Process or Product? What is our focus in digital literacy? I wrote about this in regards to poetry on Friday. My students had me thinking about process this week. The value of the process.
With inspiration from Laura Purdie Salas, I introduced the idea of a found poem from Wonderopolis to a small group of students. I modeled the process for them: Select a Wonder, copy and paste the text into a Word document, and use the strike-through tool to black out text. The idea was to find a poem within the text.
What I thought would be a one day activity covered almost three days. I was not satisfied with the products. They had done the assignment, but the poems weren’t really poems.
I decided we would work on revision together. I put the draft on the Promethean Board. We tabbed to the Wonderopolis article to have the reference to go back to. At first I was doing all the work, making suggestions for cuts, asking if there were more ideas that should be included. However, by the time we got to the third poem to revise, my students talked like experts.
“This line is too long. Should we make a line break?”
“This is a repeated word. Can we cut it out?”
“I like the way this word sounds. Let’s keep it.”
My students felt a sense of ownership as each of their poems were projected and revised. I continually checked in with them. “Is this OK with you?”
This was work. In fact, one of my students said that very thing. I responded, “Yes, but it’s good work. Aren’t you happy with your poem now?”
Who knew that found poems could be so tough. My dissatisfaction with the product led to a much deeper thinking process. My students not only had to gather information; they had to synthesize and evaluate it.
I wish now that I had saved the first drafts to show you the before and after. All I have to share is the after.
Giraffes
Yikes!
Giraffes have tongues
as long as their necks?
Not quite!
If you liked to eat leaves like giraffes do,
Then you would understand.
Acacia’s tasty leaves have very sharp thorns.
Watch out!
While reaching the highest treat,
the giraffe’s tongue
protects itself from being cut.
If a giraffe’s tongue does get cut,
it will heal very quickly.
–Noah, 4th grade
Link up your DigiLit Sunday posts.
I love this, Margaret! What good work you do! Giraffes happen to be my favorite wild animal, so I loved the poem. Great topic, too.
You really are wonderful at lifting up your kids. The process is the important part as far as I’m concerned. I write that because I know we learn so much from our process. The product has value but it is a part of the process, right?
In the anxiety over getting the just right product, we often forget that the process is valuable in itself.
[…] Margaret Simon’s DigiLit Sunday prompt is to reflect on process vs. product. […]
This is fabulous! My response to your post is linked up! Thanks so much for this work.
Process over product may take a few days for students to catch on but the end result seemed to prove that all was worth it.