The Bubonic Plague An Exploration of Original Student Poetry

Background: Within the New York State Ninth Grade Global History and Geography curriculum, the Bubonic Plague is a major unit of study. Focusing on the causes and effects of the Bubonic Plague, the students may understand how this major time period may have affected Western Europe.

Interdisciplinary Study: Once students have mastered the core historical facts of the Bubonic Plague, they may apply them through more interdisciplinary outlets while utilizing technology. For example, students may be asked to develop original poetry reflecting the events of the Bubonic Plague.

New York State Social Studies Standards ] ] Standard 1: History of the United States and New York Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York. Standard 2: World History Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives. Standard 3: Geography Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface. [1] [1]

New York State Social Studies Standards Standard 4: Economics Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision- making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms. Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

New York State English Language Arts Standards ] ] Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information. Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation. [1][1]

New York State English Language Arts Standards Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues. Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.

Task: After either working individually or within a small group (possibly 2, 3, or 4 students) to write their original poetry, students will record their original poems.

Materials Needed: Laptop Computer External Microphone Audacity Software Program – may be found at

Procedure for Learning to Use Audacity: Teachers must download Audacity from Teachers should practice recording by speaking into the external microphone and clicking on the Red Circle icon through the Audacity main page. After recording, teachers may save the recording for future use.

Bubonic Plague Poetry Activity: After working to write their original “Bubonic Plague Poetry”, students will begin the process of recording. Each group will read their poems into the external microphone while either a classmate or the teacher clicks on the Red Circle Record button in the Audacity program. Work may be save by clicking on “File”, “Save Project As”. Students may then click on “File”, “Export as MP3” in order to prepare the file to be uploaded to or another website of the teacher’s choosing.

Steps to Upload a Podcast to – Part 1: **PLEASE REMEMBER THAT PRIOR TO UPLOADING STUDENTS’ WORK, IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE WRITTEN PARENTAL/GUARDIAN CONSENT FOR EACH STUDENT!** 1.Each group may log-on to or the teacher’s website of choice to upload their Bubonic Plague Poetry Podcasts. Each teacher must develop their own account through for student work. 2.Click on “Publish a Podcast”. 3.Click on “Publish a New Show”. 4.Enter a “Tag” which will become an easier way to locate your podcasts. 5.Enter a “Title” for each podcast and type a message.

Steps to Upload a Podcast to – Part 2: 1.Scroll down to “Add Media File” and click “Browse”. 2.Locate your podcast recording file and click “Open”. 3.Scroll down and click “Save and Continue Editing”. 4.Scroll down and click “Publish”. 5.Toward the top of your screen click “View site” – podcasts should be seen. 6.Scroll down to “Listen Now” and click on the “Play” button.

Reviewing and Evaluating Original Podcasts: Students may access the original podbean website created by their teacher and review the podcasts of their peers. Once each group has uploaded their poems, students may log-on to the website to review and evaluate the poems of their peers using an original rubric developed by the class.