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Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon
Grades
4 to 12
3 Favorites
0 Comments
Newspaper Blackout is a clever way to unlock the secret poetry hidden within any printed page. This Tumblr site shares examples (unmoderated, so preview before sharing in a classroom!)....more
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Newspaper Blackout is a clever way to unlock the secret poetry hidden within any printed page. This Tumblr site shares examples (unmoderated, so preview before sharing in a classroom!). Poetry no longer needs to be a gray area; this activity makes it black and white! There are no gimmicks, no magic pens, and no camouflage paper, but this is certainly a tricky way to write a poem! All you need are newspapers and black markers. Hunt for and select a few words from each of the lines as you read a newspaper or magazine article. Remember to start with the title. Instead of the typical bottom-up approach to writing a poem by starting with a blank page and filling it with words, try this fresh, top down approach by starting with a page already crowded with words. Then use permanent markers to blacken out all the trivial words in each line until the poem appears. (Put something under your page so the ink does not bleed through on furniture!) Click Share your poem to learn how to upload your work to the site.
tag(s): creative writing (119), poetry (182)
In the Classroom
This poetry activity (aka Found Poetry) opens the doors to so many learning objectives. In a social studies or history classroom, you could direct your students to search for newspaper or magazine articles on topics that you have been studying, or current events. Suddenly you have social studies poetry! In an English language arts lesson, you might instruct students to blacken out all the words that are not nouns or verbs, or select other parts of speech. You could change the task to eliminate any word that is not part of the simple subject or predicate, and simultaneously teach or reinforce main idea. For classrooms with individual computers, students could access articles online. Copy the text into a document. Then, Instead of blackening out words with markers, they could get the same effect by highlighting over them with black, or changing the font color of the text to white, and printing them or saving a screenshot image. Another option is for students to email their Newspaper Blackout poems to the teacher. Each poem could then be put into a Power Point slide show for the class to see on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Use this site to offer your students a new twist on Poetry Month (April). Enhance classroom technology use and take your new poetry collection to the world by uploading the PowerPoint to Voxer, reviewed here, and have each student record a reading in his/her own voice. Make poetry a participatory experience, no matter what the subject. If your school permits, have students take photos of their paper poems -- or screenshots of ones done on the computer --and share them on Voxer. You may want students to start saving their work in a digital portfolio. Suggestions are Mahara, reviewed here, for high school students, and Seesaw, reviewed here, for younger students.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Poetry Read-a-Thon - Academy of American Poets
Grades
5 to 12
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The goal of the Poetry Read-a-Thon is to have students read and write about poetry. Students are asked to choose a poem and then write a 75-100 word response to ...more
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The goal of the Poetry Read-a-Thon is to have students read and write about poetry. Students are asked to choose a poem and then write a 75-100 word response to the poem. The response should focus on one or two of the following categories: images of the poem, sounds of the poem, subject(s) of the poem, emotional effect(s) of the poem, the poem's meaning(s), questions about the poem, or questions the student would like to ask, if he/she could speak to the poet.
tag(s): creative writing (119), poetry (182), writing (301)
In the Classroom
This is a great way to introduce a poetry unit to a class. It is also ideal for Poetry Month (April). This read-a-thon can also be used throughout the entire semester. A teacher guide is included as well as a student log. If used throughout the semester, teachers can start out each lesson period with one or two students sharing their responses with the class. Teachers can also choose a poem and assign students a particular response focus. Students can then compare and contrast each other's responses to the same poem. Have cooperative learning groups share their poems on a podcast using PodOmatic (reviewed here).
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The Poetry Archive - The Poetry Archive Panel
Grades
K to 12
5 Favorites
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The Poetry Archive is a comprehensive place for bringing poetry to life in your classroom. This resource provides lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around authentic...more
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The Poetry Archive is a comprehensive place for bringing poetry to life in your classroom. This resource provides lesson plans and activities for all key stages, built around authentic recordings that offer lively, engaging ways of unraveling the mystery of poetry. There are numerous internet sites that provide audio versions of poems; however this site provides access to the actual voice of the poets as they read their poems the way they intended them to be heard. Find out what they say about their own writing and the importance of hearing poems aloud. Browse all poems by title, poet's name, poetic forms, or themes. A full glossary of poetic terms is provided. There are various featured poets in residence, and there is even a link to a Children's Archive with favorite poems for younger students. The Poetry Archive includes a wide range of resources designed to help students learn background information on the poets and understand the context for their work.
tag(s): poetry (182)
In the Classroom
Enrich and enliven your poetry lessons with recordings and videos of some of the world's best loved poets. One of teachers many frustrations, when trying to inspire students to fall in love with poetry, is not being able to call up the voices of earlier poets. Listening to the poet himself has a magical effect in the classroom and makes the very experience that it describes come alive. Start by projecting the poem on your white board while listening to the recording and then ask students to pick out, highlight, and display words or phrases that appealed to them. Introduce various poetic forms and demonstrate how the sound of a poem is as crucial to its meaning as the printed words on the page. Explore, connect, and make new discoveries for themes you are studying. Have students respond to the power and energy of poetic language and appreciate the beauty of the sounds and images, then move towards an analysis of the underlying meaning. Challenge students to try some creative writing that goes beyond the literal meaning and resonates their "voice." Not studying poetry during April (Poetry Month)? Play a quick Poetry Break from this site as a class starter or bonus moment after finishing a quiz. Make your own class poetry archive by having students create PowerPoint images of their own poems and read them aloud with PowerPoint Online, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WordItOut - Worditout.com
Grades
2 to 12
1 Favorites
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Create impressive word clouds from any text! What is a word cloud? Word clouds show not only the words in the text sample, but also display the frequency of the ...more
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Create impressive word clouds from any text! What is a word cloud? Word clouds show not only the words in the text sample, but also display the frequency of the words by showing often used words in a larger font. No login or registration required. Click "Create a word cloud," enter or paste your text and then click "word it out." View your word cloud, drag the arrows on the sides of the screen to make larger or smaller, and change the colors and specifics of the word cloud in the space below. Click "Save" to save as either public or private (an email address is required to save.)
This site includes advertising.
This site includes advertising.
tag(s): visualizations (11), vocabulary (231), word choice (14), word clouds (13), word study (57)
In the Classroom
You need to know how to copy/paste text passages (ctrl or command + C, then ctrl or command + V to paste. Think Velcro to stick it there!). If you wish to Save, you must join the site (email required). Alternately, capture the image using screen capture (apple/shift/4 on a Mac or Print Screen on a PC.)Use a word cloud in virtually any class. With emergent readers, enter multiple words with the same consonant cluster or vowel sound, so they can SEE a visual grouping of that sound on your interactive whiteboard and guess the sound. Project a teacher-created word cloud at the start of a new lesson or unit and have students determine what the lesson will be about. Have students use word clouds to proof their own essays or stories. Use word clouds for students to identify the subject and frequently used words to check if they are on target with their intended message. Have students find overused words in their own writing as part of lessons on word choice. Teachers could create and save a word cloud then share it as a visual prompt for students to work individually or in groups to identify words they know (and the definitions) as well as the words they are unfamiliar with. Create word clouds of passages or stories and allow students to guess the author, title, subject, or meaning of the story. Underscore motifs in literature by creating clouds of passages, especially poetry. Have students work together to make clouds of alternative ways to say "said" or "went" in story-writing to post in your classroom as a reference. Create word clouds of opinion passages to determine the bias of the author and possible reasons for that specific opinion. Make word cloud posters on health topics such as the potential health risks of smoking. Make word clouds of different food groups. Create higher order thinking activities by approaching text in a unique way.
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Language Arts for Dummies - John Wiley & Sons
Grades
7 to 12
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Filled with a variety of essential language art skills, this site is a super teaching opportunity to be followed by students working on their own. With 42 lessons ranging from ...more
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Filled with a variety of essential language art skills, this site is a super teaching opportunity to be followed by students working on their own. With 42 lessons ranging from "Differentiating between who/whom" to "Writing Sonnets" to "Crafting Your Character's Dialogue in Your Screenplay," there is plenty to suit your particular class needs. You are able to write replies (comments), however an email address is required. Registration is not required for any other part of this site.
This site does offer the option of signing up for RSS feeds. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site.
