Category Archives: Audio

Bring Shakespeare to Old Time Radio–Common Core Standard 9

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Scott

Most students are probably not aware that copyright protection laws are relatively new, so they might be surprised to learn just how many famous authors like Shakespeare borrowed and adapted others’ ideas. They should already know (I hope) that Stephanie Meyer’s books aren’t entirely original vampire stories, but they probably don’t know how many earlier “versions” of Romeo and Juliet you can find. Common Core Standard 9.  Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). Although there are many authors who treat themes and topics from earlier works in their own, Shakespeare is one of the easiest to approach with students simply because one can find more information online about him than nearly any other author.  If you are lucky … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Classical Literature, Common Core Standards, Drama, Lesson Plans, Shakespeare, Technology Integration, World Literature | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Animoto: Another Great Tool for Adding Music and Video to Your Lit Plans

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Scott

Summer has finally arrived here in Maine.  I hope many of you, like me, have finished up the school year and can now take some time to recuperate.  Looking forward to a productive summer, I am planning a series of blog posts focusing on the Common Core State Standards Initiative.  My plan is to post regular articles with a simple goal: each blog post will take one specific CCSS outcome and demonstrate a resource and/or method for utilizing technology to meet that standard.  Essentially, I envision a CCSS curriculum map for Language Arts, based completely on technology integration.  I’m hoping to begin this series the first or second week of July. Meanwhile, I have found a website I think will be fun to use with students in the fall…Animoto.  Animoto is a basic online tool that allows you to create “video slideshows” or montages with music and text.  The basic … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Lesson Plans, Presenting, Reading, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Internet Archive: One Very Big Collection of Multimedia

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Scott

The Internet Archive is a huge, well…archive.  Basically, it’s a collection of images, video, music, audio recordings, and texts.  Once you explore this massive digital library though, you’ll see that it’s hard to get your head around just how much is collected here.  For example, the audio section includes an archive of millions of recordings of everything from an audio version of The Quran to radio talk show recordings.  The music section includes live music recordings from the Grateful Dead and millions of others.  The text section, called the “Open Library,” includes millions of documents from textbooks to novels and poetry collections.  The Internet Archive‘s creators call it “a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.”  And best of all…it’s free. One of my favorite features at the Internet Archive is the “Way Back Machine” where you can plug in a web address and see … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Drama, Poetry, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Free Audio and Video Files of Famous Speeches at American Rhetoric.com

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Scott

With so much literature, grammar, writing, and vocabulary to cover in our curriculum these days, it’s easy to overlook the importance of oral language in our classrooms.  Consider also how reluctant many students already are about “getting up in front of the class,” and it’s easy to put off teaching about speeches and oral presentations.   But with evermore rapid advancements of technology and the internet, listening and speaking skills are becoming increasingly important.  The authors of the Common Core State Standards put it this way: “New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their link to other forms of communication. The Internet has accelerated the speed at which connections between speaking, listening, reading, and writing can be made, requiring that students be ready to use these modalities nearly simultaneously.” Looking for tools useful in focusing on verbal … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Classical Literature, Lesson Plans, Listening, Presenting, Speaking, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Jack London Collection Online

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Scott

Jack London died of kidney disease when he was only 40, but during his short life he was an unusually prolific writer.  When he died in 1916, he left behind everything from the adventure novels for which he is most known, to journalism, essays, and letters.  The Sonoma State University Library has gathered and organized much about this important American author in the Jack London Online Collection.  This site includes an audio book version of The Call of the Wild, a radio drama, a searchable collection of images of him, his family, and friends, and a sizeable assortment of primary documents including letters, postcards, certificates, bookplates, and much more. The Jack London Online Collection has many useful applications for those who teach Jack London or for those doing research.  The site is very well-organized, offering materials by format—audio files, documents, images, etc. as well as sections on “What’s New,” a … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Lesson Plans, Reading | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Add Some Spirit to your “Boorish” Shakespeare Plans

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Scott

If you are looking for engaging, easy-to-adopt (or adapt) Shakespeare lesson plans, one of the best resources online for anything Shakespeare is the Folger library.  I’m deep in the first act of Romeo and Juliet with my students right now, so I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing the net for new stuff.  One of the problems with Shakespeare online is that there is just so much out there.  I recently searched “Shakespeare Lesson Plans” on Google and got 693,000 results.  And so much of it is the same old material.  Where do you start?  I get a headache thinking about it.  But at the same time, I can’t help but feel after ten years that some of my Shakespeare stuff is getting, well, “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable” (sorry, couldn’t help quoting Hamlet there).  If you haven’t bookmarked the Folger Library site yet, you should.  Liven up your … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Drama, Lesson Plans, Poetry, Reading, Shakespeare, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

LitTunes Blends Pop Music and the Classics

Posted on January 21, 2011 by Scott

One of my favorite lessons as a freshman in high school was when my English teacher sent us home to find music to accompany the oral reading of the mythological story of Orpheus. She sent us home to search for the perfect song to play during his decent into the Underworld in search of his wife.  We brought in our cassette tapes the next day and were very excited to share AC/DC, Ozzie Osborne, and Motley Crue with Mrs. Rentz (I’m sure she was thrilled).  She let each of us in turn play a song selection on an old tape player and the class read the scene repeatedly until we all came to a consensus on whose selection most suited the scene’s mood.  I don’t remember many things about 9th grade English, but this I recall clearly—I thought it was so cool that my “old” teacher showed an interest in … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Drama, Poetry, Reading, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mark Twain Interactive Scrapbook

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Scott

For teachers introducing Mark Twain to their students, the Mark Twain Interactive Scrapbook is a website with a useful variety of multimedia resources from video and audio to images of primary documents and quotes from the author.  The site is produced by PBS and has five classroom activities ready to use with your middle or high school students.  It is aesthetically well designed and organized and the classroom activities come complete with a bullet list of national standards to which each one aligns.  Even if you do not use the ready-made lesson plans, this site is worth exploring just for what you and your students can learn about Twain’s life and work. The audio and video components of the site are professionally produced but they require the free Real Player application so be sure the students’ computers are updated with this application before starting.  The clips of Mark Twain’s writing … Continue reading →

Posted in American Literature, Audio, Reading, Twain, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Learn and Teach Out Loud: Add Some Audio or Video Flare to Your Lit Units

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Scott

When recently looking for electronic resources to add to my short story unit, I came across LearnOutLoud.com where hundreds of recorded works are available free for download.  Learn Out Loud doesn’t just have audio recordings of books and stories (though there are plenty of those); they also have podcasts and videos. Some of the resources cost money, but there are plenty of free downloads (hundreds across all content areas.  And, for those ambitious teachers among us, you can even upload your own teaching content (lectures, etc.) and try to sell it through Teach Out Loud.  Next time you do a particularly good job of dynamically introducing Romeo and Juliet, maybe you can turn your introduction into some cash.  In the Teach Out Loud section, you can also browse content already published from other teachers.  Teach Out Loud has hundreds of downloads available including readings from Shakespeare’s Sonnets for $1.99 and … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Reading, Video, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment