Bob Dylan's Poetry

Hailed by Life magazine as one of 100 most important Americans of the 20th century, folk-rock singer-songwriter Bob Dylan is best known for revolutionizing popular music by incorporating poetry into his compositions.  His song "Blowin' in the Wind" was the NPR 100 most important American musical works of the 20^th century.  

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan first started writing poetry around the age of ten. He is the recipient of several Grammy Awards, an inductee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and recipient of the highest award for artistic excellence, the Kennedy Center Honors.

 Boston University Professor Christopher Ricks ( Listen to this show) discussed the poetry inherent in Bob Dylan's songs. Professor Ricks is an authority on the works of T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, and A.E. Houseman.

I have been reading books by Terry Kay . He is a Georgia Hall of Fame author.  “The Year the Light Came On” is a perfect book to read for historical fiction about Georgia. I know my father could tell the same story and I thought of him the whole time I was reading it. It should be required reading for every 8^th grader n Georgia. I have also read “To Dance with the White Dog” & have ordered the movie.   

I believe that Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction books should be integrated in every History and Language Art class across the grade levels.  We are missing a great learning opportunity if we do not encourage this interdisciplinary approach. Students should be writing, reading, drawing, and experiencing history.  Why & How I Teach with Historical Fiction   by Tarry Lindquist is a unique site that helps teachers. Historical Fiction for Middle Schoolers  is a website that contains a bibliography of fiction arranged chronologically by the date the story takes place. 

Notable Trade Books for Young People    an annotated book lists that was evaluated and selected by a Book Review Committee appointed by National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and assembled in cooperation with the Children's Book Council (CBC). Books selected for this bibliography are written primarily for children in grades K-8.

Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading is a great lesson plan that can be modified for any grade level.  The Civil War is another lesson that uses Historical Fiction and writing to incorporate history.  The American West 1840-1895 is a British project that developing the effective use of historical fiction in the teaching of history. The essence of the work has been for students to read historical fiction set in an historical period, to research aspects of that same period and then to write their own historical fiction.  E-Mints is a lesson plan that help students learn about the genre of historical fiction. The First-Person Historical Fiction Writing Assignment is a lesson plan that encourages Historical  writing in  the  first-person genre. Scott O’Dell, author of Islands of the Blue Dolphins, established the Scott O’Dell award to encourage other writers--particularly new authors--to focus on historical fiction.
 

Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills is a lesson plan that takes the more familiar format of narrative fiction by introducing the topic and generates confidence in exploring the less familiar genre of nonfiction.  Rhoda Blumberg has written outstanding nonfiction books. Her book, Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was selected as a Newbery Honor Book. I would be remiss if I did not include Smithsonian Museum and Magazine teacher lesson plans. History Place- Personal History is a website with remarkable real-life adventures of ordinary folk.

One sure way to activelyengage  students in History is to create a Living History Museum in your classroom. The students can take on roles of characters in a historical fiction or nonfiction book. They can write, draw, read, & experience history. There are many museums that they can visit or explore via internet.

 Living History Museum: Jobs of the Past

Living History Project- Heroes: A Museum Celebrating Heroic Traits in the Lives of Ordinary People

Historical Museum Guide for Georgia

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

www.westville.org/- Westville is a living history museum which depicts an 1850 west Georgia village...

Living History of Georgia- This workshop gives students an opportunity to "go back in time" and experience the daily activities of a person their age doing many of the same things that their ancestors did a century ago.

Old Salem- Old Salem is the most authentic and comprehensive history attraction in America. It is located in Winston-Salem, NC, the four museums at Old Salem showcase lifestyles of the Salem Moravians and others living in the diverse early South.

http://www.history.org/history/

http://www.touregypt.net/village/

Freetown Village Living History Museum

El Rancho de Las Golondrinas

Other resources for Georgia teachers:

Georgia Center for the Book  is the state affiliate of the Center for the Book  located in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The Georgia Humanities Council

History Day in Georgia

Southern Spaces is a peer-reviewed, online journal exploring the real and imagined places of the American South and their connections with the wider world.

The 2008 Georgia Literary Festival will be held in Bainbridge in Southwest Georgia on the weekend of October 25, 2008.

Standards or Main Idea:

(see links below for National Standards)

Template 

It's time for the Fourteenth Annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest! This annual contest challenges children in kindergarten through third grade to draw upon their verbal and artistic abilities by writing and illustrating their own picture storybooks. This year, the contest will take place January 1 – March 3, 2008. First place winners from each grade level will go on to compete in the National Contest. Stories may be fact or fiction, prose or poetry. The following are sites to assist:

Build an entire unit around literacy and art with these downloadable lesson plans from Reading Is Fundamental.

Fairy Tales Around the World is from EDSITEment. It offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.

Write a Real Book- This is a killer writing project. It shows you how to write, illustrate, market, publish and have fun creating a 32 page color, children's picture book. If you follow these directions, you and all of the students in your entire school end up as co-author/illustrators of a real, higher quality than Dr. Seuss, book.
Creating The Four Sentence Story Summary
Creating Characters
Creating Goals and Objectives for Characters
Breaking the Story into Three Parts
Creating Your Student Editing Boards

These fiction-writing lessons were developed by Meredith Sue Willis, a professional writer from the Teachers and Writers Collaborative. For best results, follow the activities in order, from 1 to 6.

ReadWriteThink  is a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation. This site provides educators and students with access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction through free, Internet-based content.

Bits and Pieces- In this activity, students will use a collection of objects as the basis for writing a tale about the people who used them.

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan on writing:  Photo Essay, Auto-Bio Poem, The Book of Virtues, Creative Writing Using Comics, Fairy Tale Journey , Just Sandwiches , My Pyramid - Preparing for a Journey, Story Pops, Successful Paragraphs, The Jolly Postman, & Writing W Poems 

Language - ARTS Elementary (K-5)

Academy Curricular Exchange- Language Arts Lessons

 
Writing.Com is the online community for writers and readers of all interests and skill levels. Give your students writing a  home on Writing.Com. The site gives you feedback on the writing & a chance  to meeting other writers or readers, you'll be amazed at the online creative writing tools and features they provide.