Roses are red and violets are blue, April is a time for poetry to flow through you! Teaching poetry is something that students either love or hate, but with poetry journal pages and Poem in Your Pocket Pennant, your students will be diving into lines, stanzas, rhythm, and rhyme with grace! English teachers everywhere can now prepare poetry activities (virtually as well in the classroom) to get students enthusiastic about haiku, acrostic, I am poems, and “My Selfie Poems” with these great resources! This spring, get visual with the poetry organizers and templates for your students to kick-start their creativity!
Sketch Notes in Your Virtual Classroom Poetry Activities
Do your students struggle with note-taking? Many students find note-taking dull, uninteresting and just plain hard. Some do not know what’s important enough to write down and some just are slow at writing that they fall behind. Sketch notes are a great way to overcome that hurdle and they are super effective when used with poetry activities.
In addition to the “mundane” feeling that is often associated with notes, many students struggle with spelling and deciphering their handwriting. So what’s the alternative? How can we fix this issue to help our students become more engaged? My solution? Sketch notes.
What are Sketch Notes?
What exactly are sketch notes and how do I even begin to incorporate them in my virtual classroom? It’s a form of visual note-taking. It consists of both words and images that communicate a message, story, or whichever topic your class may be working on. Students make the sketches personal, or their own, so there is no need to worry if you are an artist or not. What’s even better is this type of note-taking requires higher-order thinking because students have to use a combination of listening, thinking, and visualizing all at the same time.
The use of these visuals will help students recall information and knowledge better than just plain words on a piece of paper. Since it’s their artwork, that will make the notes more personal and more useful during studying and remembering.
Why I Love Combining Sketch Notes and Poetry
Combining sketch notes and poetry activities have many advantages, but I love doing it for so many reasons including:
- They are in color instead of in gray-scale.
- It includes a completed example of the fingerprint, “My Selfie Poem.” Plus the “My Selfie Poem” – includes student directions sheet (cut in half), the template to fill in, the fingerprint template
- You get the I am Poem organizer and writing paper
Plus with these poetry activities you get a ton of different poem directives!
- Haiku directions and template
- Acrostic “PEACE” directions and template
- A Poem in Your Pocket pennant – 3 versions of the jeans to encourage choice.
- Writing paper to match
- Sketch Notes
- Print PDF version and Distance learning GOOGLE Drive version
- Teacher Instructions for Writing Activity, Philosophy, Background on Sketch Notes
This is perfect for a teacher who just doesn’t have the time to cover a large poetry unit. but wants students to get exposed to some great poetry activities. This is especially perfect in an English Language Arts classroom with struggling students who seem uninterested. This might work!
What can Poetry Sketch Notes Be Used For?
One of the biggest advantages of using the poetry sketch notes is it has so many different uses including:
- Note-taking
- A way for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners to grow!
- Encourages creativity
- Organizing thought
- Studying and memorization
- Visually appealing presentation of information
- Allows students to discover their own style
- Print and Digital
Poetry doesn’t have to be a drag to teach! Find fun ways to bring out the creative side of your students with great poetry activities. Thank you for visiting. Good Luck and Enjoy Celebrating National Poetry Month!