This site does offer the option of signing up for RSS feeds. There are some unobtrusive advertisements at the site.
tag(s): grammar (139), poetry (182), root words (10), writing (301)
In the Classroom
These lessons give great examples as well as "pop quizzes" as you go through them. It would be great to do these on a projector or interactive whiteboard, having students comment as you go; then you can assign their own writing to follow up. Of particular interest is the lesson on "note taking on a computer." As essential as computers are to writing these days, it may be the best place to begin. This might also be a good site to link from your class website. It is very easy for students to explore on their own and get extra help where needed. Or have small groups investigate a specific area together and then create a multimedia presentation to share with the class. Have the groups create a podcast to share using a tool such as Podomatic (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Exploring the Power of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words through Diamante Poetry - Sharon Webster / NCTE
Grades
9 to 12
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Reading, writing, and thinking come together with history in this beautifully detailed lesson plan that focuses on the power and passion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream"...more
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Reading, writing, and thinking come together with history in this beautifully detailed lesson plan that focuses on the power and passion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. After reading and interpreting the text, students are asked to create original poetry using words and themes taken from King's speech. All materials, including rubrics, handouts and worksheets (mainly PDF, a captioned audio clip, video clip, related Web resources, and links to NCTE/IRA standards) are included.
tag(s): african american (107), black history (112), civil rights (187), holidays (149), martin luther king (41), poetry (182)
In the Classroom
This lesson plan is ready to go, includes interactive elements, and is even linked to national standards. English class and history class can team up on this lesson and discuss the poetry and history behind King's magical words.
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Interactive-Learning.com.au - K.O'Regan
Grades
6 to 12
2 Favorites
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Don't let the simple appearance fool you! This site is a smorgasbord of interactive lessons on history, English, and music. Wonderful for the Humanities teacher, it allows teachers...more
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Don't let the simple appearance fool you! This site is a smorgasbord of interactive lessons on history, English, and music. Wonderful for the Humanities teacher, it allows teachers of any of those subjects to pick and choose what best fits their plans. Some examples of topics include archaeology, ancient Rome, South American Empires, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, letter writing, gorgeous grammar, common spelling errors, the Renaissance, the Middle Ages, poetry, the theatre, film, composers, and at least twenty other topics. The site declares itself "student self-directed (self-explanatory)." The links are functional, the graphics are attractive, and, while some of the activities are simple and straightforward, many of them take students into analysis and synthesis without them even realizing they are thinking on higher levels and producing work with more depth.
tag(s): australia (26), civil rights (187), grammar (139), listening (63), medieval (31), poetry (182), renaissance (31), spelling (94)
In the Classroom
The world is open on this site. Choose any activity your students are interested in and this site can help you mold it into what you want for your curriculum. Students interested in fantasy? Have them investigate and write from the "Fantasy-Myths and Legends" prompt. Trouble with grammar? Have them print off the worksheets from "Gorgeous Grammar" and play online, interactive, Grammar Gorillas. This site's use is only limited by your imagination! From virtual site studies to student web projects-- it's all here!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Drop Me Off in Harlem - Artsedge
Grades
6 to 12
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Presented by the Kennedy Center's Artsedge program, this site is a wonderful kaleidoscope of information about Harlem from 1917 through 1935. It explores the artists of that time, including...more
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Presented by the Kennedy Center's Artsedge program, this site is a wonderful kaleidoscope of information about Harlem from 1917 through 1935. It explores the artists of that time, including writers, artists, actors, dancers, and musicians. Under Faces of the Harlem Renaissance there are categories for musicians, writers, actors, activists of the time such as W.E.B. DuBois and Charles Johnson, and more. Clicking on a place name will show you a map of that area and where it was located (the Lafayette Theatre, for instance, was on 7th Avenue).
One of the nice things about this site is the easy access to the section they call "Classroom Activities." Scroll down to the bottom of any page to find it. Here they provide activities for grades 6-8 and 9-12 that are specific to grade level as well as links to lesson plans if you choose to use those. The Media Player still requires Flash, however there is so much information on this site that the media player will hardly be missed.
One of the nice things about this site is the easy access to the section they call "Classroom Activities." Scroll down to the bottom of any page to find it. Here they provide activities for grades 6-8 and 9-12 that are specific to grade level as well as links to lesson plans if you choose to use those. The Media Player still requires Flash, however there is so much information on this site that the media player will hardly be missed.
tag(s): 1910s (7), 1920s (14), 1930s (18), dance (26), harlem (7)
In the Classroom
Because of the sheer variety of links offered, this is an ideal lesson to spread among a class. As a culminating activity have a "Harlem Day" where students present their information. They might dress and speak as the person they studied; they might present music, poetry, or art from that time, or even create a Harlem "nightclub" to share their information.Why not extend student learning and have them create video clips using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here, to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector via TeacherTube, reviewed here. Other project ideas could be a blog using Edublogs, reviewed here, written from the perspective of someone living in Harlem during the great depression, or a wiki written between one of the famous artists and the president at the time (Herbert Hoover, for example). A good wiki tool to use is PBWorks, reviewed here.
