ECI 521 Action Learning Project Proposal
Name: Willis Isley
Session: Summer 1, 2011
Inquiry Question / Issue / Problem:
What is the best way to represent poetry so that it engages young adult readers in a digital context.
Relevance:
One of the things that we all seemed to agree on was the idea that we need to harness different digital mediums in order to reach our students best. We also want to have student directed classrooms, and to allow our students to help guide the curriculum. So, how can we garner interest in poetry, which is a form that has not been traditionally popular with readers, and seems to be increasingly distant from the modern world, yet provides us with wonderful examples of the power of language? I want to encourage both the study of poetry and the incorporation of student viewpoints and new technology.
Project Design
I want to begin the project by showing students the favoritepoem.org website, which shows all kinds of people discussing and reading their favorite poems. Then I want to ask the students to think about their favorite poems, and why they are their favorites. I will have a voicethread account with profiles already established for the students, and I will have them log in to the site and record their favorite poem (they can use google to find the full text). I imagine that some students would suggest that a song is their favorite poem, and for the purposes of this project, I will allow them to use song lyrics if they wish. After everyone has recorded their poem and a brief discussion of why it is their favorite poem, I will have the students turn to the next slide on voicethread. It will prompt the students to think about the roll of poetry in their lives. Asking them to discuss how they view poetry. I will include questions such as, is poetry important to you? How often do you read, write or hear poetry. I will be really interested to see what students say about this after being allowed to use song lyrics in the previous section. Finally, on the third slide, I will ask students to respond to the activity. I will have the students address how multimedia affected their view of poetry. In the students' case, they were only able to transform the poetry into a reading, and of course poetry is auditory, but on the favoritepoem website, there are videos as well, and I want to students to share whether they think that the videos increased their understanding or appreciation of the poem, or if it was distracting from the work.
Project Multimedia Report
For the project, I should be able to integrate some of my favorite selections from the voicethreads, and I will keep notes that I can use to tell about the whole experience, as far as how the students reacted, and whether they understood what I was trying to do.
After reading your ALP plan and your lit review lite, I wonder if you also enjoy writing poetry, Will, and if the classical poetry you enjoy so much has influenced your style. It seems to me that seeing these classical poets as models can give our young poets, as you suggest, a "larger knowledge of poetry" and a rich creative well to drink from. Just sayin ;-)
ReplyDeletePoets may be the most metacognitive artists -- there's a constant need to review and reflect to make sure the essence is captured. I think you make a wise point about the value of adding the slide for students to reflect on how the technology may have affected their view of poetry. I'll wonder if the videotaped poems add an element of humanity that might help convince young adults that poetry is alive and well and relevant in the lives of a diversity of people. And that maybe there's a place for it in their own lives.
A technical clarification, in VoiceThread you can create several "identities" with different icons to represent them all on one account. I think that's what you mean by profiles.
Enjoy your project!
Out of curiosity, do you plan to discuss spoken word poetry/poetry slams? There's an organization based in the Triangle called Sacrificial Poets (you can watch their videos on youtube) that's made up of young adults. I first found out about all of this because some kids I tutored at the ECHHS writing lab are really into spoken word poetry. There's actually a huge following at CHHS. You may find students who are eager to get involved or share their thoughts on the matter.
ReplyDelete--Yes, I do write poetry, and songs, and I love Robert Browning most of all, Abt Vogler is my favorite poem of his. So yeah, I do feel biased towards classical poetry because it inspires me.
ReplyDelete--I have contacted the CHCCS about working with students, and am currently being passed around to different people, the budget cuts are hurting everyone, but yeah I'd really like to work with slam poetry or spoken word. I mentioned to Cris in second life that I took an Arts Entrepreneurship class as a freshmen in college with Pierce Freelon. He is a rap artist with a band called the Beast, but I know he is heavily involved in integrating hip hop and education, at UNC.