Third Informal: Limericks

For my 3rd (and last) informal observation, I taught a lesson on limericks. I knew this would be a fun topic, but at first, I had no idea what to do for my lesson plan! I had to do a lot of research to find ways to teach it without being boring or obvious, and I am pretty happy with how the lesson turned out. I started by asking my students what the definition of a limerick is. To provide an example, I showed this clip of "The Brothers Limerick":

Then we discussed the defining qualities of a limerick, such as rhyme, rhythm, and how to properly use inflection, pitch, and rate. For examples, I used poems written by Edward Lear, author of A Book of Nonsense (1845) and Limerick legend.

Finally, I showed this clip from Spongebob Squarepants to demonstrate the proper way to perform a limerick:

The students then had to make their own limericks, so I figured we'd have a little fun with it. I had them download a picture of Gary reading a limerick into Pic Collage and insert their own limerick. Here are a few examples of what they came up with:

They then memorized their limerick, and recited it to a group of students in class with proper inflection, pitch, and rate. Overall, it went very well! We had a few technical glitches the first time around, but it all came together. The kids had fun and I was happy with how it turned out!

Sources:

Pic Collage // http://pic-collage.com/  

Springboard, level 1, lesson 5.9