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Poetry Everywhere Collection - WGBH Foundation
Grades
7 to 12
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This is an amazing site with 12 notable poems that include a Quicktime video of the poem reading- either by the poet or an animated enactment (i.e. Emily Dickinson). Each ...more
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This is an amazing site with 12 notable poems that include a Quicktime video of the poem reading- either by the poet or an animated enactment (i.e. Emily Dickinson). Each of the lessons includes a broad spectrum of activities, lesson plans, and PDF worksheets. While you do have to register to fully access the material, it is free. Registration does require an email address (for teacher domains only: lesson plans, activities, etc..), so students do not need to register to view the videos.
tag(s): poetry (182)
In the Classroom
If you are looking for something worthwhile as a quarter ending or are deeply involved in poetry, this site is great. Billy Collins reading "The Lanyard" is tough not to love and you can choose any of the included features to use or not. Because the site uses Quicktime, you have the option of replaying the video or pausing for discussion where you choose. Share the video on your interactive whiteboard or projector. This is wonderful as a class discussion. Another use for this site is to assign different poems to small groups of students and have them explicate them and then present them to the class. You could even shock the world of traditional English class or school video news announcements with a video "poetry break" during Poetry Month (April). Why not video the presentations and share them using a site such as Teachers.TV reviewed here.
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The Pledge of Allegiance - Hubbard's Cupboard
Grades
K to 0
2 Favorites
0 Comments
The Pledge of Allegiance is a five-day lesson guide to introduce the Pledge of Allegiance to kindergarteners. The guide suggests great literature, poetry, cross curricular activities,...more
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The Pledge of Allegiance is a five-day lesson guide to introduce the Pledge of Allegiance to kindergarteners. The guide suggests great literature, poetry, cross curricular activities, and extensions. Follow the day-to-day plan for teaching the history and verbiage of The Pledge of Allegiance.
In the Classroom
Use this guide during the first week of school. Provide a slide show of snapshots of the flag being flown in various locations around our country using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Record your class saying the Pledge as the audio portion of the slides.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Loud Lit - Loudlit.org
Grades
1 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Loud Lit offers "literature for your ears and eyes" (although the site's visual appearance is quite plain!). This collaborative project with public domain offers recorded literature....more
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Loud Lit offers "literature for your ears and eyes" (although the site's visual appearance is quite plain!). This collaborative project with public domain offers recorded literature. You are given the options of listening to the literature, listening and reading the literature, or downloading the literature to an MP3 player. The number of items available for public use is constantly increasing. The current contents include novels, poetry, classic children's literature, a few historical items, and classic short stories. Some examples of the available literature includes A Tale of Two Cities, The Little Match Girl, The Gift of the Magi, The Declaration of Independence, The Gettysburg Address, and countless others. A separate column lets you know about newly recorded items.
tag(s): audio books (21), declaration of independence (14), gettysburg (16), gettysburg address (12), literature (217), poetry (182)
In the Classroom
This site is helpful for many subjects and grade levels. Have students use this website when they have to memorize poetry, the Gettysburg Address, or the Declaration of Independence. ESL and ELL students and many learning support students will benefit from the option of "reading" in multi-media format. Use the audio stories with younger students for listening skills. During a poetry unit, why not have students choose one of the poems to read and listen to? Have the students analyze and write in their journal about what they think the poem means. Replace paper journals by using a blog tool like Edublog, reviewed here. Then have the students share the original poem and their own opinions with the class, making this activity a listening, reading, writing, and speaking lesson. If you are into podcasting, enhance learning by encouraging students to create some of their own poetry readings with commentary.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fridge Magnet Poetry Board - Nitric Interactive
Grades
3 to 8
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Introducing fridge magnets on the web! This interesting site could provide great creative writing entertainment and engaging grammar for students. The site provides a variety of words,...more
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Introducing fridge magnets on the web! This interesting site could provide great creative writing entertainment and engaging grammar for students. The site provides a variety of words, on magnet-looking pieces, that the students can manipulate to create their own stories or poems. Younger students may need assistance with some of the more difficult vocabulary words. The actual "magnets" appear in a new window and require Java. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
tag(s): writing (301)
In the Classroom
This site would be great on individual classroom computers or a cluster or as a whole class grammar or figures of speech lesson on interactive whiteboard. Another idea: Have students create a story related to a current classroom topic or skill. Have students submit their creations to share on the site by submitting a screen "dump" (also known as a screen shot). Use the PrtSc key to "copy" your screen and PASTE it into a document for submission. We recommend making the submission anonymous or using the class as the name.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Online Picasso Project - Prof. Dr. Enrique Mallen
Grades
2 to 12
2 Favorites
0 Comments
Explore everything you ever wanted to see and read about Picasso using this fabulous online collection. See a biographical timeline with images of the artworks intermingled, explore...more
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Explore everything you ever wanted to see and read about Picasso using this fabulous online collection. See a biographical timeline with images of the artworks intermingled, explore the works up close using an "explore" tool, and compare works side by side by using the checkboxes and "compare" button. Whether you are trying to inspire an art project with some visuals before turning students loose with their own materials or are teaching a lesson in art criticism, this site is a treasury. A few of the resources open a little slowly simply because of the large volume of information that is loading. The tool seems to work best when you go in through "biography."
