Poetry Month: Wikispaces Archive

Poetry Month

Description: Students will share a celebration of poetry via videoconferencing. Creative ideas and connections to various content areas is found under Preparation.

2011 Dates: March 29-31 between Berrien RESA and UK schools

Agenda:
5-10 minutes: Introductions and maps shared by each class.
20 minutes: Each class leads an interaction or shares a presentation (See Preparation for ideas.)
10-15 minutes: Questions and answers, dialogue, getting to know each other more!


How To

Creating Posters for Videoconferencing

This VC Poster Handout for students gives simple tips for clear presentations via posters.


Preparation

Prepare an introduction that includes

  • An introduction of your school and teacher (done by students)
  • Some facts about your community (and pictures too if possible)
  • A map that shows your location

Prepare your presentation/interaction

Then decide (as a class if possible) what you want to share with your partner class. Here are some ideas. You may think of more!

Presentation

  • Have students read original poetry (include visuals to help the partner class follow along)
  • Have students perform poetry (either as a class or individually)
  • Find funny poems to read to the other class
  • Act out poems as a skit

Interact
Take it up a notch, if you like, and get the other class to interact with you. Here are some ideas. Maybe you’ll think of more!

  • Teach them 3 or 4 different types of poetry; then read poetry and have the other class identify the type of poetry used in that poem.
  • Use poetry with a repetitive section – have your partner class learn and do the repetitive section with you.
  • Have a “poetry idol” and have a few students at the other class be the judges and give feedback on your poetry performance.

Accents, Hearing, and Visuals
Remember that sometimes it’s hard to understand the other class over videoconference, which is sometimes compounded by different accents. Another challenge can be created by students reading in groups or reading very quietly. If possible, figure out a way to provide a visual support for your partner class:

  • Use the document camera or computer to share the words of the poem
  • Email a page to your partner class to print out so they can print it and follow along
  • If using repetitive words or phrases, create posters to accompany the reading/performance
  • Create illustrations to accompany the poetry (hold them up and make sure you can read them all the way across the room)

Connect Poetry to Other Content Areas
Here are some ideas to use poetry to present on other content areas:

  • Create haiku poems on the content area you’re studying – geography, social studies, science. Illustrate it if you can: create a poster or 8×11 sheet to show on the document camera with the works to the haiku and an illustration.
  • Share clues for something in rhyming couplets for the other class to guess: i.e. animals, science, or geography topics
  • Share math story problems for both classes to figure out by writing the story problem in poetry form.

Email your partner teacher

Be sure to tell your partner what you’re planning to do so they can prepare as well. Let Heather or Janine know if you’re having trouble contacting your partner. Sometimes emails get lost!


Resources

Note: I am not maintaining these links. They are here for reference and history only.

Poetry Resources

Giving Feedback
We encourage you to teach students how to give feedback to each other. Practice in the classroom ahead of time:

  • When you used the word _ _ _ _ _, I felt _ _ _ _ _ _.
  • Your poem made me feel _ _ _ _ _ .
  • When I listened to that poem, it made me think of _ _ _ _ _ _.
  • I noticed you used “alliteration” (or other forms), and I thought that added _ _ _ _ _ _ _ to the overall feel of the poem.
  • etc.

Rubrics


Standards

Some Michigan Standards

2nd Grade

  • R.NT.02.02 identify and describe the basic elements and purpose of a variety of narrative genre including poetry, fantasy, legends, and drama.
  • W.GN.02.02 approximate poetry based on reading a wide variety of grade- appropriate poetry.

3rd Grade

  • W.GN.03.02 write poetry based on reading a wide variety of grade-appropriate poetry.

4th Grade

  • R.NT.04.02 identify and describe the structure, elements, and purpose of a variety of narrative genre including poetry, myths, legends, fantasy, and adventure.
  • W.GN.04.02 write poetry based on reading a wide variety of grade-appropriate poetry.
  • S.DS.04.02 discuss narratives (e.g., fantasy, myths, legends, adventures, poetry), conveying the story grammar (e.g., various character roles, plot, story level theme) and emphasizing facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language.

5th Grade

  • W.GN.05.02 write poetry based on reading a wide variety of grade-appropriate poetry.

VC Evaluation

This GoogleForm was used to evaluate the project.


Facilitator Page

To: Teachers & techs on both sides,
Subject: Poetry VC Project Confirmation: [date]

Greetings and welcome to our Poetry Videoconference Project. The goal of this project is to share poetry across the Atlantic!

Dates & Times
[date & time in both time zones]

Technical Information:
Berrien RESA will dial out to both schools.
If there is a problem, dial and we’ll connect you!
If there are problems, please call

Introductions
The Michigan teacher for this project is:
[local teacher name, email, phone, school name, city, state, country]

The UK teacher for this project is:
[local teacher name, email, phone, school name, city, state, country].

Preparation
Preparation materials and resources are online:

Format
For the actual connection, I recommend this format as a rough guideline:
5 min. Introductions (be sure to prepare a map for each other)
5-10 min. One class presents
5-10 min. The other class presents.
5-10 min. Ask each other questions.

Action Items
Here’s what needs to happen next.

  • Teachers: Please email each other to discuss further.
  • Techs: We are hoping to do test calls between Berrien RESA’s bridge and the UK schools on March 25 between 1:00 and 2:00 pm UK time. Stay tuned for more info.

Let me know if you have any questions along the way. We really appreciate you participating in this project with us!

Janine


Note: Since Wikispaces is closing down, I’m moving my collaborative videoconference projects over to my blog for archiving. Great project formats can still be used and adapted!

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