The FAPE Site

Poetry Resources for National Poetry Month

Materials for Teaching Poetry Appreciation

April is National Poetry Month—inaugurated in April 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. To celebrate the occasion, we have selected some Web resources to help you and your students learn more about reading, writing, and appreciating poetry.

To set the mood—for April and for poetry—here's a stanza from Robert Frost's poem "Two Tramps in Mud Time" (1936):

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

—Robert Frost

Lesson Plans & Materials

Poets & Poetry Video Biographies
Annenberg Media's "Voices & Visions" is a great way to learn about the most influential American poets and poetry. Hour-long biographies highlight the works of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath, William Carlos Williams, and nine other renowned poets.
http://www.learner.org/resources/series57.html

See the "Spotlight on Voices & Visions" Web site for brief videoclips from the series and links to extend the learning.
http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/

Turn Your Students Into Well-Versed Poets
More than 20 poetry lesson plans to help teachers integrate poetry into their classrooms and develop "well-versed" students. (Education World)
http://www.nea.org/lessons/2004/tt040419.html

Stage a Poetry Slam!
Students could participate in a classroom or school-wide poetry slam. These lesson plans for grades 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 include national standards. (Education World)
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/02/lp262-04.shtml

Teach Now! National Poetry Month
Ideas for teaching poetry to your PreK-8 students. (Scholastic)
http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/k_2theme/poetry.htm

National Poetry Month
On this Web site, you’ll find quizzes, quotations, poetry terms, and more. (Infoplease.com)
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/pmonth1.html

The Academy of American Poets – National Poetry Month
Check out this site for a poetcast, a poem a day, and poetry events, and much more.
http://www.poets.org/ 

Poets Laureate of the USA
An annotated list of Poets Laureate in the United States, with biographical information and sample poems. (From Bob Holman and Margery Snyder)
http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/bllaureates.htm

Methods of Teaching Poetry

Book Chapters for Browsing and Purchasing Online
Stenhouse lets you browse through their books online before you purchase them. Check out these two books with chapters on teaching poetry. You may find one or both worth purchasing.

Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes
In this book, you will find two chapters, "What Is a Poem?" and "Group Poems," for teaching poetry in the primary grades.
http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=87&idproduct=323

Writing Anchors
Here you will find "Writing Poetry," a chapter that includes 14 lessons for teaching specific skills for writing poetry.
http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/ viewPrd.asp?idProduct=8932

Privatization Resources

Privatization | NEA
http://www.nea.org/privatization/ 
Find a basic overview of this issue and information about how privatization has affected public schools, as well as recommended resources for additional information.

The War against America's Public Schools: Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education
http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0321080734,00.html
In his 288-page paperback (2001), popular author Gerald W. Bracey discusses the historical context of privatization, charter schools, vouchers, and effects of commercialism. Available from Pearson Technology Group Resource Center Online Store.

Michigan Privatization Report | Mackinac Center for Public Policy
http://www.mackinac.org/pubs/mpr/
The Michigan Privatization Report is published quarterly by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization devoted to analyzing Michigan public policy issues. It is distributed to state senators and representatives and policy staff; department directors and staff; municipal officials and administrators; school superintendents and school board members.

Privatizing Schools Just Shouldn't Be This Hard | The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8773-2003Jan31
A veteran school teacher and former Edison, Inc. employee reflects on her experiences working in a charter school.

Charter Schools | NEA
http://www.nea.org/charter/
NEA provides a basic overview and analysis of the issues regarding charter schools.

Vouchers | NEA
http://www.nea.org/vouchers/
NEA provides a basic overview and analysis of the issues, research and public policies surrounding private school tuition vouchers.

Reading & Literacy Resources

These reading and literacy resources include General Resources, Research & Longer Documents, and Web Sites.

