My students are enjoying Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s poetry month project, Sing that Poem, over at The Poem Farm. This week a group wrote their own verse to a popular tune. I posted the poem here. Here is the recording of them singing it.
I have challenged my students with a poetry project this month. For the assignment, they must read 3 poetry books, TPCASTT one poem from each book, write a reader response to each book, write an original poem using a form from one of the books, and create a video presentation of a poem. Only a few have gotten to the video presentation stage.
I talked to them about what I expected to see in the video. The design and the music would reflect the tone and theme of the poem. Design is where digital literacy comes in, to be able to evaluate the poem and represent it through image and sound is the highest level of critical thinking. It is important for me to push my gifted students to use their highest levels of thinking. Both Tyler and Tobie got it. Animoto provides enough choices that my students were able to find what they were looking for in design and music.
Tyler presents a haiku by Issa from Cool Melons Turn to Frogs. Tobie presents House by John Frank from Lend a Hand.
https://animoto.com/play/hrNlFKJcyGgAmGNmddrLIg
https://animoto.com/play/1lAA2TFxsqQ20JA0lNZvYQ?autostart=1
Link up your DigiLit Sunday posts.
Fun to see the poems in Animoto, the ‘morning dew’ and ‘hard times’ lines are especially nice.
Margaret, it is always a pleasure to see the varied and rich learning opportunities you offer your students and the types of creations that they come up with. I love the fact that you emphasize the process.
Sharing ideas about tone and theme with the sensory tools of Animoto is such a liberating way to show understanding. These exemplars must be so inspiring to your other students. Thank you for sharing!
What great student projects. I enjoyed listening to the poem song – especially the little “Woo!” at the end. 😉 The house poem sounds like a Habitat for Humanity project – I like how the difficulties with the nails led up to the simile about the family who will live there.