Sharyl's

Resources

General poetry resources

This is like the Google of teaching poetry where they provide links to a wide variety of sources and most importantly, lesson plans for English as well as Literature teachers. It is chock-full of shared lesson plans, articles as well as primary sources of poetry, and ways to weave music into your poetry lesson. The only drawback of this website is that it tends to be very America-centric.

Teaching Literature

This is another Wall-Mart of Literature resources where you can find ideas, a plethora of links as well as shared drama packs, wikis, and very specific lesson plans from which Literature teachers can adapt from.

Literature plans

This is the drive-through of literature plans as it provides with unit plans, teacher's guides, study guides, and much more. However, there are several links that are not being updated, or dead, therefore it needs to be used sparingly.

The links I have provided are to sites that are very general, because I like the freedom to pick and choose different components of my lesson as I construct the monster of a lesson plan. Furthermore, I reckon something like a Literature lesson plan can be fractal, ie, can be used and adapted to any Lit class that you may be teaching.

Part deux

1. Music
2. Films
3. Desserts
4. Lame jokes (The ones that are so bad that it's good XD)
5. Advertising

Applying interests to teaching Lit One of the ways that I have tried in school is to give the students lyrics to a song, and break them up into groups to perform a portion of the song for the class like they are in the music video. It is a good way to get them interested in interpretation at the same time giving them a chance to get them off their seats and enjoy the class a lot more. However, the lesson plan for that sorta lesson needs to be tight and and be linked back to the main objectives of the lesson, which I had none, because I was just a relief teacher for that particular Lit class. Another way to integrate popular music in class in teaching a drama text was how I asked the students to get into groups, and discuss what soundtrack would they use in Act 2 Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet. This allows for them to be exposed to different interpretations of the text through popular music, and it was so, as some students chose songs from Snow Patrol, K-Pop, and even Au Revoir Simone, on top of the usual Taylor Swift songs. They are asked to explain why they chose the songs as well as which specific portions of the song can be used and why.

Through film, the obvious way is to show them excerpts of the play in class, or even an adaptation of the drama text. What can also be done is for the students to come up with a film producer's brief, whereby they put themselves into the shoes of a film producer and they get to choose the actors, location, props and the like. And of course, they are gonna have to justify the reasons why they chose Denzel Washington to play the Montague and Adam Sandler to play the Nurse! (I had two students who wrote that about Adam Sandler BTW) This can either be a semester-long project, or even a weekend homework assignment.

Desserts ah. Can show pictures I guess, and get them to describe it poetically. Alternatively, you can bring some desserts in class, get the students to taste it and write about it. My lame-assed jokes are usually fully loaded with sexual innuendo, and then some. So I think it would be inappropriate. But that said, there can be a way to use it once in a while to explain certain literary terms like puns.

"Three wells walked into the bar, the bartender said, well well well!" *Drrraccckk dshhhhhh*

I do like advertising, although that statement comes loaded with bias after being in the advertising industry for several years. Industry talk is that advertising is art, with strategy. An advertising creative brief can be a lesson plan of sorts for the teacher. And for the students coming up with a creative pitch to hawk a pencil or the school desk can be an exercise in strategic creativity. But time needs to be spent explaining to the students the nature of the creative brief, and the lesson needs to be tight, otherwise they go crazy during the creative incubation period!

My favourite ad since 2004: