Awesome activity! Interesting to teach in so many contexts: poetry, economy of words, even censorship - a different take on it. Also meshes perfectly with the novel catch 22 and Yosarrian censoring the letters.
A great poetry site for children. See poems on a range of topics and most poems have an audio of the poet reading their poems.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
The Poetry Archive, as the name suggests, is a bank of poetry and information about poets. A great resource for teachers and students alike.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
Magnetic Poetry online - after the site loads, wait for the "Next" button to appear in the bottom right corner. You can enter the words you want to use for the poetry and choose different backgrounds/grids, including Venn diagram.
Until your students are ready to use their own artistic licence you may want to use this poem template site to get them started. Just input words as prompted to make intriguing poetry.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
A great interactive acrostic poem maker. It explains what acrostic poems are when gives helpful hints as children write their own.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/English
A useful and fun set of cross-curriculum photo slide shows for maths, English, science, history and more. They are arranged by age and range from kindergarten Secondary school. A great resource for introducing topics.
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams
Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing your process on digital storytelling. I teach middle school English and am not as tech-savvy as you, but I know the value of a well-planned multimedia project for students. I am inspired to plan out a similar project, now that I see how to do it. I like that they create a storyboard and script to emphasize the "meat" of their project and not the glitzy stuff. Their narrated videos are quite impressive. Your students are lucky to have you!
Thanks Irene! The students did such an amazing job. You really don't have to be tech-saavy to employ this in your classroom. The software is already so user-friendly. The person who taught me how to do this was an English teacher - she would use it with poetry, so that students would have to emphasize emotion in their reading. Very effective!
Jennifer, this is wonderful! I love how you give your students choices of which app to use and how you place the onus on them to learn it and to troubleshoot on their own. This is something that I teach in my computer classes because students have to acquire and feel comfortable with that skill. Thanks!
Create a PicLit - Inspired Picture Writing - creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.
In these last days of April, I wanted to acknowledge the yin and yang that this month represents for my discipline. April is National Poetry Month, but it is also the time of year when students in grades 3-8 take their ELA and math New York State exams. The irony of this is not lost on us English teachers.