All posts tagged: poetry

More Distance Learning Teaching Ideas

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We are back in school this week. Distance learning style. This is a whole new ball game for so many of us and all I can do is hang on for the ride. Since I don’t know how long this on-line learning will last, I am taking it a week at a time. Right now, this online model is supposed to end April 28th, so that is as long as I can think ahead. If I figure students will spend about 30 minutes on English work daily, then what sort of assignments can I create that gives both my students and myself breathing room? Assignments where they are still learning and I am able to check in on their progress and answer questions? I thought of project-based assignments rather than daily-type assignments. The learning that students are doing is enrichment (optional, not required), so you will notice that there are different standards presented and different ideas. Also, because it is enrichment, there is no scoring rubric, but I will be giving feedback to students who …

Ideas to Teach Poetry to Students

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I love poems.  There’s just something amazing and profound that comes from such simplicity.  Perfect words, said succently. However, not everyone shares my enthusiasm and I get that.  When I first started teaching, I followed what I was taught in school–you learn poetry through a poetry unit.  After many years of lackluster participation and ho-hum student-written poems, I had a change of heart. If your students struggle with analyzing poetry, here are three tips to try. 1. Filter poetry in with a unit you are already teaching Now when I teach poetry, I filter it in.  Have a writing lesson working on figurative language and imagery?  Read and discuss a poem first.  They are filled with them.  Teaching a novel and finding evidence to support a theme?  Read and discuss a poem that focuses on the same theme.  (When my students read The Secret Life of Bees, we focused on the theme of social injustice.  I paired that theme with the poems “Harlem” and “I, Too,” by Langston Hughes, and “Alone” by Maya Angelou.  Students made …