Using poetry in the content areas allows students to provide quick snapshots about what they know about a topic in a way that allows for more personal expression than worksheets and quizzes. Because poetry forces the writer to pay close attention to word choice and to focus on the important details, poetry can provide content area teachers with a tool that helps assess students' understanding of a topic.
For further details about poetry in the content areas, check one of the links below.
First, design a poetry assignment you would use in your content area. There are several avenues you can take in this assignment because of the wide variety of styles of poems. Furthermore, you don't have to limit yourself to one poetic form. Rather, you can experiment with different forms to allow students to see how various forms and ideas connect with your content, or you can offer students a choice of styles.
When designing your lesson, you need to move beyond the poem itself. What are you going to do to prepare students for the lesson? Are there poems you will analyze in class as a way to introduce poetry into your content area? What aspects of the topic are essential for including in the poems your students write?
Second, you will actually create an example of your assignment that can serve as a guide for students who will be completing the assignment.
Third, you will include a one- to two-page explanation paper that provides the context in the classroom in which you would use this assignment. What unit would this be included in? What have students learned about? What do you hope to accomplish with this assignment? Why did you make the choices that you did?
For further details about poetry in the content areas, check one of the links below.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749255
http://ohiorc.org/adlit/inperspective/issue/2007-01/Article/feature.aspx
http://www.quotesandpoem.com/poems/PoetryByTopic
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/SubjIdx/life.html
There are three parts to this assignments:
First, design a poetry assignment you would use in your content area. There are several avenues you can take in this assignment because of the wide variety of styles of poems. Furthermore, you don't have to limit yourself to one poetic form. Rather, you can experiment with different forms to allow students to see how various forms and ideas connect with your content, or you can offer students a choice of styles.
When designing your lesson, you need to move beyond the poem itself. What are you going to do to prepare students for the lesson? Are there poems you will analyze in class as a way to introduce poetry into your content area? What aspects of the topic are essential for including in the poems your students write?
Second, you will actually create an example of your assignment that can serve as a guide for students who will be completing the assignment.
Third, you will include a one- to two-page explanation paper that provides the context in the classroom in which you would use this assignment. What unit would this be included in? What have students learned about? What do you hope to accomplish with this assignment? Why did you make the choices that you did?