The Common Core standards emphasize the integration of digital media as early as kindergarten. Speaking and Listening Standard K.2 states that students will “Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood” (italics mine).
April is National Poetry Month, so what better way to address the listening standard than to hear poets read their own works aloud? At the Poets.org website, the Listening Booth allows you to do just that. Search over 400 audio clips of famous poems, most of which are read aloud by the poets themselves. Most of the poems are suited to students in the upper elementary grades and above, but the list is growing all the time, and I hope that more poems for younger children will be introduced soon.
To use this in the classroom, teachers could have students listen and then draw a representation of the poem. Students could read the poem first and then discuss how their impression of the poem changed after they heard it read aloud. Teachers could find other versions of the poem real aloud and students could discuss them. The possibilities are endless.
If you would like more ideas, take a look at this Teachbytes post on ten ways to celebrate National Poetry Month with technology.
Originally published on Technology at Chaparral.
