Instant Poetry 2: Beautiful Poetry App

Instant Poetry 2 is a great app for teachers - students can make a poem quickly and it is a very non-threatening app. Teachers not used to iPads will quickly get their students making poetry in thirty minutes or less. The finished products are lovely and the free "stripped down" version does not feel stripped down at all.

Poetry to Rock Your Socks: Combining World Poetry Day and World Down Syndrome Day

Our counselor in charge of No Place for Hate came to the ELA department to ask us to do a poetry assignments that celebrates out heritage, culture, religion, etc. for March 21st. We decided to do a modified I Am poem that includes info about such things.

Then yesterday, we get an e-mail about World Down Syndrome Day and the viral campaign #lotsofsocks to raise awareness on ... March 21st! So with a quick modification to the task, students are going to be exposed to both concepts with the overarching idea of celebrating a world of diversity regardless of race, religion, or how many copies of the 21st chromosome one has, write the I Am poem, and place it on a handout that looks like a sock.

Students then color the socks to reflect identity. Hang them up on a  clothesline, and you have a wonderful celebration of diversity!

Finished Products:

Paired Passage Idea: Berry Picking Poems

FYI:
Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry-Picking" pairs really well with Joyce Armstrong Carroll's "August Picking" at first they seem like they are both merely poems about picking berries but then kids realize they are about emotional loss and the juxtaposition between that and physical satisfaction, Guilt and regret, Childhood memories, and that all good things come to an end. Very
rich opportunities for students to analyze the thematic topics that resonate within.

Poetry and Tech Unite!

Inspired by the Color Splash that Jonas sees in The Giver and this lesson on ReadWriteThink.org,
students analyze and create imagist poetry. You by no means need to do The Giver to do this lesson, but it is a nice companion lesson.

How to use this technique for Adobe Photoshop (or iPads):

1. Students analyze “The Red Wheelbarrow”. This website is my favorite collection of commentary on the poem and a wonderful resource for upper level students to see there is no one correct way to view a poem. Personally, I tend to analyze it as the poem itself depends upon the image and therefore the role of the poet is to take note of things we might otherwise ignore.
2.  Open Photoshop or Get a free color splash app. I have used the one from Kite Games Studio which let me get rid of the watermark after I reviewed it. 
3. After showing them what a finished product will look like, help students download a large image that allows for use with modification or take their own images using the iPad camera.
   
4. Open the image in Photoshop or upload the image into the app and have students select the focus of the photo by selecting one object to have color. The easiest way to do this is put a black and white layer of the image over it and use the eraser to erase that back and white layer so the color original shows through.
   
5. Once complete, students save the modified photo.
6. Students then write a vivid sentence describing the focus of their image AFTER the teacher has MODELED.
7. Using the handout on ReadWriteThink.org  as a guide, I put students into small groups to answer those questions. When students are able to receive feedback on their writing and hear the writing of others, everyone improves! Students use an app like Pic Collage to put their poem on their image. Don’t forget to have students add name and class period if you need. If you plan on sharing the images online, make sure students use only first name and last name initial.
8.  My favorite way to upload these types of media rich items is to also publish it at the same time. Create a Google Slides with blank slides – I like using a black background on all of them – and then have students upload the image onto a blank slide. (There are some issues with students not being able to access Google Folders on an iPad app. Ugh! I get around this by having students upload and submit their work via Edmodo and then have them take turns on the back PCs to upload on Slides. It is annoying, but I prefer it over me having to take the time to pull them off Edmodo! This year we are switching to Office 365 for the entire district, so I see if we can upload it onto the 365 version of PowerPoint. While putting the finished work on a presentation is not a necessary step, I do feel is rewarding and important part of the publishing process.) 
9. Change the usage rights of the presentation to view only and send a link to parents, Tweet it, and/or show the presentation in presentation mode while parents file in for Open House!
   

How to modify for PCs:

Instead of using color splash app, students can use Photoshop. There are a lot of YouTube videos and websites that feature multiple ways to do this. They can add the text on Photoshop as well!

Introducing Tone Using Art

Since Tone is how the speaker feels about a subject, it can be illustrated by starting off by comparing two images that deal with the same topic. 

What do you think is Thomas Kinkade's tone while painting The Spirit of New York?

1. First, I like making sure students have a tone words list to keep for themselves. I usually make this a blue color and students refer to it throughout the year. 
2. Next, I collect 2-3 different paintings of the same subject. Landscapes are great. Nature landscapes tend to have more similar tones, so taking and urban landscape - like New York - works best.
3. Then I have my students who are artists come up with a list of terms the class can use to discuss a painting and how it is painted:use of light, colors, textures, etc. I display one painting and have them discuss in groups, share out one whole class observation, and then I ask them to determine the best tone word and what supports their answer the most.  

Here are two that are both Time Square in the rain:

See the energy and excitement? Kids won't even notice it is raining and at night until they really analyze it!

Same location, same weather, and exact same time of day but completely different tone!

4. Then we transition in poetry/lyrics about the subject. You don't need to use the work in the entirety. Post a stanza from a poem. Simply search a phrase on http://www.poetryfoundation.org and you can find a poem about most anything. I, personally, love Dar Williams and must plug her song "Hudson" but the others on this list are also great to pair: http://manhattan.about.com/od/best-of-new-york/tp/Best-Songs-About-New-York-City.htm
You can ask students which painting the stanza is most paired with.

Writing workshop suggestion: do this lesson while your students are in midst of revising a narrative. After doing this lesson, have them enter their draft and work on description of setting with an emphasis on writing the imagery and diction that enhance the tone of their work.