There are many applications for using Voki with all ages. Choose an avatar and record what you want. Fun! Not able (or willing) to record your own voice? Voki can transfer text to speech too, and you can even choose the accent. The site now has a teacher's corner for tips and lesson plan discussions.
My little experiment was taking one stanza from Lewis Carrol's, "The Walrus and The Carpenter" (Alice Through The Looking Glass) and putting a little spin to it.
Witness the magic
Since the Beat Poets first began appearing in coffee houses in the 50s, poetry has moved from formal readings to impromptu, open mic settings. Pushing the edges of established views and uses of language, the Beats took free form poetry, added rhythms, and became the voice of a generation. So, taking note from the voices of the past, and adding the hip-hop voices of today, poetry has become a powerful tool for improving literacy in schools through Spoken Word performances and Slam competitions because even the most reluctant learner is motivated by this self-expressive medium.
I have seen firsthand how Slam poetry when modeled and channeled in a classroom can facilitate literacy, communication, and creativity from kids who are otherwise marginalized in academia. But in order for students to find their voices and be willing to open themselves, they must feel secure and appreciated. And teachers must be willing to stand back, allowing the kids freedom to openly express (while still abiding by school policy) those inner most, sometimes gut wrenching and controversial topics. Students begin to experiment with language in ways they would not otherwise because "getting it just right" takes on a whole new meaning and dimension in this genre.
Dr. Janette Hughes from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology says this about using poetry to improve literacy: "A focus on oral language development through the reading and performing of poetry acknowledges that sound is meaning. When we hear the sound of the words in a poem read aloud, we gain a better understanding of the meaning of the writing...If we want our students to understand how literature, and poetry in particular, brings them to a deeper understanding of life, we need to find meaningful ways to engage them in poetry."
A former colleague told me once: "Poetry is an important and integral part of the human experience. It may not be to the page, but to anybody who has tried to woo a lover through voice, body, or both has experienced poetry. I don't think it is better than any medium, but it is definitely part of the human spirit."
There are Slam teams in nearly every major city in the U.S. who also compete nationally, so finding a poet to help you out in the classroom would not be difficult. Bring performance poetry to your students, set up a competition in your class or across classes, and witness the magic unfold.
I have seen firsthand how Slam poetry when modeled and channeled in a classroom can facilitate literacy, communication, and creativity from kids who are otherwise marginalized in academia. But in order for students to find their voices and be willing to open themselves, they must feel secure and appreciated. And teachers must be willing to stand back, allowing the kids freedom to openly express (while still abiding by school policy) those inner most, sometimes gut wrenching and controversial topics. Students begin to experiment with language in ways they would not otherwise because "getting it just right" takes on a whole new meaning and dimension in this genre.
Dr. Janette Hughes from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology says this about using poetry to improve literacy: "A focus on oral language development through the reading and performing of poetry acknowledges that sound is meaning. When we hear the sound of the words in a poem read aloud, we gain a better understanding of the meaning of the writing...If we want our students to understand how literature, and poetry in particular, brings them to a deeper understanding of life, we need to find meaningful ways to engage them in poetry."
A former colleague told me once: "Poetry is an important and integral part of the human experience. It may not be to the page, but to anybody who has tried to woo a lover through voice, body, or both has experienced poetry. I don't think it is better than any medium, but it is definitely part of the human spirit."
There are Slam teams in nearly every major city in the U.S. who also compete nationally, so finding a poet to help you out in the classroom would not be difficult. Bring performance poetry to your students, set up a competition in your class or across classes, and witness the magic unfold.
April is National Poetry Month
The Trouble with Poetry: A Poem of Explanation
A U.S. poet laureate shares.
by Billy Collins
The trouble with poetry, I realized
as I walked along a beach one night --
cold Florida sand under my bare feet,
a show of stars in the sky --
the trouble with poetry is
that it encourages the writing of more poetry,
more guppies crowding the fish tank,
more baby rabbits
hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass.
And how will it ever end?
unless the day finally arrives
when we have compared everything in the world
to everything else in the world,
and there is nothing left to do
but quietly close our notebooks
and sit with our hands folded on our desks.
Poetry fills me with joy
and I rise like a feather in the wind.
Poetry fills me with sorrow
and I sink like a chain flung from a bridge.
But mostly poetry fills me
with the urge to write poetry,
to sit in the dark and wait for a little flame
to appear at the tip of my pencil.
And along with that, the longing to steal,
to break into the poems of others
with a flashlight and a ski mask.
And what an unmerry band of thieves we are,
cut-purses, common shoplifters,
I thought to myself
as a cold wave swirled around my feet
and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,
which is an image I stole directly
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti --
to be perfectly honest for a moment --
cut-purses, common shoplifters,
I thought to myself
as a cold wave swirled around my feet
and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,
which is an image I stole directly
from Lawrence Ferlinghetti --
to be perfectly honest for a moment --
the bicycling poet of San Francisco
whose little amusement park of a book
I carried in a side pocket of my uniform
up and down the treacherous halls of high school.
Billy Collins, the U.S. poet laureate from 2001 to 2003, is the author of seven collections of poetry and is a distinguished professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. He serves as the poet laureate of New York State.
This article originally published on 10/18/2006
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