Academic Goals
Teacher Big Ideas
Responding to a text in writing has an effect size of .77 on reading comprehension. Remember, an effect size of .40 is a normal year's worth of growth. So anything above a .40 will positively impact student learning.
Prepare for the Activity
Find a reading that has a natural three-act structure, meaning a beginning, a middle, and an end. The textbook can be a good starting place. You can also find firsthand (primary source) accounts from eyewitnesstohistory.com because they have a wide selection going back to the ancient world.
Instructions
ELL Tips
Robert Marzano (2004) has noted that the four disciplines that make up the social studies curriculum contain over 55 percent of a student's academic vocabulary. Using Rewordify.com can help students find synonyms for the difficult words they encounter in social studies instruction. Many students are shocked to discover that their favorite songwriters use rhyming dictionaries and cliché dictionaries to create their magical verses. Let them use the tools the pros use!
Adapting for Middle School
Before beginning a Retell in Rhyme, have students read a section from the text or informative primary source. In the following example, students read a two-page article on colonial regions. Students actively read and wrote down important facts and information in a graphic organizer. The information they collected was framed and focused with a question: "How did geography impact the way of life in colonial regions?" When the timer finished, students worked in groups of two or three to Retell in Rhyme the impact of geography on colonial regions.
- Help students determine the central ideas or information in a primary or secondary source.
- Build student confidence in playing with language, improve creativity, and inspire future poets and songwriters.
- Develop paraphrasing skills. ParaFLY may help students prepare for this protocol in the weeks leading up to its introduction.
- Students practice writing accurate summaries that describe relationships among key historical figures and events.
Teacher Big Ideas
Responding to a text in writing has an effect size of .77 on reading comprehension. Remember, an effect size of .40 is a normal year's worth of growth. So anything above a .40 will positively impact student learning.
Prepare for the Activity
Find a reading that has a natural three-act structure, meaning a beginning, a middle, and an end. The textbook can be a good starting place. You can also find firsthand (primary source) accounts from eyewitnesstohistory.com because they have a wide selection going back to the ancient world.
Instructions
- Give students the same reading and instruct them to construct an epic poem about the past. The poem should use only this source and contain at least ten rhyming couplets (or twenty lines).
- Set a realistic timeline, i.,e. 30 minute blocks with student presentations of a few verses at the end of the period.
- Construct a chart for "grading" purposes and to give students an understanding of where their rhyming skills are compared to others in their class. Consider sharing a Google Sheet with students and allowing them to self-report the number of couplets they have written.
Key Points to Remember
This EduProtocol can be used as a formative assessment. The rhymes your students create will be the main or most important ideas they have pulled from the reading you provided. Do they tell the whole story of this historical event? Students who use insignificant supporting details may need some help in seeing the bigger picture.ELL Tips
Robert Marzano (2004) has noted that the four disciplines that make up the social studies curriculum contain over 55 percent of a student's academic vocabulary. Using Rewordify.com can help students find synonyms for the difficult words they encounter in social studies instruction. Many students are shocked to discover that their favorite songwriters use rhyming dictionaries and cliché dictionaries to create their magical verses. Let them use the tools the pros use!
Adapting for Middle School
Before beginning a Retell in Rhyme, have students read a section from the text or informative primary source. In the following example, students read a two-page article on colonial regions. Students actively read and wrote down important facts and information in a graphic organizer. The information they collected was framed and focused with a question: "How did geography impact the way of life in colonial regions?" When the timer finished, students worked in groups of two or three to Retell in Rhyme the impact of geography on colonial regions.
Adapting for AP
Historical thinking involves the ability to describe, select, and evaluate evidence about the past from diverse sources (including written documents, works of art, archaeological artifacts, oral traditions, and other primary sources) and draw conclusions about their relevance to different historical issues. Retell in Rhyme helps students conduct an historical analysis of sources by determining which details are the most important and which are simple the easiest to rhyme.
Modifications: History Haiku
A haiku contains three lines; the first and third are five syllables, and the second line is seven syllables. A great way to start off the first five minutes of class is with the History Haiku. As students walk into your classroom, before the bell rings, have a five minute timer running with instructions on the board. Students follow the standard format for writing a haiku to explain what they learned the previous day. This is an awesome, creative way to get your students and class ready for learning.
See the slide deck below for detailed instructions and feel free to make a copy of the template.
