be used together to illustrate various angles on the theme and promote critical thinking and deep discussion among students.
5. Listenwise features a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Collection, which all address one or more of the CASEL competencies. Story suggestions and instructional ideas for using the SEL collection can be found in this blog post or explore other ideas in this help article.

Finding the Collections

From the Lesson drop-down menu, you can browse the Collections.

When searching for stories, you can filter by Collection or see related Collections when searching by keyword.

Collection Themes

Here are some of our Collections: 

• Coming of Age: These stories focus on young people experiencing challenges and triumphs as they grow up in a complicated world.
• Perseverance: These stories of individual journeys of accomplishment, full of twists and turns, speak to the power of perseverance, no matter what obstacles threaten to block the way.
• Seeking Justice: Spanning multiple countries, decades, and causes, these stories address the importance of advocacy by and on behalf of people suffering injustice of any kind.
• Shaping Identity: This collection focuses on individuals who feel conflict among aspects of their identities and ultimately come to accept themselves and make deliberate choices about who they want to be.
• Survival: The stories in this collection look to survivors of harrowing experiences for insight into how a singular uncontrollable event can impact the rest of a person’s life.
• The American Dream: This collection invites consideration of how the idea of the “American Dream” manifests in reality for people of different backgrounds.
• The Human Connection: This collection explores the potential effects of seemingly simple human interactions, demonstrating how people are linked by their need to make meaning in their lives through relationships.
• The Power of Fear: These stories explore a basic human emotion that can be protective or harmful, illustrating the power of fear in a range of circumstances, including its origins and its consequences.
• Youth Voices–Civic Engagement: This audio story collection features kids and teens who are leading the way to solve problems in their communities, their country, and the world. 
• Youth Voices–Innovation & Discovery: This audio story collection features kids and teens whose actions show leadership and ingenuity.
• Youth Voices–Passions & Perspectives: This audio story collection features kids and teens sharing their perspectives on topics like literature, adults, and trends, and showcase this generation’s influence, self-reflective nature, and resilience.