General Resources

Issues in Education | NEA
Reading issues covered include an overview of reading instruction, reading research, NEA reading resources, other reading resources, and reading in the news.
http://www.nea.org/reading/index.html

Multicultural Web Resources: Celebrate Reading 365 Days a Year
These Web resources promote multiculturalism through literature. They provide a window on the world for your students.
http://www.nea.org/webresources/readmulticult0509.html

Between the Lions: Literacy Tips for the 10-Minute Parent | PBS Kids
Here are some useful and engaging expert-approved ideas to help you teach your child to read, and have fun doing it!
http://pbskids.org/lions/tips/

Effective Reading Series | NEA
These seven short, user-friendly pamphlets were written by nationally recognized authorities in reading and expert reading teachers. The pamphlets, which provide strategies for all grades and subjects that lead to reading success, were designed for reading teachers and for members who are not reading teachers, but who nevertheless spend time on reading instruction.
http://www.nea.org/teachexperience/readseriesnea040831.html  

Read Across America | NEA
Started in 1998 as a way to get kids excited about reading, Read Across America has become the nation's largest reading event. The year-round program culminates each year on or near Dr. Seuss's birthday -- March 2.
http://www.nea.org/readacross/

Read and Rise
Research-based information and practical tips designed to help families ensure that their children have the necessary early literacy and pre-reading skills to prepare them to do well in school. Developed by Scholastic in partnership with the National Urban League and United Parcel Service. A free, downloadable version is available in pdf format, which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
http://www.scholastic.com/familymatters/readandrise/ (PDF, 15pp)

Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project that looks at how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help them. Reading Rockets includes: a five-part PBS television series called "Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers"; a one-hour documentary for public television called "A Tale of Two Schools"; an extensive Web site that is updated daily; a national outreach campaign in partnership with the country's foremost education associations; a new mentoring project called "First Year Teacher"; a teleconference series for teacher professional development; and, print guides for viewers, educators, and families.
http://www.readingrockets.org/

12 Strategies for Teaching Reading | NEA
An article describes 12 strategies for teaching reading -- anticipation guides, concept cards, Directed Reading Activity, graphic organizer for pre-reading, jigsaw sentences, Know, Want to know, Learned, sound burglar, story road map, using text structure, word-a-likes, word webs -- and tells how to use each strategy.
http://www.nea.org/reading/readingstrategiessum.html

Research & Longer Documents

Put Reading First
Put Reading First describes the findings of the National Reading Panel (NRP) and provides analysis and discussion of five areas of reading instruction. NRP studies found five components essential to a child's learning to read: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Study focuses on K-3 students. From the National Institute for Literacy.
www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/ reading_first1.html#phonemic

Ten Proven Principles for Teaching Reading | U.S. Department of Education
These ten principles, based on research and practical experience, can transform reading instruction and heighten literacy for all students. The principles and ideas are interrelated and build one upon the other. This document is the NEA (2000) revised edition of State of the Art: Transforming Ideas for Teaching and Learning Reading (U.S. Department of Education 1993).
http://www.nea.org/reading/images/10proven.pdf

Web Sites

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes, and professional topics.
http://www.carolhurst.com/index.html

Children of the Code
This Web site presents a wide range of perspectives and captures the issues around learning to read. Children of the Code is a social education project and public television documentary series. It includes over 80 interviews with leading neuroscientists, psychologists, reading researchers, educators, historians, economists, technologists, and policy leaders.
http://www.childrenofthecode.org/index.htm

DIBELS - Measures of Early Literacy Development
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of standardized, individually administered measures of early literacy development. Short fluency measures can be used to regularly monitor the development of pre-reading and early reading skills. Measures are free to download and use, but registration is required.
http://dibels.uoregon.edu/index.php

The International Children's Digital Library
The goal of this 5-year project is to create a digital library of international children's books (for ages 3-13) that reflects both the diversity and quality of children's literature. The collection now includes over 700 titles, all available for free. The ICDL is a public library for the world, reflecting diverse cultures, perspectives, and historical periods. The ICDL searching and reading tools are now available in 9 languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Filipino/Tagalog, German, Hebrew, Persian/Farsi, and Spanish. (University of Maryland)
http://www.icdlbooks.org/

Elementary Literacy Instruction  | The Knowledge Loom
This area of the Knowledge Loom site presents promising practices in reading instruction for grades K-6. It focuses on developing students' thinking skills by integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening into daily classroom activities. It includes materials with specific insights and strategies to use with English language learners (ELLs), many of which can be used with all students.
http://knowledgeloom.org/practices3.jsp ?t=1&location=1&bpinterid=1438&spotlightid=1393&testflag=yes

Media Literacy
The site provides background information and teaching materials on media literacy -- accessing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating media. Resources include a "how-to" program for teaching media literacy skills to K-5 students, with replicable structure, tools, and lesson plans; a downloadable classroom activity guide that provides 25 lesson plans for K-12 media literacy; over 350 online magazine articles; and a media literacy kit with materials for free and for sale, in English and in Spanish.
www.medialit.org/

