A FOUR-CLASS PROJECT USING GLOGSTER AND VOXOPOP

I have elaborated this lesson plan based on a topic my 8 th grade students had on their
books. I have created this thinking about a 25-students-class and a school that doesn’t have
one computer per student, it has just the teacher’s computer and a projector.
I have tried just the first class because I didn’t know Glogster and Voxopop by the time I
did this project. I’m planning on trying it out with my next 8 th grade class. And I don’ know if it is
going to work exactly as I planned, but it is just a suggestion.

First class
1. Read about what is poetry (the students have a text about it on their books). Talk about it.
Read and listen to some poetry samples on http://www.poetry4kids.com/poems.
2. Do a brainstorming activity to talk about themes people can use on poems and words
related to those themes. Create a mind map for each theme on the board.
3. Take a look at some websites (http://www.rhymer.com/, http://www.rhymezone.com/,
http://www.poetry4kids.com/rhymes) to see how people can bring rhymes to the poems.
Ask the students to write down the sites’ addresses to explore it at home.
4. Homework assignment: based on everything they have studied during this class, the
students have to write their own poems. It has to have at least four verses and it can or
cannot be rhymed.

Second Class
1. Listen to the poem “I knew a guy”, by Kenn Nesbitt on http://www.poetry4kids.com/poem-
476.html.
2. Explain to the students they are going to do the same thing, that is, they are going to record
their own poems, but they are going to do it on a Voxopop talkgroup.
3. The class is divided in small groups (with 5 students). On the groups, the students rehearse
their poems.
4. Have a look at the poems shortly before the students record it, to see if it needs corrections.
5. While a student is recording his/her poem, the groups make the corrections suggested. At
the end of the class, all the poems are picked up by the teacher.

Third Class
1. Open the Voxopop talkgroup the students have recorded and the listen to one of the
poems, looking at it on the projector.
2. Explain to the students they are going to create posters with their poems. Students go back
to the same groups they were at the previous class.
3. Two groups go to the computer and create their posters using Glogster and the poems the
teacher brought already digitalized. The teacher stays with the group that is at the computer
to help with Glogster.
4. While one group is at the computer creating the poster, the others create a poem to
represent the “spirit” of the group.
5. Show the students what they have already done and tell them the other groups are going to
finish their posters next class.

Fourth Class
1. Remember the students what they were doing the previous class.
2. Two groups go to the computer to create their posters (the same way the others did during
the previous class).
3. Students continue to create a poem to represent the “spirit” of the group.
4. Create a poster with the “spirit of the group” poems to represent the “spirit” of the class.
5. At the end of the class, show all the posters created during the class. Send the students
their posters’ links, so they can have it.