Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning
Shelby Blackwood is the English Language Arts Online Learning Writer at the K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal. Shelby works collaboratively with other content curriculum writers and instructional designers in developing online instruction and curriculum to assist teachers in implementing the Oklahoma Academic Standards. Shelby’s mission in education is to cultivate the love of learning and encourage creativity, compassion, and innovation.
There is a special kind of magic in hearing the words you have written spoken out loud. Spoken word poetry is meant to be heard and performed rather than read silently from a page. In this lesson, students analyze the techniques spoken word poets use to engage an audience and examine the devices they... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: August 12th, 2022
Techniques in Spoken Word Poetry
Do words matter? Does our choice of words affect the attitudes of others? In this lesson, students will explore the denotation and connotation of different words from Romeo and Juliet and how word choice affects understanding and perception of an author’s writing. This is a multimodality lesson, which... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: June 30th, 2022
Connotation and Denotation in Romeo and Juliet
In this lesson, students explore themes of community and identity by analyzing a poem and creating their own poem inspired by the themes. Through these activities, students reflect deeply on their lives and learn to apply a variety of literary devices that allow them to express their creativity and... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: June 30th, 2022
Poetry
In this lesson, students compare and contrast the poem, "The Hill We Climb," and an excerpt from the speech, "I Have a Dream," and analyze how the authors' messages are made clear through their word choices and rhetorical strategies. Students compose a poem, evaluate how poetry can be used to send a... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: June 30th, 2022
Perspectives in Poetry
Truth is a powerful thing. Sometimes it hurts, and sometimes it is hard to deliver. In this multi-genre lesson, students will analyze and compare three texts written on the subject of honesty. Students will determine the claim a text is arguing and the evidence and reasoning that is used to support... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: March 14th, 2023
Claim, Evidence, Reasoning
In this lesson, students evaluate the historical and cultural perspectives behind spoken word poetry. Students review several spoken word poems and analyze their historical, cultural, and social connections while studying the history of spoken word poetry. Students then demonstrate and justify their... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: June 30th, 2022
Historical and Cultural Perspectives in Literature
Setting and Conflict
In this lesson, students experiment with changing the settings in well-known fairy tales and examine how conflict might change in a different setting. Students explore the Prologue from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and analyze how the setting affects the conflict. After analyzing and comparing different... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: June 30th, 2022
Setting and Conflict
In this professional learning session, participants will engage in collaborative writing activities, discover how writing can increase student engagement, and leave with strategies and resources that can be implemented immediately in their classrooms. Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: October 17th, 2022
This collaborative strategy can be used to introduce new material or to review texts that students have read. 30-Second Expert helps students summarize and synthesize information in a brief, reciprocal activity. Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
August 25th, 2022
The It Says, I Say, and So strategy is a visual scaffold to support student thinking when making inferences and drawing conclusions. This strategy can be used with struggling students at most grade levels. Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
September 2nd, 2022