Read Write Think
This site provides high-quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction. It offers classroom activities, lesson plans, Web links, and suggested texts for monthly topics based on historical events. A collaboration of International Reading Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and Marco Polo.
www.readwritethink.org/index.asp

Reading Is Fundamental
This program provides children with hands-on activities that stimulate the desire to read and surround themselves with books to choose, keep, take home, and read. The organization honors local wisdom in the selection of motivational activities, which children to serve, what books to give children, and which segments of the community to involve in their activities. RIF adheres to the following principles:

• Always provide books for children to explore and keep.
• Always involve volunteers in children's reading (more than a third of RIF's volunteers are parents).
• Always use imaginative activities to spark a child's desire to read.

http://www.rif.org/  

Virtual Spelling Bee
Brandeis University offers students in grades 2–6 a chance to compete with their peers in an online spelling bee. Registration is required. Students use a nickname to register and log in, choose a partner, and test their reading, spelling, and listening skills. No personal information is asked for or given. Players only communicate by the choices they make during the game. The site's creators hope the spirit of competition will encourage students to improve skills. (Brandeis University)
www.spellbee.org/

Updated April 2006.

School Safety Resources

Bullying, Violence, & Conflict Resolution

The ABCs of School Bullying: Tips for Parents and Teachers 
This article offers suggestions for preventing bulllying and handling a bully. 
http://www.nea.org/takenote/bullyabc0508.html

Are You a Bully?
The author considers the teacher as bully. She identifies bullying behaviors in teachers and contrasts them with caring behaviors in teachers. From Education World.
http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc030805.html

Breaking Up Fights
Here are some basic techniques for school personnel who must break up fights and deal with students who are physically aggressive. From NEA Professional Library.
http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/fights.html

Maintaining a Safe Environment: In Middle Schools  
The author, a former middle school teacher and administrator, looks at safe schools in general while discussing the work of one middle school in particular.
http://www.nea.org/teachexperience/msk031120.html

Preventing School Violence
The author provides links to resources that support the idea that if you reduce bullying, you reduce violence. From EducationWorld.
http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc040511.html

Student Pledge Against Gun Violence
In October, one day is set aside to observe the Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence. The Pledge, in Spanish and in English, encourages young people to take a proactive stance in reducing gun violence. The Web site includes curriculum suggestions and event planning materials.
http://www.pledge.org/

Ten Web Sites for Exploring Conflict Resolution
These sites support the idea that conflict resolution promotes peace in schools by teaching skills and processes for solving problems before they escalate to violence. From EducationWorld.
http://www.nea.org/classmanagement/ifc030422.html

School Safety

A Guide to Developing a Severe Weather Emergency Plan for Schools
This document provides advice on planning for flooding, hail, and tornadoes. It also includes a good glossary of weather terms for lesson planning. Written by a Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
www.erh.noaa.gov/er/lwx/swep/

Playground Safety Tips - National Program for Playground Safety
It is estimated that every two-and-a-half minutes a child is treated in an emergency room for a playground-related injury. The National Program for Playground Safety Web site provides the latest educational and research information on playground safety. Free downloadable materials as well as materials for sale.
http://www.uni.edu/playground/home.htm

Safe Kids USA
This Web site, which is dedicated to preventing accidental injury to children, offers programs, research information, tips, product recalls, and activities for kids (under Activities for Kids, see Teacher's Desk for lesson plans).
http://www.usa.safekids.org/

Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe Kids Worldwide is a global network of organizations whose mission is to prevent accidental childhood injury, a leading killer of children 14 and under. The site includes news, statistics, tips, and regulations and standards.
http://www.safekids.org/

School Safety
This article provides a basic overview and analysis of the issues surrounding school safety. From NEA.
http://www.nea.org/schoolsafety/

Science and Safety, Making the Connection
This school safety reference (in PDF) is for science teachers, primarily at the secondary (9-12) level. Topics include:

• Legal responsibilities of instruction, supervision, and maintenance
• Purchase, storage, and disposal of chemicals
• Emergency response to accidents
• Precautions for plant and animal use
• Federal mandates of compliance
• Layout and other specs for labs

The booklet also contains a bibliography of relevant Web sites for more information. From the Council of State Science Supervisors.
http://www.csss-science.org/downloads/scisafe.pdf ( PDF, 243 KB, 16pp)

Updated June 2006.

Science Lesson Plans

A list of annotated links featuring the great lesson plans available on the Internet.