tag(s): picasso (4)
In the Classroom
Share this site on an interactive whiteboard or large screen in your art class. Use the whiteboard tools to draw and highlight aspects of the works. If you assign students to do research on featured artists, this site is a MUST. Literature teachers approaching works of the early 20th century may also want to compare Picasso's revolutionary approaches to some of the changes in poetry at the same time.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Women in Poetry - Carolyn Kohli/The Academy of American Poets
Grades
9 to 12
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This unit (an extensive set of lesson plans) uses both critical writing and the Internet to explore women in poetry. It helps to make students familiar with the work of ...more
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This unit (an extensive set of lesson plans) uses both critical writing and the Internet to explore women in poetry. It helps to make students familiar with the work of women poets and confident in understanding poetry. Students get practice reading poems critically, learn technical poetry vocabulary, do research on the web, write responses, and more. Examples of themes explored in the unit include "Entering the Darkness Out of Childhood," "Voices of the Mothers," and "The Body Electric." The culminating project is creating a webpage. The lesson plans are very detailed, so that even teachers reluctant about teaching poetry will engage their students with this literary form.
In the Classroom
Choose the lesson options that best meet your needs and time limits or simply use the research and project portions. Although the site suggests making a web page on your school server, a wiki would be an easy place to create the culminating projects.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet - National Endowment for the Humanities
Grades
8 to 12
2 Favorites
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If you want to make your students love the SOUND of poetry, this is the site for you. While knowing the terms for rhythms, meters, etc. is important to teachers ...more
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If you want to make your students love the SOUND of poetry, this is the site for you. While knowing the terms for rhythms, meters, etc. is important to teachers and for testing, it seems more important for students to understand the sound that comes from language and appreciate it. The terms can always come later and will be connected to a meaningful experience students can recall. This site provides seven sound experiments to whet your students' appetites for poetry. The site provides step-by-step instructions on the seven "experiments" used to involved students in the music of language. It also provides multiple links to different eras from the early Elizabethan sonnets to the Romantics through Victorian and American poets.
In the Classroom
Conduct these lessons in their "traditional" ways or consider letting students make a podcast of one or more of the experiments so their peers can "hear" the lesson over and over with explanation and commentary from their peers. These podcasts could be the start of a library to accompany the teaching of poetry in your school. If you have never tried podcasting, the relatively simple structure of these "experiments" gives you a structured place to start.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Music In Poetry - Smithsonian Institute
Grades
5 to 12
6 Favorites
0 Comments
If you want to get students involved in listening to poetry, try this site featuring real life SOUNDS of poetry in both ballads and the blues. Ballads are traditionally taught ...more
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If you want to get students involved in listening to poetry, try this site featuring real life SOUNDS of poetry in both ballads and the blues. Ballads are traditionally taught as story poems and, while this site does that too, it makes ballads more relevant to the music that kids listen to today. Use this site to teach about meters (iambic triameter and iambic tetrameter) in ways that students can HEAR. The images of the short films are great, too. The site includes readings and singing of great, classic examples of ballads as well as some rarer film footage of great blues singers (ex: John Jackson singing "Steamboat Whistle" at Wolf Trap in 1997). There is a wide variety of tracks to choose from and the site includes lesson plans.
