"When Great Tree's Fall" A poem by Maya Angelou by Elizabeth Thompson https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor I created this padlet with the idea that I could send students here to choose an activity to do using the poem "When Great Tree's Fall". The poem would be ideal for an older grade, and could perhaps accompany a poetry unit, or follow a book involving death. Such as Bridge to Terabithia. Ideally, this padlet would follow a class read through of the poem. Students would access the padlet and be required to choose 2 activities to complete in working with the poem. This would allow choice in an activity but still remain structured to thought-provoking activities to do with the poem. en-us 2017-02-13 02:26:43 UTC 2018-08-28 16:40:21 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Clouds.png elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331402 Read this brief article about some of Maya Angelou's great accomplishments. It also gives some background knowledge about the time period this poem was written. Write a short paragraph about how this article made you think differently about the poem.]]> 2017-02-13 02:31:49 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331402 elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331524 “When Great Trees Fall"

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

― Maya Angelou

]]> 2017-02-13 02:33:23 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331524 elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331724 Draw a picture or choose a picture online that represents the imagery created in your head when you read this poem.]]> 2017-02-13 02:36:34 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153331724 Nothing Gold Can Stay elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153332311
Read this poem by Robert Frost. Both poems deal with loss, the idea of immortality, and death. Write several comparisons you can make between the two. Think about ways they are similar and ways they are different, how did each poem make you feel?

"Nothing Gold Can Stay"

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

]]> 2017-02-13 02:45:31 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153332311 elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153332621 Think about this poem in comparison to the death portrayed in Bridge to Terebithia. ]]> 2017-02-13 02:48:50 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153332621 elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153334070 Choose several unknown words from the poem that you will add to your vocabulary list. Be sure to find a definition of the word, and to use it in a sentence. For this activity find all the new words in the poem, you must have at least 3 words for this activity to be complete. ]]> 2017-02-13 03:06:48 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153334070 elizabeth_thompson11 https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153334886 Create a video of yourself reading this poem. After you read it tell me about your favorite line from the poem, and why you liked it.]]> 2017-02-13 03:16:05 UTC https://padlet.com/elizabeth_thompson11/ol5azw9e3uor/wish/153334886