Teachers, I beg you to help me show them: All students deserve the benefits of a poem; You don’t have to teach English to know That students learn from the form and flow That only a poem can provide. Indeed, our creativity comes alive Whenever we’re forced to reason and rhyme; It doesn’t matter which […]
poetry
Celebrate National Poetry Month – Summarize With a Poem
Teachers of all subjects, grades, and walks of life Don’t treat poetry like you’re holding a knife! This is Poetry month – help it to come alive By using poetry to summarize! How can you use poetry in class this month? Just a few suggestions: Have students work vocabulary words into a poem Have students […]
Trash Can Poetry in Motion: Teaching Outside the Box
I recently watched a segment on “Sixty Minutes” that featured an orchestra from Cateura, Paraguay, whose instruments were made entirely of discarded objects found in the local landfill…trash! The orchestra known as “The Landfill Harmonic,” or “Los Reciclados,” was created by Favio Chaevez and Nicolaes Goemez, and consists of a dozen or more children that […]
Build Reading Skills with Poetry
On Friday mornings, the lights would go off, quietly chatting, the class moved to the rug. Each child held a book of poems. They sat in a circle, poems on the floor in front of them. I would ask a student to start. As he began to read, the child next to him picked […]
Where I'm From: New Year, New Understanding Using Poetry
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I remember watching “Gremlins” in the 80’s. Â When Randall is sold the Mogwai he is given three specific instructions:Â never expose it to bright light, Â never get it wet and never, ever […]
Up, Up, My Friend…and Quit Your Close Reading!
The Common Core Literacy Standards encourage “close reading”, the careful inspection of a text for analysis, Â but I believe that the British poet William Wordsworth offers his sly opinion on that practice in one of his poems The Tables Turned. The poem is a plea to the reader to throw down the books with poems […]
What Common Core ELA Is Doing For Me
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~Victor Frank [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”] I think it is exciting to see the changes coming with the Common […]