TEACHERS: In order for students to participate in this online forum, you must get consent from their parents. When you register a student, you are confirming that parents/caregivers have given permission. A sample email is provided below.

Dear Caregivers,

In honor of National Poetry month, our class will be participating in Vermont Foreign Language Association's Lost in Translation Poetry Event. This event will be conducted virtually through FlipGrid, where participants will record themselves reciting a poem. 

PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL to acknowledge the following: "I understand that participation in this event will be through the online platform FlipGrid. My student's voice and video will be recorded and posted in a private forum, where it can only be viewed by the other participants, teachers, judges, and event organizers. Students will identify themselves by first name only, and no other identifying information will be shared on this platform.  By replying to this email, I am giving my consent for my student to participate. I must respond in order for my student to be fully registered."

Once I receive your confirmation,  I will register your student. Registration closes on April 1.

Sincerely,

(Teachers name and contact) 

There is no right way to incorporate the Lost in Translation Poetry Event into your curriculum. Here are some ideas to incorporate poems into your classes for maximum repetition )input.

1. Use the poem as an "eenie meenie" type rhyme to determine whose turn it is for any game or activity

2. Recite the poem as the "music" (sound) for games like musical chairs, Four corners, etc. 

3. In the place of counting to 10 (for example) in any "timed" activity recite the poem for maximum repetition. 

4. Start and end class with a choral response of the poem

5. Create movements and gestures for each word/ line of the poem.

There is no right way to incorporate the Lost in Translation Poetry Event into your curriculum. Here are some ideas to incorporate poems into your classes.

1. Recite the poem as the "music" (sound) for games like musical chairs, Four corners, etc. 

2. In the place of counting to 10 (for example) in any "timed" activity recite the poem. 

3. Start and end class with a choral response of the poem.

4. Create gestures (act out) each word or line of the poem. 

5. Recite the poem using different voices (whisper, falsetto, deep,)

6. Challenge students to add drama to their recitation and share with the class (in person or using Flipgrid or other sharing options) 

7. Illustrate the poem 

8. Post the poem on a visible bulletin board in large letters with corresponding student artwork 

There is no right way to incorporate the Lost in Translation Poetry Event into your curriculum. Here is a sample plan for students in middle and high school. You may consider requiring students to prepare a poem, but not requiring them to compete.

VIRTUAL/IN-PERSON METHOD 1:

Step 1: Have students visit this website to learn about the contest and read the rubric. Don't forget to have students REGISTER! You may also want to introduce the idea of presenting a poem by having students watch some recitations in English. Poetry Outloud has a number of videos they can watch.

Step 2: Have students watch the video of their assigned poem. You may also choose to have them read along as they listen. I asked my students to read the poem again and highlight words they understood.

Step 3: Students should familiarize themselves with unusual vocabulary. One easy way to do this is by having them study a Quizlet flashcard set. If you find/make your own, please consider sharing them us -- we'll link them to this page!

Step 4: Students complete a read-through. Teacher provides feedback.

Step 5: Students begin to memorize. In the past, some teachers have had students work on memorizing the poem in small groups. 

Step 6: We recommend having your students record a "dress rehearsal" in FlipGrid -- set up by the teacher -- so they are familiar with the layout and process before April 3.

Depending on the age and dynamic of your students, this can be structured activities in class, or it can be very independent. 

VIRTUAL/IN-PERSON METHOD 2:

Even though they grumbled at first, this year's Lost in Translation event turned out to be a fun experience for my Spanish 3 students. 

First, we read through the poem in Spanish together, on a handout, underlining all the words we recognized and putting the translation above the word. Then we divided up the words we didn't know and everyone looked up their assigned words. After a quick whip around, we read through the poem again in Spanish, with the English translations above the words. We watched multiple videos of students in Spain reciting the poem to listen to inflection and tone and volume. We also watched the US National Poetry Outloud winners from 2019 and 2018 to see what the potential was! Then we started to practice! Using clock buddies, each student practiced once a day with another student in the class, getting feedback from everyone in the room after two weeks. Then I gave them our class Flipgrid code and they recorded at home. We talked about backgrounds, lighting, using your microphone, making sure you were alone, putting the dog outside and the cat in the next room. Finally, once all the videos were done, we used the official Poetry Outloud Rubric and Google Forms and each student watched, listened and scored their classmates. Once we had our top three, we submitted those to the competition!