Projects and units continue to evolve as we identify important learning needs and embed new standards. For the past few years, I have implemented the Self Portrait Poetry Anthology Unit. It's a rich, poetry unit that teaches children about writer's craft, poetry genre and reading response writing. The unit also serves to deepen students' self concept as well as understanding and knowledge of each other.
As always, I partake in all aspects of the project as both a learner and a teacher. Currently students are employing a new aspect of the project which is to create an iMovie about a poem that speaks to them. I've been thinking about this for quite a while and playing around with the notion. Then today, i finally completed my model which I've included in this post. I decided to incorporate iMovie for a number of reasons. First, it's a wonderful medium for sharing at our final poetry celebration. Also, iMovie gives students lots of opportunity to practice reading poems and building fluency. And, of course, making movies is enriching and teaches students a lot about multimedia composition, the kind of information resource they access on the Internet to learn.
I imagine that this unit, like all others will continue to evolve through the years. As always if you have any ideas about how to enrich this unit more, please let me know. Also, if you use the unit and make positive changes, I hope you'll share.
Related Links
Animoto Poems
Student ePortfolios or Writing Books
A Poem that Speaks to Me Video Model
Self Portrait Poetry Unit Google Site
