Best Practice Resource #1: The Poetry Foundation Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation website is a very useful resource for the English classroom. It provides access to countless classic and modern poems, which makes it a good way to find and share texts for lessons. It also organizes poems by theme and topic, which means students can use the site to gain a better understanding of different subjects through poetry. Additionally, it includes audio versions of some poems to engage students who may struggle to read and engage with poems in a typical fashion. The website also links podcasts about poetry. This allows students to learn about the art form of poetry through a medium that they are familiar with. It also highlights a poem of the day, which could be used to expose students to works they are unfamiliar with and expand their knowledge base. Lastly, the site features poem guides to help students understand the complexity of the poems they read. The Poetry Foundation site has a wide variety of tools that can be used to engage students with poetry in the modern English classroom. For that reason, it is a vital resource.
Best Practice Resource #2: TED Ed Literature VideosWhy should you read "Don Quixote"? - Ilan Stavans
The TED organization is probably best known for their TED Talk series. However, the TED resource most relevant to the English classroom is their "More Book Recommendation from TED-Ed" playlist, which can be found on YouTube. The playlist features brief videos (about five minutes on average) on a variety of topics. Most of the videos are part of the "Why Should You Read?" series. These videos discuss various classic and modern works of literature and discuss their thematic significance and relevance. They also typically summarize some of the most interesting parts of the book, trying to demonstrate why these books are important to read. The playlist also contains "Why Should You Read?" videos for specific authors. These videos review the important works of each author, their significance, and other elements. These videos are a vital resource in the classroom because they get students excited to read and learn more about the stories in the videos. The videos are formatted in a very clear and enticing manner, so students are unlikely to be turned off by the perceived complexity of the stories. In a modern education landscape where getting students excited to read is a struggle, YouTube videos explaining the value of specific texts are an effective resource to encourage literacy within the classroom and beyond.
Best Practice Resource #3: New York Times Text to Text Text to Text - The New York Times
The New York Times Text to Text page provides lesson plans where works of literature are compared and taught with topical articles and videos. The literature featured ranges from Shakespeare to The Outsiders, so the lessons can be used across classrooms and units. In the case of The Outsiders, the text is paired with an article about gangs in Chicago. Lessons like these allow students to recognize that reading is not divorced from real life, and the events that they read about in books can happen to real people just like them. In the case of Shakespeare, pairing a play to a modern text can show students that even a four hundred year old piece of literature can still hold relevance through its themes. Much like the TED-Ed videos, Text to Text largely has value in its ability to introduce interesting concepts and illustrate the importance of classic lit in students' lives. Using a resource like Text to Text not only presents interesting connections (allowing students to see synthesis in action), it also gives them a reason to engage with text they may not see as relevant otherwise.