About this activity
Twelve everyday situations sorted into three bins: whisper, inside voice, outside voice. In the library and telling a secret go in the first; asking the teacher a question and reading aloud in a small group go in the second; cheering at a soccer game and shouting for help go in the third. Loudness is a judgement about a setting rather than a property of a voice, and this board makes that the explicit task.
How to use it in a session
Have the student say something at the chosen level after each sort, not just place the card. The sorting checks the judgement; the production checks the control, and plenty of students can name the right level and not produce it. Contrast adjacent bins directly — the dinner table against a waiting room — because that boundary is where the real decisions live. Eight minutes covers all twelve with time to demonstrate.
What to listen for
Listen for whether the student can hold a level for a whole sentence or only for a word. Sustained control is the harder half and it is what classrooms actually require. Watch for a student who whispers when asked for quiet — whispering is not a quiet voice, it is a different mechanism, and for a student with a voice concern it can be more effortful rather than less. None of this explains why a voice sounds the way it does: a student who has been hoarse for more than about four weeks should be examined by a physician, ideally an ENT, before loudness work becomes the plan.
Carrying it home
Name the level before entering a setting rather than correcting after: we're going in the library, so that's a whisper. A cue that arrives before the voice does is easier to follow and does not read as a reprimand.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through fourth grade, and it works for both vocal loudness goals and classroom pragmatics.
- Is it free?
- Yes, the whole board plays with no account and no card.
- My student whispers instead of using a quiet voice. Does that matter?
- It can. Whispering uses the vocal folds differently and is not a low-effort way to be quiet — for a student with a hoarse or strained voice, a soft voiced sound is usually the better target.