Standardized Testing

One of the big educational debates recently has been about the value of standardized testing. It is easy to find a lot against it and fairly difficult to find a lot of defense (the benefits) in favor of it. Yet it is a fact that as teachers, we will be administering these tests. Whether or not we agree with the value of these tests, we will be required to prepare our students for them. Because of this, each teacher should best learn how to use these tests for the benefit of the student. Some of the strongest feelings arguing against standardized testing come from those teachers who aren't taking the opportunity to look for benefits or how they can use the results to help their students. I'm not saying whether I'm for or against standardized testing. I am saying that as long as teachers are required to prepare students to take these tests, they should do what they can to make it a beneficial experience. They can cling to their opinions while still making the best of the situation.
Here is a site that presents (in a question and answer format) the "For" and the "Against" side of the argument:
http://school.familyeducation.com/college-tests/educational-testing/38358.html?page=2

Personal Technology - Part 2 (Homework Assignment)

This is the document I would have students use. I had originally planned this to be a homework assignment, but if I was going to do that, I think I would actually print out the poems themselves and give them to the students as hard copies. Or, I would do this review as an in class assignment, it which case, I could just use this electronic copy since they would each have access to a computer.

Tools of Poetry

Here is a review of some of the tools we’ve gone over. Read the poems that are listed for each section

Imagery
“The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop

Alliteration
“Youth and Art” – Robert Browning

Line Breaks
“This is Just to Say” – William Carlos Williams

Rhyme
“My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun – (Sonnet 130)” – William Shakespeare

Sound
“The Pickety Fence” – David McCord (You’ll have to click on the section titled “Rhyme and Sound” to find the poem)

Personal Techonology Project - Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan

PLANNING

(This would most likely be done in 8th or 9th grade English class; however, it could easily be adjusted for an older grade level as well)

Date: 12/1/09

Title/Subject of Lesson: Final Poetry Project

Objectives: Students will be able to utilize the tools of poetry they have learned to create their own poems. They will also be able to make poems using picture prompts.

State Core Curriculum Standard:
[1b] Enjoy the processes and outcomes of reading and writing
[3a] Understand that language enhances and identifies human beings as meaning makers
[2c] Extended Writing
Use narrative details (e.g., dialogue, descriptions, imagery, symbolism)

Materials Needed: Computers with both Microsoft Word and Internet access


PERFORMING

Continuation from Previous Lesson: They should have finished the homework assignment to review a few of the different tools we’ve discussed by reading the assigned poems (see document “ToolsofPoetryReview”).

Lesson Presentation:
A) Getting Started
· In computer lab, have each student open www.piclits.com
· Each of them will create an account
B) Directing the Learning
· Explain and demonstrate how to use the Drag-and-Drop feature
o Show personal examples from My Piclits
· Students will create and save their own Drag and Drop PicLits (2). They will choose their favorite one and copy the text to a Word document. Above the text, they will describe the picture they used.
· Explain and demonstrate the Freestyle feature (Show examples from My PicLits)
· Students will create and save their own Freestyle Poem (1).
· Student will then choose 2 different tools from the Review sheet (Rhyme, Sound, Alliteration, Line Breaks, Imagery) and write two new Freestyle Poems – each one focusing on one of the tools we discussed as a class. They will copy the text from these two poems to their Word document. Above the poem, they will simply describe the picture.

C) Bringing the Lesson to a Conclusion
· Students will print off the Word document where they have saved their PicLits projects.

Assignment: Students will find a picture (Can be a magazine picture, a home photo, an image from a book, etc.) and use it as a prompt to create a poem. They will bring the poem and the picture to class and share their poems in front of the class as part of the class Poetry Jam.



Here are my examples that will be shown as demonstrations
Drag-and-Drop:


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


Freestyle:

See the full PicLit at PicLits.com


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

And more poetry

I feel that I have been posting a lot of poetry links lately. As I was working on finding resources for our final class project, I came across a wonderful site for teaching poetry. There is a list of many different poetic tools and devices and examples for each. It is called "Poetry Foundation", and I've become a huge fan!

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/