We are now offering a series of FREE lesson plans on the blog, with downloadable audio available for a limited time. This is a great opportunity to see first-hand what other educators are doing with audiobooks, and to give audiobooks in the classroom a risk-free try yourself! This month’s free audio lesson guide is for 1989 Newbery Medal winner Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman. Lesson Plans are by Hillary Wolfe, librarian at Northview High School in Covina, California.
Hillary says … First, I chose Joyful Noise because I thought it could work for different age levels, and it is short enough to do in one class period. Also, since there are 14 poems, it’s a great vehicle for partner work. These lessons came from ideas I got from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and they are all standards-based.
There are several parts to this lesson, which get more sophisticated. So, younger grades would only need to do parts 1 and 2, whereas upper grades could continue with parts 3 and 4 and use this lesson as a springboard to other poetry and literature lessons. Recorded Books will post each lesson separately.
Listen to or download (for a limited time) the audio clips below and download the corresponding lesson plan (in pdf format). Leave comments for other teachers on your additions or modifications to the lesson plan—we want to share your ideas with educators around the country!
LESSON 1 – Objective: Identify how sound (form) influences content (function).
Joyful Noise – Lesson 1 – Lesson Plans
Joyful Noise – Lesson 1 – Student Worksheets
Joyful Noise audio – Grasshoppers-WaterStriders-Mayflies
Joyful Noise audio – Fireflies-BookLice
Listen online: Grasshoppers, Water Striders, Mayflies
Listen online: Fireflies, Book Lice
Stay tuned to the blog for Lesson 2 and more audio from Joyful Noise on May 12, 2008. Lessons 3 and 4, as well as audio for the rest of the poems in Joyful Noise, will be posted later in May.
If you’d like your lesson plan to be featured, send us your idea!
Filed under: * FREE Audio & Lesson Plans | Tagged: education, Fleischman, lesson guide, lesson plans, poem, poetry, teachers, teaching, teaching guide Joyful Noise |
Recorded Books Blog 
These lessons are clearly for children, but I’d like to try them for adult readeing students. However, isn’t the ability to transfer these observations to future use interpreting the written word limited by not providing the text of the poems for students to read along with?
The lessons would definitely work for adult reading students as well. We’ve heard that adult literacy classes have used poems from Joyful Noise in the past and enjoyed them. We do always recommend reading along with the text. If you do not already have a copy, we offer the text for sale at http://www.recordedbooks.com/school, and most libraries should also have the text available. Also, check out Lesson 4, coming up on May 27. Lesson 4 is all about scansion and poetic meter, and we provide the text for Book Lice in a scansion worksheet. Hope this helps!
How do we download the audio clip? When I click on it, it just plays, I see now option to save it. Thanks!
Look above the players – to the right of the image of the book cover. Right click on those and choose ‘save as’. How do you plan to use the audio clips?
This is great. My kids really enjoyed.
[…] for four sets of complete lesson plans, plus the entire downloadable audiobook! Lesson Plans 1: Identify how form influences function. Lesson Plans 2: Descriptive Verbs, Alliteration, Metaphors and Similes Lesson Plans 3: Point of […]
[…] for four sets of complete lesson plans, plus the entire downloadable audiobook! Lesson Plans 1: Identify how form influences function. Lesson Plans 2: Descriptive Verbs, Alliteration, Metaphors and Similes Lesson Plans 3: Point of […]