Rhymes

Recently my husband and I have taken to making up nursery rhymes. Our son has a ton of musical toys that play the diddy that goes along with a rhyme without the actual words, so we make them up. This got me thinking, why not use this as a lesson?

Start by teaching students the different types of rhymes (end rhyme, slant rhyme, eye rhyme, internal). Make a list on the board of rhyming words and examples of each type of rhyme.

Now allow the students to practice. To practice have students complete the "This old man.." rhyme up to 10. (This old man, he played one [or two, three], he played knick-knack on my _____ or with my _____. ) Allow students to change in the ending preposition to suit their needs. Require students to use at least one of each type of rhyme and to identify the type of rhyme used for each number. For example, "This old man, he played ten, he played knick-knack with my hen--end rhyme. Have students share their answers with the class and correct their rhymes as necessary. Review any missed concepts.

Next, have an inter-period competition. Have all students sit on their desks. Have the entire class sing the rhyme until the last preposition, and then have one student finish the rhyme. Continue counting up with the student behind the first student. If a student can't think of a rhyme for their number, that student must sit down and is out. The last student sitting on his or her desk gets extra credit--or your voice on their home answer machine! (See Listener Limerick Challenge). The period that counts to the highest number also gets extra credit as a class.

The next day as a review repeat the above game with the Down by the Bay rhyme (Down by the bay, where the watermelon grows, back to my home, I dare not go, for if I do, my mother will say, "Have you ever seen a llama wearing pajamas" down by the bay. or a mouse kissing his spouse or a bat hitting a rat or a lady carrin' a baby. ) Keep track of the number of rhymes the class keeps up with and compare the periods at the end of the day.

Try using other partial rhymes as well. We have a lot of fun with this in our house.

All American youth need to understand that..

I was just reading in Developing the Curriculum 7th Ed. by Peter F. Oliva and happened upon this list of things that all American youth should understand. I thought it would be an interesting list to discuss in class as part of a contemporary history unit and then assign groups short (or long) presentations on a topic or research papers. But if all youth should understand these things, it wouldn't hurt to make them go into a little more depth on one topic and example to their peers why "all American Youth need to understand that...

1. the world's population is rapidly outstripping its resources.
2. there is more poverty in the world than riches.
3. more than one-third of the world's population is illiterate.
4. there are more people of color in the world than white.
5. there are more non-Christians in the world than Christians.
6. our actions at home are sources of propaganda abroad.
7. nationalism is on the march as never before.
8. most of the nations of the world are struggling for technical advances.
9. you can reach by air any point on the globe within thirty-six hours [(Oliva adds) Today I would reduce the number of hours of air journey to reflect supersonic flight and would add "you can reach distant spots on the planet almost instantaneously via electronic mail at a minuscule cost."]
10. in spite of our problems at home, thousands of foreigners abroad want to migrate to the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Oliva, Peter F. Developing the Curriculum 7th Ed. Boston: Pearson Education Inc., 2009. ISBN 978-0-205-59350-7

Listener Limerick Challenge

I got this idea from NPR's news quiz show Wait, Wait...Don't tell me, and I think it would be really fun in class, especially a combined English/history class.

This lesson teaches limericks by incorporating them into the history/current event lesson plan and avoids those oh-so-boring limericks about Suzy crossing the street--you know the kind students write just to get the assignment done.

First, teach limericks--what they are, how to write them, and write a few as a class. Next, explain that the next day or two days or however long you want to give the students on this assignment (I recommend 3 or 4 days), there will be a competition in class. Each student is to write 3 limericks, each about a different current event from that week. They will turn their limericks into you with copies of the newspaper or internet article they used as references. Mix up the limericks and play a game of Round Robin.

To play Round Robin start at one end of the class and have one student stand up. Read that student one of the limericks, but leave out the last word. The student standing must use his or her knowledge of limericks and current events to fill in the blank. If the student succeeds, he or she gets one point. The student who wrote the limerick then stands up and explains the current event in about 3 or 4 sentences.

At this point, you must make a choice of how to precede. You can allow the first student to continue to fill in the blank until he or she can't, but then the attention is focused mainly on one student. You could move to the next student behind the first and give each student a chance. You could have the student who wrote the limerick get a chance to fill in the blank on the next one. Decide which will work best for your class. If a student fails to fill in the blank, you could allow the person behind the student to fill in the blank, or the first hand up. Either way, I would not just give the students the answer--make them work for it. Keep track of how many limericks each student answers, and as on NPR, the winner gets your voice on his or her home answering machine! That really could be a good prize; I've called home to tell students' parents how great they are doing in class with some very positive results.

To make the lesson run a little smoother, I would have the students write their limericks on 3x5 cards so that shuffling is easier and you can give the students the limericks they answer as a way to keep score.