April is National Poetry Month!

Would you like a way to integrate technology into your poetry unit? It can be difficult to do anything more with a poetry unit other than reading and writing poems. Educators need to integrate technology into their lesson plans more and more as companies are demanding future employees with computer skills, and the technology generation is growing bored with traditional teaching methods. Many states now mandate technology to be a part of the curriculum. So, here are few ideas:

1. Using Photo Story 3, you can turn your class poetry into a narrated video for students to enjoy and take home! Photo Story 3 is a Windows program that creates slide show videos using digital pictures. The program is very user friendly, allowing users to keep it as simple as possible or more polished if they choose. The options included in the program range from cropping and rotating pictures, using color effects on pictures, to transitions and music/narration. The example below is a Photo Story of the poem "Candlelight" done by Charlotte S; Poem written by Coreena Lindquist:

2. Using an electronic Flipbook, you can turn your students into published poets!  Issuu is allows you to publish books and magazines in a digital format, where the pages actually flip as if you were turning a paper magazine or project.  Students and parents really like this feature, and projects can easily be posted on your webpage.  See an example below.  

3. Using Voicethread, you can have students illustrate and narrate their poems, and comment on each other's work.  This is a great way to promote dialogue among students.  Below is an example of a third grade class in Brooklyn New York.

Here are some additional website resources for National Poetry Month:

http://www.theteachersguide.com/poetrymonth.htm 

http://languagearts.pppst.com/poetry.html

 

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/103