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Course, Subject

Physics, English Language Arts (2005), Math, Science & Technology, Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects (NYS 6-12 Common Core)

Assessment

Students will be assessed on the quality of their original poetry and on the technical qualities of the movies they have created. The rubric included covers both.

• Poeticmovieassessment.doc

Learning Context/ Introduction

This particular learning experience dovetails with the technology field, allowing students to use a moviemaking program to further express their poetry. The students, upon learning of the techniques of poetry, employ their newly learned skills in the development of personal poems. The poetic topic that the students explored is modern issues. In order to succeed with the learning experience, a student must be able to:

1. Write a poem, using techniques that have been learned in previous unit.
2. Incorporate their poetry into a movie format, combining sound and images.
3. Edit displayed material for grammatical concerns and visual shortcomings.
4. Use video enhancements to further promote the understanding of the poem.

Duration

Poetry Writing- 2 days

Program Instruction- 1 day

Computer Lab Time- 3 days

Movie Viewing- 3 days

Essential Question

How, through the use of technology, can a piece of writing be enhanced, or more explicitly expressed?

Instructional/Environment Modifications

Classroom needs to have a multimedia projector that is connected to a computer that has either Windows MediaPlayer or RealPlayer. There are other programs, however, these are the most common.

Procedure

This unit closely follows our poetry unit, which addresses many styles and types of poetry, as well as the elements and techniques that make the poetry what it is. To begin, students develop a list of issues that our society copes with; these may be individual, local, national, or global. Each student then selects an issue to write about. Students sculpt their writing into the poetic form and prepare it for the next step. The next step is to have the students view the basics of Microsoft Movie through an in-class demonstration, using an overhead, multimedia projector. Due to the relative ease of this program, a 42-minute period allows for basic use, sample presentation viewing, and questions. Next, the students are allowed a three-day block in one of our computer labs. Students need a minimum of 10 images, text on slide insertion, and audio accompaniment that communicates the mood that they want to create. Once the students have a completed product, the class views, discusses, and informally assesses the students' work.

Reflections and Feedback

The project went very well; however, there are always glitches that need to be worked out. MovieMaker is a fussy program that likes to freeze up when it is multi-tasking. Students got very frustrated with that. The files also take up a lot of space, so it is important to have a very large, common space, on the school server to let the files sit. I burned their presentations to disk afterwards in order to free up that space on the school's server. Students had a hard time contrasting their words with their images. It is not like PowerPoint where you use generic backgrounds and can have real strong contrast. It is also difficult to maneuver text on a slide. I will spend more time with those areas in subsequent instruction. Overall, though, I was very satisfied and the students were able to see the value of "packaging" a piece of writing to create a sharper impact on the audience.

Student Work

Middle Product

High-End

Low End

Related Academic Standards

New York State

WST.9-10.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology's capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

WST.11-12.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

ELA.11.L.2.E Students recognize how presentation style affects the emotional response of listeners.

ELA.11.S.3.F Students use visuals and technology to enhance presentation.

MST2.C.P.IS.1.2 Students prepare multimedia presentations demonstrating a clear sense of audience and purpose. (Note: Multimedia may include posters, slides, images, presentation software, etc.)