In the Classroom
Play the sound files on speakers in your classroom and be sure to include the link on your teacher web page for students to play at home, as well. If you are into podcasting, consider having students make their own recordings of ballads after hearing and studying these. Challenge cooperative learning groups to modernize one of the ballads and augment classroom technology use by creating a podcast by using sites such as podOmatic, reviewed here, or Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Help students create a checklist or rubric to use for self-evaluation or peer review. Use a tool like Quick Rubric, reviewed here, for the checklist and rubric. Use this same document to help students make constructive suggestions for story revisions. The lesson plans are printable PDFs and work with units/lessons on Langston Hughes and the blues as well as the meters of poetry.
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Soaring High With Kites - everythingesl.net
Grades
1 to 6
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This multi-level lesson plan for ESL students offers opportunities for vocabulary development, reading, writing, and cultural sharing by responding to stories and books about kites....more
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This multi-level lesson plan for ESL students offers opportunities for vocabulary development, reading, writing, and cultural sharing by responding to stories and books about kites. Primary grade teachers could also use it in a unit on weather or as an interdisciplinary science/language arts activity. Because of its high interest level, it motivates students to participate in understanding new words and in expressing their ideas about the books they read and the techniques and history of kite flying in their countries. Students also read and talk about kite safety rules and examine websites about kites. Writing opportunities include writing rules,original stories, cultural histories haiku, and diamante poems. Students also get to design, make, decorate and fly their own kites.
tag(s): poetry (182), vocabulary (231)
In the Classroom
Plan a kite day in the fall or spring and use all or part of these plans to learn new words, build kites, and even fly them before you write about them. This would be a terrific activity to include parents at school year's end.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Vincent Voice Library - Michigan State University
Grades
3 to 12
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This amazing library, part of Michigan State's library system, offers information about speeches, recordings, and news broadcasts featuring over 100,000 famous and not so famous personages....more
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This amazing library, part of Michigan State's library system, offers information about speeches, recordings, and news broadcasts featuring over 100,000 famous and not so famous personages. Not all items are digitized, but many are available in MP3 format. Those that can be played on your computer will have the word "Listen" as a link to play the file. The serach tools are a bit cumbersome, but there are terrific primary sources here.
Requires Quick time. Videos require RealPlayer. Get these plug-ins from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
Requires Quick time. Videos require RealPlayer. Get these plug-ins from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..
tag(s): authors (100), news (228), poetry (182), speech (67), speeches (18)
In the Classroom
Play a recording of a famous speech or video relevant to today's lesson as students enter the room (turn up your speakers!). Or have your students create multimedia presentations using these sounds in the background, such as portraits orf a decade, an author study, or a moment in history.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Writers - C-Span
Grades
6 to 12
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This beautifully crafted site provides students with in-depth information on American writers and their works. Students can use the site's search feature to zero in on an era in American...more
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This beautifully crafted site provides students with in-depth information on American writers and their works. Students can use the site's search feature to zero in on an era in American history, a specific author, or a book title. The site features many video clips from the companion C-SPAN series. A high-speed connection is a must.
In the Classroom
You can pick and choose not only which author you want, but what information you want to use. You can choose short video clips shown on a projector either as a lesson in themselves (using the suggested questions or ones of your own); you can create a webquest using a combination of both this site and other sites linked from it; or you can use this as a straightforward internet lesson, using the material presented on the site itself. It is easily expandable to history and you can watch the video, a video clip, or read the transcript. Video requires Real Player.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shel Silverstein's Official Website - Shel Silverstein; Harper Publishers
Grades
K to 6
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Shel Silverstein's outside-the-box style of poetry has delighted students for years. Now, his website extends that wacky literacy to another medium and level. You may be tempted at...more
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Shel Silverstein's outside-the-box style of poetry has delighted students for years. Now, his website extends that wacky literacy to another medium and level. You may be tempted at most sites to skip the intro. Don't skip Shel's. Familiar entities walk across your screen welcoming you. Screen Savers, animated Shel-creature-people to enjoy, reproducibles, and more await your enjoyment. Click on Poetry Month to find more activities and games that you can use during April. Your students will chuckle at Shel's own reading and lively animation of several of his poems. This is a site to explore with your class.
In the Classroom
Take your students on this language-rich adventure using an interactive whiteboard or projector. Mark your calendar now to visit this site during April, when Poetry Month is celebrated. Download your free poetry kit from the poetry month link. Of course, Shel Silverstein's whimsical and slightly dark humor can be enjoyed any month. There is a link for Teachers and Parents with lesson ideas, printables, and more. This is a great site to share with parents and students for summer breaks.
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