Poems for Assessment

Middle School students are often the most emotional, imaginative, and creative kids around.  They are struggling with all of the new life experiences that surround them, and more importantly, they are searching for a way to let it all out.  For some, writing poetry can be that release!

Poetry writing has long been an incredible form of therapy for the soul, but in our classrooms, it can also be a form of assessment.  With so many options for how to write poetry, it can be done in very effective ways to demonstrate student understanding or to show student processing of content or a subject-area concept.

Here are a few suggestions for using poetry in your class for assessment:

• When studying significant people, whether dead of alive, students can create fact filled Epitaphs or Biographical Poems.  Provide a template or allow students to research the purpose of each prior to writing, and set requirements to meet the standards of your course.
• Examine important events or subjects by using Haikus. This Japanese art form has long helped people connect their thoughts to events, and students can use this short format for writing concise summaries.
• Another great tool for examining time periods, unit topics, or themes is the Acrostic Poem.  This easy to use template format can help students detail their topics while processing and extending information into a cohesive flow.
• For the very creative, encourage the creation of a Shaped Poem, allowing art and knowledge to meet for an assessment like no other!

Whether you utilize templates or allow your students to free verse their way to your heart, the opportunity to write poetry for assessment may open doors for some students who have had challenges with writing in the past.  More importantly, it may be the encouragement some need to inspire them to learn and participate more in your class!

Happy Teaching!

Poetic Primary Sources: Using Poetry to Teach History

During National Poetry Month, we often think about reading or writing poems in our Language Arts classes, but poetry can be an incredibly valuable tool in the Social Studies classroom, as well.  After all, poetry has been around since the beginning of written word!

More importantly, according to the National Council for Social Studies, primary sources should be our go-to for informational text in the History classroom.  Primary sources offer us a first hand account of history, and can often provide perspectives (and biases) we cannot otherwise see. Poetic primary sources can open up doors to the innermost thoughts of individuals, and can help students examine time and place in a way other documents cannot, allowing emotion to come through in the sharing of historic times and events.

Here are just a few resources to help you make the most of National Poetry Month in your Social Studies Classroom:

• Poetry Soup has great listings of poems from all eras and all peoples.  Take a look at the many history-related poems to find a topic that works best in your class.
• Some of the greatest poetry is written in times of strife.  During WWII, incredible poets recorded their greatest experiences and fears during their internment in camps, both in American and Europe.  While the Japanese wrote haikus throughout history, the ones written during American Internment were written in English, yet are truly authentic in form.  Poems written during the Holocaust in Europe take on many forms, but are all strong in both emotion and visualization.  Find a great collection of all types of poetry from WWII at the WWII Poetry Site.
• During WWI, many soldiers wrote letters from the trenches.  Some of those wrote in poetic form, sharing their hopes and fears for their futures.  The Poetry Foundation has a very complete listing of resources that describe many aspects of the first world war.
• And if we are sharing historic poetry, we must go back to the original poets of Greece, and Homer was the best at detailing history in verse.  Examine Classical Literature and the poets that started it all at Ancient Literature. 
• Finally, Famous Poets and Poems has an amazing listing of poems from all times, including modern poets that examine current topics and current events.  Allow students to read Maya Angelou or Shel Silverstein to escape into the realities of the 20th century or the dreams of the 21st.

But reading poetry is not enough! Allow your students to report on history in poetic form.  Writing poetry can be informing, but also cathartic.  More importantly, it can be engaging, keeping your students learning through the month and beyond as you come closer and closer to the end of the year!

Happy Teaching!

Creativity in Action: Test Prep without the Boredom

It's me, Michele from A Lesson Plan for Teachers, and I'm here to make a few suggestions that are near and dear to my heart for test prep season! 

In my classroom, creativity has always been welcome, encouraged, and appreciated.  Based on the research I studied on gender gaps in the classroom back in the 90s, all students and especially females retain content more successfully when given the opportunity to process that content creatively.  So why, when it comes time to prep for the inevitable testing window, do teachers often step back from allowing creative expression and resort to lecture or paper-based reviews?  Don't do it!

So, here are a few suggestions to make your classroom more creative while still tackling the testing prep that is mandated in our classrooms now!

