Write Out – Poetry, Prose, and Parks!
A couple of years ago one of Kevin Hodgson’s blog posts introduced me to the national Write Out project. This is a two week, online event held every October. This year’s NWP Write Out begins on October 8th and runs through October 22nd. The idea of the project is to inspire writers through outdoor settings, […]
4,000+ Pages of Walt Whitman’s Papers
This week the Library of Congress announced the addition of more than 4,000 new primary source documents to the By the People website. Those primary sources are all letters, notes, and manuscripts written by Walt Whitman. The purpose of the By the People project is to enlist the help of the public to transcribe thousands of primary source documents that are […]
Seven Good Activities for National Poetry Month
Over the weekend I watched two baseball games on television while the rain and wind howled outside my window. I watched because I love baseball and because it was the start of a new season. The start of the baseball season is full of hope and for all but one team ends with heartbreak. There’s […]
Ten Good Templates for Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts Activities
At the start of this year ReadWriteThink re-released all of their popular interactive templates for creating all kinds of things including poems, story plots, timelines, compare & contrast maps, and much more. If you haven’t looked at ReadWriteThink in a while, take a look at these updated templates that can be used for lessons in […]
Seven Activities for National Poetry Month
A little Twitter conversation last week reminded me that the start of the baseball season is full of hope and for all but one team ends with heartbreak. There’s a lot of poetry in that. And so it’s fitting that the start of the baseball season is in April and that April is National Poetry […]
Read and Transcribe Walt Whitman’s Notebooks and Diaries
A few years ago the Library of Congress launched a crowd sourcing project called Crowd. The purpose of the project is to enlist the help of the public to transcribe thousands of primary source documents that are housed by and have been scanned by the Library of Congress. Over the years there have been collections […]
Activities for National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month. I forgot all about it until this morning when I looked at my video about using Google Jamboard to create magnetic poetry activities. That’s just one of many resources for National Poetry Month that I have in my archive of resources. Here’s a handful of my favorite activities and resources for […]
Magnetic Poetry With Google Jamboard and Google Classroom
Earlier this week a reader emailed me looking for an alternative to Read Write Think’s old Word Mover activity which is no longer available because of the deprecation of Flash. Word Mover was essentially an online version of the old refrigerator word magnets that were popular in the 90’s. While the producers of Magnetic Poetry […]
A Poem for Every Day of National Poetry Month
Last fall I wrote about the Poetry 180 project hosted by the Library of Congress. Now that National Poetry Month is here, it’s a good time to revisit the post that I wrote about Poetry 180 at the beginning of the school year. Poetry 180 is a Library of Congress project that was created when […]
Poetry Comics from Make Beliefs Comix
April is National Poetry Month. Last week, I shared a couple of Read Write Think resources for helping students create theme poems and shape poems. Those are good resources if your classroom is 1:1. If not, you might want to take a look at the printable templates from Make Beliefs Comix. Make Beliefs Comix offers […]
There’s a Poem for That! – Lessons for National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month. Earlier this week I shared a couple of Read Write Think poetry activities that you can use in elementary school. For those who teach middle school and high school language arts, I recommend taking a look at TED-Ed’s playlist of poetry lessons. There’s a Poem for That is a series […]
Theme Poems and Shape Poems – Activities for Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month here in the United States. This is a good time to remind you or introduce you to a couple of good resources from Read Write Think about poetry. RWT’s Theme Poems interactive provides students with 32 pictures to use as the basis for writing short poems. To write a poem students […]
A Fun Literature Game
A couple of years ago Terri Eichholz wrote a short blog post about an activity that she had found on the New Times Learning Network. I was recently scrolling through some old bookmarks and found Terri’s post again. So I went to see if it’s still available and it is. The activity is called Literature […]
Poetry 180 – A Poem for Every Day of the School Year
Poetry 180 is a Library of Congress project that was created when Billy Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate. The purpose of the project is to provide high school teachers with poems for their students to read or hear throughout the school year. Collins selected the poems for Poetry 180 with high school students in […]
Theme Poem Lesson Plans and Interactive Module
Read Write Think is one of my all-time favorite resources for free language arts lesson plans and interactive activities. I’ve written about and published videos about many of RWT’s interactive tools over the years. But somehow the Theme Poems interactive has escaped my attention until now. RWT’s Theme Poems interactive provides students with 32 pictures […]
From the Catbird Seat – A Poetry Podcast
Just in time for the end of National Poetry Month the Library of Congress has launched a new podcast series about poetry. The podcast is called From the Catbird Seat. The podcast will feature conversations with Rob Casper and Anne Holmes from the Poetry and Literature Center at the LOC. In the first eight episodes […]
2000+ Recordings of Poets and Fiction Writers Reading and Discussing Their Work
A few years ago the Library of Congress published an online collection of audio recordings of poets and fiction writers reading and discussing their works. At the time of its launch the collection contain 124 recordings. Since then the collection has grown to include more than 2,000 recordings. The Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature contains recordings […]
What Makes a Poem? – A Lesson for Poetry Month
This is National Poetry Month. “What is a poem?” might be the first question that students ask after, “why is it National Poetry Month?” The answer to that first question can be found in a TED-Ed lesson titled What Makes a Poem…a Poem? By watching What Makes a Poem? students can learn the origins of poetry, the […]
Poetry Lesson Plans Incorporating Word Mover
April is National Poetry Month. This is a great time to remind you of Read Write Think’s Word Mover app for iOS, Android, and web browser. Word Mover from Read Write Think is a free app that helps students develop poems and short stories. When students open the Word Mover app they are shown a […]
Word Mover – A Great App for National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month. If you have students who need a little help crafting poems, have them try Word Mover. Word Mover from Read Write Think is a free app that helps students develop poems and short stories. When students open the Word Mover app they are shown a selection of words that they […]
5 Good Resources for National Poetry Month
April is Poetry Month. Whether you’re trying to help students understand and interpret the meaning of poems or you’re trying to help them write their own poems, the following five resources are worth exploring. (By the way, I always wonder who gets to declare the something is “national X month?” That might be a good, […]
What Makes a Poem?
April is Poetry Month. As you start to plan poetry lessons, consider that many students will first wonder, “what makes a poem?” A new TED-Ed lesson addresses that question. In watching What Makes a Poem? students can learn the origins of poetry, the characteristics traditionally associated with poems, and the format of a haiku. The […]
ReadWorks Offers a Nice Set of Poems and Guiding Questions for Poetry Month
ReadWorks is one of my favorite nonprofit services for teachers. ReadWorks offers hundreds of lesson plans and thousands of non-fiction and fiction passages aligned to Common Core standards. Additionally, each article is listed with a Lexile score and suggested grade level. ReadWorks recently released a new set of poems and guided reading questions. The collection […]
30 Days of Shakespeare Presented by the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death by publishing 30 recordings of NYPL staff members reading their favorite Shakespeare speeches, monologues, or sonnets. One recording per day will be published throughout the month of April. April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. These recordings could provide a nice […]
Poetry Vocabulary Sheets Containing Examples
Disclosure: BoomWriter is an advertiser on this blog. April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. BoomWriter offers a good resource for those teaching poetry this month. On BoomWriter’s free resources page you will find a set of poetry vocabulary sheets that you can share with your students. In those vocabulary sheets you will find […]