5 Activities to Celebrate William Shakespeare’s Birthday
Happy Birthday Bill! Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. Celebrate William Shakespeare's 457th Birthday with these 5 fun Shakespeare birthday activities.
Power in Poems: Engaging students with poetry instruction
For April’s #FlocabChat, we talked about how poetry can help students hone a variety of skills, such as analytical thinking, artistic expression, creative writing and public speaking. There are so many ways that poetry can be used in the classroom, and more than that, there are many mediums (like hip-hop) whose texts can be read and analyzed as poetry. Explore how to use Flocabulary to teach poetry on this blog post. Flocabulary offers several lessons about poetry, but as many educators in our community point out, Flocabulary's content is poetry. To delve into why, see some of the chat's highlights…
Teaching current events: How the Week in Rap is created
Over the past two years, the role of video instruction has steadily expanded in the classroom, especially when teaching current events. Facing school closures and remote learning, many teachers turned to video as a way to keep students engaged. Video is a familiar format for a generation of digital-native students and can serve as a great hook, and sometimes the bulk of instruction, for certain lessons. But finding quality, timely video content can be a challenge. That’s where the Week in Rap comes in. Watch the Week in Rap Teaching Current Events with the Week in Rap The Week in…
Black History Month Contest 2022: Meet the winners and finalists
We’re announcing the Flocabulary contest winners and finalists for Black History Month 2022! In honor of Black History Month, we invited students to be the researchers, lyricists and rappers. Students from all over the country selected under-recognized Black historical figures for their song lyrics. We received over 760 submissions from teachers and parents on behalf of their students. Looking to bring relevant resources into your classroom? Use these lessons to explore Black historical figures and events year-round. Explore Racial & Social Justice lessons This contest is the perfect way to practice culturally responsive teaching and elevate student voice while inviting…
A guide to teaching literacy across the curriculum
What does it mean to teach literacy across the curriculum? As educators, we know that literacy is key for students’ success both in the classroom and beyond. But how do we build literacy skills? And whose job is it to teach literacy, anyway? While you might think of literacy as a function of the Language Arts cassroom, the truth is reading comprehension plays a key role in every subject area. Processing texts, understanding their meaning, and applying background knowledge in new contexts are all fundamental skills that can be developed and applied in Social Studies, Math, and Science as well…