Celebrate National Poetry Month

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we’re again sharing excerpts and accompanying activities for some of our favorite poetry on audio for K-12. Poetry on audio is a great way to introduce students to poetry—they hear proper meter, diction, and pronunciation, allowing them to more easily analyze complex figurative language. If you use this or other audio in your classroom, leave a comment to this post telling us how and you’ll be entered to win a copy of one of the books below on CD! (See the end of this post for details.) All of the audiobooks mentioned in this post are available unabridged from Recorded Books.

The Spoken Arts Treasury Volume 2: 100 Modern American Poets Reading Their Poetry
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner
Bonus Audio Download!: “Falling Asleep Over the Aeneid” by Robert Lowell (text version)
Audio Excerpt: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (text and additional audio)
Lesson Plan: Narration Comparison and Close Reading

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Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner, National Book Award Finalist (Young People’s Literature), Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Audio Excerpt: List Poem
Lesson Plan: Write Your Own List Poem

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Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Newbery Award Winner
See our past posts 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 View
Lesson Plans 4: Meter, Rhythm, and Tempo

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If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos
An International Reading Association Children’s Choice
Audio Excerpt: Hiding in the Bathroom & A Lifetime in Third Grade
Lesson Plan: Point of View and Figurative Language (2 pages)

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CONTEST RULES:

* Leave a comment below (be sure to enter a valid email address, or we won’t be able to contact you if you win!) telling us how you share poetry with your students or what your favorite National Poetry Month activity is. We’ll pick our favorite response to win!
* Tweet (we’re @recordedbooks) or blog about the contest using the hashtag #rbk12 and you can leave a second comment linking to your tweet or post—you’ll get another contest entry. Spread the word!
* Again, be sure you leave a valid email address with your comment so we can contact you. If you’re picked as a winner and we can’t contact you, the prize will got to the next winner. (You don’t need to re-enter your address within the body of the comment, though. Just be sure it’s in the form when you leave your comment.)
* Drawing will be held on April 30, 2010 at 12:00PM Eastern time. Winners will be contacted by email to get mailing information. The winner will receive one copy of one of the titles mentioned above (winner’s choice) on CD.

Download National Poetry Month freebies today!

In celebration of National Poetry Month, we’re giving away excerpts and accompanying activities for some of our favorite poetry on audio for K-12. Poetry on audio is a great way to introduce students to poetry—they hear proper meter, diction, and pronunciation, allowing them to more easily analyze complex figurative language. If you use this or other audio in your classroom, leave a comment to this post telling us how and you’ll be entered to win one of 10 audiobooks on CD! (See the end of this post for details.) All of the audiobooks mentioned in this post are available unabridged from Recorded Books.

The Spoken Arts Treasury Volume 2: 100 Modern American Poets Reading Their Poetry
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner
Bonus Audio Download!: “Falling Asleep Over the Aeneid” by Robert Lowell (text version)
Audio Excerpt: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (text and additional audio)
Lesson Plan: Narration Comparison and Close Reading

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Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner, National Book Award Finalist (Young People’s Literature), Coretta Scott King Honor Book
Audio Excerpt: List Poem
Lesson Plan: Write Your Own List Poem

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Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Newbery Award Winner
See our past posts 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 View
Lesson Plans 4: Meter, Rhythm, and Tempo

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If You’re Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand: Poems About School by Kalli Dakos
An International Reading Association Children’s Choice
Audio Excerpt: Hiding in the Bathroom & A Lifetime in Third Grade
Lesson Plan: Point of View and Figurative Language (2 pages)

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RECORDED BOOKS GIVEAWAY!
We’re giving away 10 audiobooks in honor of National Poetry Month! 10 winners will get to choose one audiobook on CD from the 4 titles featured in today’s post (or another title, if you’re not feeling poetic!). What do you need to do to win? THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN PICKED! CONGRATULATIONS!

Lesson Plan 4 for Joyful Noise – with FREE Audio

Enjoy this free audio lesson guide 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.

This lesson is derived from the “Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet” lesson on http://edsitement.neh.gov, and is a great introduction to Shakespeare’s sonnets, scansion, and understanding poetry for older or more advanced students.

Listen to or download (for a limited time) the audio clips below and download the corresponding lesson plan (in pdf format). Let us know what you think of our free lesson plans and audio by leaving us a comment!

LESSON 4 – Objective: Students will identify different meters and rhythms in poetry and determine the effect of tempo on mood and theme.
Joyful Noise – Lesson 4 – Lesson Plans
Joyful Noise – Lesson 4 – Student Worksheets
Joyful Noise audio – Book Lice
Joyful Noise audio – Whirligig Beetles

Listen online: Book Lice (for this week’s lesson)

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Listen online: Whirligig Beetles (for this week’s lesson)

For more lesson plans and FREE audio for the rest of the poems in Joyful Noise, see our other posts in the FREE AUDIOBOOK LESSON GUIDES category. Would you like more free lesson plans? How do you like what you’ve seen so far? Leave us a comment and let us know!

To download, right click on file name above (to the right of the book cover) and choose “Save As.” If you’d like your lesson plan to be featured, send us your idea!

Free Lesson Plan (part 3) for Joyful Noise

This is the third part of a series of FREE lesson plans, with downloadable audio available for a limited time, 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, and are based in ideas from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Here students will see the world through the eyes of a worker bee and a queen bee. They’ll then extend what they learn to other poems and to real life situations. This idea could easily translate into social studies projects or complement other literature.

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! How have you used Joyful Noise in the classroom?

LESSON 3 – Objective: Students will be able to cite examples of different points of view; students will be able to contrast points of view in narrative text and explain how they affect the overall theme of the work.
Joyful Noise – Lesson 3 – Lesson Plans
Joyful Noise – Lesson 3 – Student Worksheets
Joyful Noise audio – Honey Bees
Joyful Noise audio – Water Striders
Joyful Noise audio – Requiem – House Cicadas

Listen online: Honey Bees (for this week’s activity)

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Listen online: Water Striders (for this week’s activity)

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Listen online: Requiem – House Cicadas

See Hillary’s plans in action:

Stay tuned to the blog for Lesson 4 for Joyful Noise. More lessons will be posted later in May. Check our previous Joyful Noise lesson plans to get the entire audiobook!

To download, right click on file name above and choose “Save As.” If you’d like your lesson plan to be featured, send us your idea!

Free Lesson Plan (Part 2) for Joyful Noise

This is the second part of a series of FREE lesson plans, with downloadable audio available for a limited time, 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, and are based in ideas from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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 2 – Objective: Students will identify poetic and literary devices such as descriptive verbs, alliteration, and metaphors and similes; students will articulate how these poetic devices influence the meaning of the poem.
Joyful Noise – Lesson 2 – Lesson Plans
Joyful Noise – Lesson 2 – Student Worksheets
Joyful Noise audio – Fireflies
Joyful Noise audio – Moth’s Serenade – Water Boatmen – The Digger Wasp
Joyful Noise audio – Cicadas – Honeybees – Whirligig Beetles

Listen online: Fireflies (for this week’s activity)

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Listen online: Moth’s Serenade – Water Boatmen – Digger Wasp

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Listen online: Cicadas – Honeybees – Whirligig Beetles

Stay tuned to the blog for Lesson 3 and more audio from Joyful Noise. Lessons 3 and 4, as well as audio for the rest of the poems in Joyful Noise, will be posted later in May.

To download, right click on file name above and choose “Save As.” If you’d like your lesson plan to be featured, send us your idea!

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

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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!