Poems by Heart from Penguin Classics

Poems by Heart from Penguin Classics teaches users how to memorize the poetry of dozens of poets using a game delivery. After launching the app and selecting a poem, users are prompted to fill in key words needed to complete the poem. To frame the prompt, a line of poetry is shown to users, and they have to decide which words from a bank of options best complete the line. Users are given immediate feedback indicating whether their responses were correct, and Poems by Heart gives users an overall score based on their accuracy after they respond to all the blanks. Plus, users can repeat the poem as many times as desired, which allows them to memorize the poem until it is, indeed, known by heart. Additionally, users can read the poems and listen to poems read out loud by the app before participating the game. Users can also record themselves orating the poem, share poems on Facebook and Twitter, and even buy new poem sets for a nominal fee. Each poem is ranked on difficulty level and stored in the user’s poem library.

Instructional Ideas

1. As part of a poetic close-read activity, teachers can have students first listen to the app read them the poem. When ready, teachers can have students begin analyzing the words used in the poem by using the fill-in-the-blank game option.
2. Once students have interpreted the poem for meaning, teachers can flip the analysis. To do so, teachers can have students load a specific poem in this app and open a word-processing app, such as CloudOn, WPS Office, or Quick Office. Next, as students are presented with a blanks in it, teachers can have students type out the poem line by line in the word-processing app. Then, for the blanks, teachers can have students select language to give the poem an opposite effect as NOT intended by the poet. For example, students can attempt to make a sad poem happy, a poem about death to represent life, or a somber poem satirical. Once students have completed their reworking of the poem, they can post it to a class website.
3. Classmates can compete with each other on a selected poem to see who can completely memorize it the quickest and earn the highest score. Or, as a class-wide practice, teachers can assign students a poem and use this app to practice reciting it for an upcoming oral assignment.
4. As part of a larger presentation project on a poet or a poem, users can create a presentation with Haiku Deck, Prezi, TouchCast, or Educreations, and practice for the oral/public speaking by memorizing the selected work.
5. When students come across a word that they cannot define, teachers can have students record these words for later study. Or, teachers can have students define these words and post the word and its meaning to a class word wall or a class web page devoted to word study.

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