Poems by Heart

Gr 7 Up—The stickiness of this app isn't in the modest selection of well-known poems, or the serviceable narrators who will read them aloud to you. It's not the pleasant design or the intuitive navigation. It's the surprising realization that you want to memorize poetry! Tap the tempting blinking triangle labeled "Learn this" and you find yourself choosing words from a box to fill in the missing words of the poem, line by line. Your mistakes will be instantly corrected and you'll get a score for your progress stanza by stanza. Want to try again? You can, you'll do better, and you'll get a higher score. Soon, you'll know the poem by heart, and you can record yourself reciting the verses you memorized. The free app comes with two poems, and additional thematic four-poem "bundles" are available for purchase. Each poem is labeled for level of difficulty. Selections range from Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" to Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!" The game of poetry is unexpectedly satisfying.—Chris Gustafson, Whitman Middle School Library Teacher, Seattle School District, WA