1. Assign students topics from your course.  Allow them to choose a method of presentation, whether it be written, drawn, sculpted, or performed.  Hold a Class Presentation Show to cover all of the topics without the boredom!
2. Create an Illustrated Timeline Wall covering all of the content you need to review.  Let your students shine with their individual talents, with some organizing the dates, others writing the concise descriptions, some illustrating the main points, and others adding creative elements to draw attention to significant themes.
3. Graffiti a Wall with illustrations and bubble letters on all the key topics covered in class.  Have students discuss the topics as they create the wall, reviewing the key points.
4. Turn your classrooms into a Living Museum with students dressed in characters from your content (Historic figures, book characters, important scientists or mathematicians).  Hold a meet and greet for interaction and discussion of themes or significant events.
5. Step back in time or into a book where students Build the Scene and models of significant role-players to recreate the past or the story.  Wrap-up with topic reviews or a graphically organized overview.
6. Play Games! Charades, Pictionary, and student created games can allow students to review the content while creating the game and while playing!

And there are so many other options that get students up out of their desks and active in their learning and review.  What ideas do you have for making your test prep fun, engaging, and CREATIVE?

Happy Review!

Digging Up History

This is Michele from A Lesson Plan for Teachers, and I wanted to give you a creative idea for those dreaded testing reviews!  Instead of having students complete the traditional worksheets or reviewing the course content through the projector, get students up and digging for the information they need!

Creating an archaeology dig in your classroom is easy!

1. Start by asking your Guidance Office to save the shredded paper for you for about a week.  This should give you ample supply of dig material.
2. Create a frame for the dig site.  This can be as simple as a wooden frame or one made of taped cardboard.
3. Fill the frame with the shredded paper and divide into quadrants with twine.
4. Place topic cards into the dig materials.
5. Let the fun begin!

Since my subject area is Social Studies, I created a topic card for each unit I taught in the year.  I assigned students into pairs or small groups, and as they dig the cards, they complete a SPRITE Graphic Organizer to review the topic.  If they can't remember the facts, they can refer to their notebook or other sources.

As the class finishes up all of the topic cards, share as a whole group with each team summarizing their SPRITE review.  For a more comprehensive written review, have all students complete SPRITEs on all topics.  Place the SPRITEs in chronological order in notebooks for further study, added research, or other tasks for review.

SPRITE SOCIAL STUDIES GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

What other ideas can you contribute for making review more engaging?

WebQuests and Writing in the History Classroom

Hi everyone!  Julia from History from the Middle here!  I wanted to share with you all how I incorporate elements of writing in my history class through the use of highly engaging WebQuest activities!

There are so many different ways for content areas to incorporate writing, and make it meaningful and engaging.  With the implementation of Common Core, students now, more than ever, must use evidence-based support within their writing.  This is such a natural element for history to incorporate, because most of what we write has to be based on historical evidence!

One of the ways that I do this, and my student's LOVE it, are through research-based WebQuest activities!  Depending on the topic, students may have to read a primary source to gain evidence, watch a video, examine an artifact....The possibilities are endless!

To show you what my student's do, I'm going to walk you through one of my student's FAVORITE WebQuest activities which is a CSI Investigation of Otzi the Iceman that I do with my Ancient Civilization students when we are in our Early Man unit.

Students start the activity by watching an introductory video on who Otzi was, and where he lived.  This helps to build the "suspense" of the investigation!  Next, students go through different pieces of research to help come to their own conclusions on what happened to Otzi and determine how he died.

For this activity, I created a Google Site and loaded all of the directions for the investigation step by step.  

Students then work with a fellow investigator and go through a series of research questions to help build their background knowledge on what may have happened to Otzi.  

Once students have researched the background information, and the possible 4 theories as to what happened to Otzi, they are then to write their final investigative report!

I am in a 1:1 school that uses GAFE (Google Apps for Education).  I personally run all of my assignments through Google Classroom (which I will do a separate post on!)  

I then go into Google Drive and create a Google Doc for students to write their final investigative report.  I then take that Doc and load it as an assignment in Google Classroom.  

One of the great benefits I like about having students work in Google Docs, is the collaboration piece.  While they are working, I'm able to go into their document and watch what they are doing, and make comments and give immediate feedback!

One of the things I love about using WebQuests to invoke the writing process is the natural flow of writing that occurs.  Students become so engaged in the topic and the process, that the writing just comes so naturally!  To see them using the evidence from the research in their writing is so EXCITING!  

From my experience, having students interact with the content in a way that evokes certain feelings/opinions/emotions allows them to access the writing process in a different way.  Even though I teach history, we are all still reading and writing teachers and we need to provide as many opportunities for our students to implement those standards outside of their language arts class.  I think that WebQuests are one of many ways to do that and get students excited about writing!

What are some interesting methods you use in your class to get students excited about writing?