Poetry Insight

Poetry Insight offers users a selection of poems listed in the Common Core State Standards Appendix B. Poetry Insight embeds audio clips, readings, and videos of the poems, plus it contains the contributing narrator’s perspective about the poem. With Poetry Insight, users are able to read biographies of the author and the narrator, explore the life of the author, and read famous quotes by the author.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can have students highlight a specific line or quote found in this app. To do so, students first choose their memorable line or quote. Next, they are to isolate it by copying it and transferring it to a PowerPoint, Educreations, or Haiku Deck slide. Then, students can explain the line/quote by  illustrating it or importing an image that represents it before adding text to explain the meaning they found in it. Once complete, students can email their work to their teacher. Teachers can then either save these works as .jpegs and post them to a class website, or print them out and hang them in the classroom, with the purpose being to share their students’ poetic interpretations.
2. Teachers can use this app for a mini-lesson about poetic citations. To do so, teachers can have students pick a favorite line from a poem in this app. Next, teachers can model for students how to properly cite a poetic line and then have students cite the line they selected.
3. Teachers can build students’ abilities to discuss poetry using this app. To do so, students are first paired with another student. Next, the pair will choose a poem found in this app and view the reading of it accompanied with the printed text. (Please note: The poems can be found in the Table of Contents section for the chosen poem.) The pair will then view the collaborator video, in which he or she discusses his or her views of the poem. After viewing both videos, the pair will work together and discuss the meaning of the poem and the collaborator’s comments. The pair will be asked to jot down notes taken from the discussion, which will be used when the pair creates a short video that captures the meaning they found in the poem. (Students can use Educreations, TouchCast, or iMovie for creating these videos.) These movies can then be shared with other pairs by posting them to a class website.
4. Students can create a storyboard, which is a visual representation of a text, about a chosen poem from this app using Qwiki or 30Hands. Students will be required to import images into the storyboard and add music to convey the meaning and mood. Students can then present their work to classmates by first showing their storyboard video and then reading the poem. After the presentation, teachers can launch a class discussion following the presentation by asking students: (1) if the images and music captured the meaning of the poem, (2) what other images could be added to further capture the poem’s essence, and (3) how the presentation built their interest of the poem.
5. Teacher can have students explore their favorite poet’s life by reading the biography included in this app and conducting independent research outside of this app. Next, students will choose 5–10 significant events from that poet’s life to create a timeline to be shared with the class. This timeline can either be created by hand, on the computer, or using the Timeline Maker app. Students will include a paragraph with their timeline that explains their purpose for choosing each event found on the timeline.

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