Lesson Plans

The ABC's of Nuclear Science
Do you know that you are being bombarded constantly by nuclear radiation from the Cosmos? Do you know the difference between fision and fusion? You don't need to be a nuclear scientist to understand the answers to these questions. At this site, students and teachers at all levels can learn about the tiny objects that make up almost all of the mass in the Universe. Lesson plans, activity ideas, experiments, informative and accessible articles, and a glossary of terms form this introduction to nuclear science.
http://www.lbl.gov/abc/index.html

ERIC Science Lesson Plans
The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) collection of teacher-submitted lesson plans, funded by the Department of Education, can now be found at The Educator's Reference Desk. A searchable index is provided, and lessons are divided by concept area.
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Science

Education World: Science Lesson Plans
Find dozens of lessons for all grade levels, and get access to many more lessons submitted by trained and practicing teachers just like you.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/science.shtml

Energy Saving | Alliance to Save Energy
The Alliance to Save Energy Web site has an area for educators with free, hands-on, multidisciplinary lesson plans on energy. The Alliance has obtained rights for the lesson plans for your classroom use.
http://www.ase.org/section/_audience/educators/lessons/

Evolution | PBS
The Evolution Web site is one component of the Evolution project, which is comprised of a seven-part television series, an extensive outreach initiative, and a HarperCollins companion book. This content-rich, interactive Web site features streaming imagery, animations, simulations, dynamic timelines, conversations with experts, current news bulletins, and extensive links to evolution-related learning resources worldwide. Resources for educators and students include a free teacher's guide, lesson plans, online professional development courses for high school science teachers, and more.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/

The Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum of science, art, and human perception located in San Francisco, California. Online since 1993, the Exploratorium was one of the first science museums to build a site on the World Wide Web. Included in the site are more than 12,000 Web pages and many sound and video files, exploring hundreds of different topics. The site contains instructions for over 500 simple experiments, all of which may be viewed on any type of Web browser, with even the slowest connection, and easily printed out.  A variety of online exhibits are also available, all of which are patterned after real exhibits on the museum floor.  Occasionally, the online version provides a richer experience than its physical counterparts.
http://www.exploratorium.edu

Herps: Reviled and Revered | Smithsonian
From the Smithsonian Office of Education, this site for grades 3-8 uses five lessons to help students examine misconceptions about herps (the collective name given to reptiles and amphibians), discover how humans have viewed herps throughout history, and catalog the differences and similarities between reptiles and amphibians. Links to other resources are also included.
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/herps/start.html

The NASA SCIence Files
This site complements the television series from NASA geared to grades 3-5, but you don't need to have seen the show to use the Web site. The Problem Board has interactive simulations of different science, math, technology, and engineering concepts and principles. Problem topics include the environment, inventions, noise pollution, and electricity. The Educator's Area provides an educator guide and implementation strategies, worksheets and activities. Tips for parents are also included.
http://whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov

Oceanworld
Use this site as a starting point in your students' exploration of the world's oceans.  From weather and waves to icebergs and coral reefs, if your students have questions about it, they'll find the answers here. Information is presented in terms upper elementary students can easily understand. For older students, the online version of the textbook "Introduction to Physical Oceanography" can be downloaded in pdf format or viewed on html pages. Extra features are stunning photographs, an embedded glossary providing quick definitions, an interactive quiz, and real-time data.
http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/index.html

Science NetLinks
Science NetLinks is part of the Marco Polo Education Foundation and has partnered with the AAAS, NCTM, and other educational organizations. Science lessons for students (k-12) are linked to the AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy. You can sort lessons by grade level or benchmark, and each lesson has several online resources that offer background and content knowledge for teachers and students.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/matrix.cfm

The Science Spot
Developed by a middle school science teacher, this comprehensive Web site offers numerous lesson plans, project ideas for science clubs, science trivia to be used as class starters, and a place to share your ideas with other teachers.  It has won many awards and been featured in Classroom Connect. Added incentive for Illinois teachers -- all lessons are linked to the Illinois Learning Standards for Science.
http://sciencespot.net/index.html

PBS TeacherSource: Science
Use the pull-down menus in the center of the page for access to hundreds of curriculum resources for grades PreK-12.  Lessons are based upon PBS's on-air and online programming.  Most lessons incorporate the use of video, but do not require it.  You will also find access to dozens of recommended science-related web sites and books.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm