Teaching Poetry

Roses are red… and some poetry is stale. Celebrate April, also National Poetry Month, with a return to creativity.

Check out these classroom-friendly ideas on how to teach some of the more fun, lesser-celebrated poetry forms, including free verse, cinquain, and tankas.

Success in New York

"Our students are using Imagine Learning English, and their growth is overwhelming. The things taught are really mastered by the students. Very few are lagging behind. We noticed that the children who are hyperactive, have IEPs, and have emotional issues are very calm with this program.

"The program moves the students along at a pace that they are able to handle and they don't get bored. They are really absorbed by it and are constantly practicing English out loud. It's great to see them singing songs and responding to the machine. We love it! The students love to use Imagine Learning English!"

Teri Zenos
New York Public Schools

Language Mag Meets ILE

Imagine Learning English is making headlines! Language Magazine, the journal of communication and education, featured Imagine Learning English in their TESOL edition.

This four-page spread discusses RTI, its history, downfalls and successes, and how ILE is helping schools nationwide with their struggling readers and English learners. Check out this link and then click "Responding to Intervention" to read the full article.

Getting Familiar with RTI

There's been talk of a new player in the educational ring, and you'd do well to get yourself acquainted. If you haven't already, it's time you met RTI.

RT-what, you ask? RTI, or Response to Intervention, is all the buzz in the education world this year. And that's because it's bringing results. Good ones. The basic mantra of RTI is to monitor student response to the intervention methods you're using and then take action if students aren't responding well. While each school implements RTI in a stylized way, there are four basic components that are key to effective intervention. This month, we'll examine the first three and how Imagine Learning English meets each requirement.

Bring Difficult Narrative to Life

You wouldn’t give your 4th graders Tolstoy or Dostoevsky to tackle. And why not? They’d be left in the wake of complex sentences and compounds. So how can you avoid putting that same burden on your struggling readers and English Learners (ELs)?

While you may not be giving your ELs War and Peace, the transition from picture books to early readers to chapter books can seem equally daunting. If you’re looking to make difficult narrative more accessible, take a look at these research-based, helpful hints for the whole class.

The Glossary that Talks Back

Fifty years ago, multiple-choice tests were graded by hand, not scanned. Overhead projectors ruled the classroom, and PowerPoint or interactive whiteboards only ruled our dreams. When students didn’t understand a word, they slogged through the monstrous, pedestaled dictionary in the library or lost their place to seek out a glossary in the back. And when they didn’t understand the definition, it most certainly wouldn’t talk back.

Well those days are gone, and glossaries are silent no more! The interactive glossary words in Imagine Learning English give students up to six new pieces of information to help them grasp the meaning and context. To find out exactly how this glossary is talking back (no disrespect here), read on.

5 New Interactions

1. Definition Audio: What good is a definition if you can’t read all the words? Just in case students are unsure of a word, we make sure each definition is read aloud, so students can easily follow along.
2. First-language Translation: For those students who have a wider vocabulary in their first-language, each glossary word is translated and read out loud.
3. Part of Speech: No glossary would be complete without this helpful information. Students become more familiar with how nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs function as they see more examples of each.
4. Illustration: For those visual learners, definitions and translations might not cut it. Just in case the meaning still escapes them, we’ve included illustrations for every glossary word possible.
5. Extra Information: To make sure students get a deeper understanding of each word, we include synonyms and antonyms and identify idioms and compound words.

When students read leveled text, glossary words are bold and clickable. At any time, they may click a glossary word to learn more about it. And the best part? ILE holds their place in the story, so students don’t have to. Going five steps beyond the traditional glossary, the ILE interactive glossary allows students to get past the vocabulary and into some meaning.

Note: You can explore the interactive glossary through the Level 2 Activity Menu. Click "Reading Fluency and Comprehension" on the left and then the "Leveled" Listen and Read icon. Open any book and you'll see glossary words in bold. Click any glossary word to explore its meaning.

Building Friendships in Illinois

"At the beginning of our school year, I had two new girls come from different countries, and I started them on Imagine Learning English. Conveniently, I work in a computer classroom in our building that only has computers set up with the ILE software. Our ELL students (K–5) come every day to do their lessons with me.

"I randomly seated these two students next to each other. One student is from Germany, the other from Korea. A wonderful unexpected friendship has blossomed during their time spent sitting next to each other. They check each other’s computer screen to compete, and they wait for each other to walk back to their main classrooms. They are now speaking English with each other and have whole conversations; I hear them as they are walking out. Wow! I cried tears of joy. Imagine Learning English helped these two girls from completely different countries to have conversations and just express themselves as girls do."

Mary Augustine
ELL Assistant
Naperville, Illinois