Lord Maroon Can Meow! Canst Thou?

O! The wonders of my lord Maroon do abound! He’s a walking menagerie of wondrous sounds.

The Muslim Ban

The Muslim ban is not a Muslim ban.

Kate Cat Caught a Moose

I wrote this 193-word poem for my summer ESL class on phonics and accent reduction. It includes about a large number of minimal pair vocabulary words highlighting continuants and stops (esp. /s/ and /t/ endings), as well as various vowel sounds. It corresponds with Unit 10 of Judy Gilbert’s Clear Speech, 4th Edition. Enjoy, and […]

Bookstore Present/Baseball Tryout

I wrote this 298-word poem for my summer ESL class on phonics and accent reduction. It includes about a dozen pairs of vocab words highlighting syllable stress of two-syllable verbs versus nouns, as well as compound nouns. It corresponds with Units 3–5 (particularly Unit 5) of Judy Gilbert’s Clear Speech, 4th Edition. Enjoy, and feel […]

Brug Thugs Fear Pugs

Here’s another poem I wrote for my ESL students. We did an activity called “Seuss Sleuths,” in which we read excerpts from a Dr. Seuss book (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish) and I challenged them to figure out the meter, rhyme scheme, themes, and other patterns employed in the book. Each of […]

I Hope to See the Forest

I wrote this 279-word poem for my summer ESL class on phonics and accent reduction. It includes about a dozen pairs of vocab words highlighting syllable count and long vs. short vowel sounds. The words came from the first two units of Judy Gilbert’s Clear Speech, 4th Edition. Enjoy, and feel free to share and reuse […]