Becoming a 21st Century Poet: Digital Storytelling in Language Arts

Grade Level: 6th, 7th, 8th Curriculum Area: Language Arts NETS-S Standards

Creativity and Innovation Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students: a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes. b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression. Communication and Collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students: a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats. c. develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures. d. contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems. Research and Information Fluency Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students: b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Students: b. plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project. Digital Citizenship Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students: a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology. b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity. Technology Operations and Concepts Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Students: d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.

Sunshine State Standards

LA.7.2.1.1: The student will identify and analyze the characteristics of various genres (e.g., poetry, fiction, short story, dramatic literature) as forms with distinct characteristics and purposes; LA.7.2.1.3: The student will locate various literary devices (e.g., sound, meter, figurative and descriptive language), graphics, and structure and analyze how they contribute to mood and meaning in poetry; The student will locate and analyze an author's use of allusions and descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language in a variety of literary text, identifying how word choice is used to appeal to the reader's senses and emotions, providing evidence from text to support LA.7.3.1.1: The student will pre-write by generating ideas from multiple sources (e.g., prior knowledge, discussion with others, writers notebook, research materials, or other reliable sources) based upon teacher-directed topics and personal interests; LA.7.4.3.2: The student will include persuasive techniques (e.g., word choice, repetition, emotional appeal, hyperbole, appeal to authority, celebrity endorsement, rhetorical question, irony).

LA.7.3.3.3: The student will revise by creating precision and interest by using a variety of sentence structures (including the use of participles and participial phrases at the beginning and end of sentences), creative language devices, and modifying word choices using resources and reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus); and LA.7.6.2.4: The student will understand the importance of legal and ethical practices, including laws regarding libel, slander, copyright, and plagiarism in the use of mass media and digital sources, know the associated consequences, and comply with the law. LA.7.6.3.1: The student will analyze ways that production elements (e.g.,, graphics, color, motion, sound, digital technology) affect communication across the media; LA.7.6.3.2: The student will demonstrate ability to select and ethically use media appropriate for the purpose, occasion, and audience; and

Lesson Description

** PREPARATION FOR TEACHER PRIOR TO LESSON: a. Students will practice collaboration and peer-editing using blogs. Using www.KidBlog.org,

creating a classroom blog website is very simple. Register with the SAFE AND SECURE website and type in students’ first name as their login. No email for students is necessary.

b. Register with www.SlideShare.net with a username and password that ALL students will use. 1. Hook: Conduct a class poll: Have you ever read a status update of a friend, family member, or celebrity on Twitter, Facebook, and/or MySpace? Explain that many celebrities use these social networks and use unique language to convey their daily thoughts. Explain that poets often use similar “figurative language” when conveying their ideas through poetry. Provide some examples of adapted Twitter updates that can be used as examples of poetic devices:

“After playing an amazing show in Sydney, Australia, you are my new BFF!” (personification) “Today is the longest day of my life…instead of being 24 hours it is 155,678,900 hours long! I

need sleep ASAP! lol!” (hyperbole) I can’t believe it’s snowing…I am looking out my window and it looks like someone put a

humongous, white blanket on every road and hung white socks from the tree branches.” (simile and imagery)

“Dear Friday, I’ve been waiting for you ALL week!” (personification)

2. Provide students with the poetic elements graphic organizer. Provide definitions for students for the poetic devices/elements. As the students read poems throughout the week, they will add examples to their graphic organizer. Encourage students to draw pictures or word clues to remember poetic elements/devices. 3. Model using the TP-CASTT method as a whole-class, in collaborative groups, and individually. Ensure students are able to complete the TP-CASTT strategy for analyzing poetry. Below is a list of poems to share with students.

“Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” – Robert Frost – imagery, alliteration “Annabel Lee” – Edgar Allen Poe – rhyme, rhythm, refrain “Mother to Son” – Langston Hughes – symbol “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” – Roald Dahl – rhyming, personification, tone “Oranges” – Gary Soto – imagery (sensory details) “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout” – Shel Silverstein – rhyme, rhythm, hyperbole “Two Sunflowers” – William Blake – personification “Father William” – Lewis Carroll – rhyme, hyperbole “Life” – Naomi Long Madgett – symbol

4. After reading poetry throughout the week, use current popular songs and lyrics to reinforce relevance for students. Some suggestions are:

“You Save Me” – Kenny Chesney – metaphor, simile “Party Like a Rockstar” – Dem Boyz (clean version – chorus only) – simile *You may want to challenge your students to look for poetic devices in their pop culture music.

5. Once students have completed the TP-CASTT strategy in whole-class guided, in collaborative groups, and individually for the poems listed above, direct students to the Curriculum Page. Using an LCD project, guide students through the various links and resources on the website. 6. Following the instructions on the website, students will use the TP-CASTT graphic organizer to plan writing their poems. 7. Review copyright laws and creative commons. Show students the resources they have available that offer free use of pictures (located on curriculum page). Also, review using PowerPoint: adding pictures, changing font, etc. 8. Provide students with their blog usernames and show them how to navigate through their blog. Explain that after pre-writing for their poem, they will post their draft to their blog for feedback and peer-review. Review constructive feedback and appropriate comments. Remind students this is part of their grade, as well. 9. Once students have received feedback, they will create their PowerPoints and save them to the shared drive on the school’s network. Students PowerPoints should include:

First Slide: First Name and Last Initial Second Slide: First stanza with picture, font, etc. Third Slide: Second stanza with picture, font, etc Fourth Slide: Third stanza with picture, font, etc Fifth Slide: Fourth stanza with picture, font, etc Sixth Slide: Fifth stanza with picture, font, etc

10. The final step is for students to login using the class login to SlideShare and upload their PowerPoint so it becomes a digital storytelling. They may use Audacity and microphones if available at school to record a slide cast (audio narration) of their poem. 11. Students will learn how to use the URL to embed their SlideShare into their blogs. Embedding links is an important skill that will benefit students in the 21st century. 12. After embedding their digital storytelling of their poem, they should include a reflection in their blog post, which answers these questions:

What process did you use to write your poem? What inspired you to write about your topic? What theme/message does your poem address? What literary devices did you use? Why did you choose these devices? What are you most proud of about your work? What would you change next time? What do you think about being a "digital" writer in the 21st century?

13. Evaluation of the project can be completed using the auto-calculated using the rubric.

Technology Integration

Blogs (Kid Blog), SlideShare, Microsoft PowerPoint, creative commons picture/clipart websites, microphones, computers with Internet access, *optional: student response systems for TP-CASTT & comprehension questions

Research Component

Leu, D.J., Jr., Kinzer, C.K., Coiro, J., & Cammack, D.W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the Internet and other information and communication technologies. In R.B. Ruddell, & N. Unrau (Eds.), Theoretical models and processes of reading (5th ed., pp. 1570–1613). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Prensky, M. (2008). Programming: The new literacy. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/programming

Name: ________________________________________

Poetic Elements – Graphic Organizer

Literary Device What does it mean? Example How to remember it…

SIMILE

METAPHOR

PERSONIFICATION

HYPERBOLE

ALLITERATION

REFRAIN

TONE