Today was Poem in Your Pocket Day! To celebrate I had my students write down a favorite poem and I made several copies. We cut, hole punched, and "sewed"pockets to distribute to teachers and classrooms around the school. In each pocket we put one of the favorite poems and students also put their favorite poem in their pocket!
After we sent out the pockets we started receiving poems! Teachers and classes sent us their favorite poems and some even treated us to a read aloud of their poem!
By the end of the day we had an entire wall of poems by authors in our school and favorites like Shel Silverstein!
When I examine the Common Core standards I appreciate that speaking and listening are included, as well as an emphasis on publishing using technology. Speaking, listening, and technology are core tenets of my classroom. I am hoping that this post shares ways to incorporate these standards into your classroom!
Let's look at this third grade Speaking and Listening standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.5 Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.
There are two tools I recommend for creating audio recordings: VoiceThread and AudioBoo. They can both be accessed through a web browser, as well as iPhone and iPad apps.
Here is a VoiceThread my third graders created to share their musical instruments:
Here's another VoiceThread created after an Earth Day field trip to the beach. Students wrote poems and then added a photo or a photo of a drawing:
And here's a third VoiceThread that was created using a fable that students wrote collaboratively. The pictures are photos of student drawings:
On VoiceThread, by upgrading to an educator account, you can record many more VoiceThreads than are allowed on a regular account.
Now, AudioBoo! If using AudioBoo on the iPad, download the iPhone app so that you can record podcasts (video explaining how to do this).
Here is an AudioBoo a student created based on an animal they researched:
And an AudioBoo board of students' creature alliteration poems:
I wrote a more detailed post about Audio Boo last year, which you can read here!
Here are the corresponding standards for other grades:
Second Grade: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.2.5 Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Fourth Grade: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.5 Add audio recordings and visual displays to presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
Fifth Grade: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.5 Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, sound) and visual displays in presentations when appropriate to enhance the development of main ideas or themes.
