FREE Audio & Lesson Plans for Joyful Noise

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!