Description: During this lesson, students will choose a dream vocation (athlete, cook, contractor, etc.). For this scenario, the students’ bosses have asked them to create an acrostic and collage to be displayed at a local career fair. For the acrostic, students must choose a single word of at least 5 letters that relates to their field, e.g. baseball, sauté, hammer. Then they must find symbolic images on the internet and alter and position them using a photo editing software.
Goals Content Standards: New York State ELA Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression (New York State Standards, 2009). ISTE NETS-S:
R 1. Creativity and innovation
R 4. Critical thinking, problem solving, & decision making
£ 2. Communication and collaboration
£ 5. Digital citizenship
£ 3. Research and information fluency
R 6. Technology operations and concepts
R=Used in this lesson £=Not Used Instructional Objective(s): Students will create an acrostic poem of a word of their choosing. They must accompany the poem with a collage made up of symbolic images. The words and pictures must work together to present an idea to the reader/viewer.
Actions Before-Class Preparation: During a previous class, students learned about the acrostic style of poetry. They will also need to know how to use a photo editing software before beginning this lesson. Students can use Microsoft PowerPoint to arrange and alter images if other software is not available or students are unfamiliar with it.
During Class
Time
Instructional Activities
Materials and Resources
5 minutes
Warm-up: Students choose their dream occupation and begin brainstorming words related to that job. Tell students to write a lot of words so they have a variety of different options.
Whiteboard with prompt
Paper for students
5-10 minutes
Explain the scenario to the students. Students have been commissioned by their boss to create a single PowerPoint slide to show at a local career fair. The slide must give the reader/view a general concept of the job or of a specific aspect of the job. Go over directions and expectations.
Directions handout
Model of an “A” project
30-45 minutes
Students begin writing their poem. They may use the list they have brainstormed, any books available in class, or an internet search engine for ideas.
Word processing and/or presentation software
30-45 minutes
Once students have written their acrostic poem, they need to start looking for images to use in their college on the internet. Students should then edit the images if they wish and then arrange them on a single PowerPoint slide.
Class set of computers with internet, photo editing, and presentation software.
30-45 minutes
Students will have at least one other student view their college and give them feedback on it. Each student is responsible for implementing any changes before they submit the slide
Class set of computers
10 minutes
Students will submit their project using a dropbox on a local network drive. Students must pay attention to and follow naming protocol and saving procedures.
Class set of computers
Monitor Ongoing Assessment(s): In class, monitor student effort as they search for images. Make sure students are not simply searching the words of their acrostic and pasting images into a college. All student work will be assessed using a rubric that measures students’ understanding of using words and images symbolically. Accommodations and Extensions: Students who require accommodation will use lower-level vocabulary and focus more on the images in their college. Gifted students will use above grade-level vocabulary and modify their images to more fully fit the theme of the poem. Back-up Plan: Students create their acrostic and college on paper using images from newspapers and magazines.
Evaluate Lesson Reflections and Notes: Students will reflect though a journal entry after the poem is submitted. They will need to write about weather literal or figurative language is more powerful. They will also write about acrostic poetry and whether they liked using the computer for creating the college.
Online Collaboration Lesson
Lesson Title: Poetry Analysis Wiki
Related Lessons: Analyzing Poetry
Grade Level: 8th Grade ELA
Unit: Poetry
Description: For this lesson, students will work in groups of three or four to do an in-depth analysis of a poem. Using a wiki, students will put the poem into their own words. Then they must analyze the text and interpret the meaning. They must also find at least three literary devices and describe the theme of the poem. Lastly, each group member will write a personal response to the poem. Goals Content Standards: New York State ELA Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression (New York State Standards, 2009). New York State ELA Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation (New York State Standards, 2009). ISTE NETS-S:
R 1. Creativity and innovation
R 4. Critical thinking, problem solving, & decision making
R 2. Communication and collaboration
R 5. Digital citizenship
£ 3. Research and information fluency
R 6. Technology operations and concepts
Instructional Objective(s): Students will be able to paraphrase a text and interpret the text’s deeper meaning. Students will identify literary devices in a poem. Students will summarize a text’s theme. Students will respond to a poem on a personal, emotional level. Actions Before-Class Preparation: Teacher must set up a class wiki page ahead of time and divide students into collaboration groups. Students should have their own log-ins on the wiki. Students should also have some instruction on how to edit the wiki and how to use its features (i.e., discussion, history, etc.) During Class
Time
Instructional Activities
Materials and Resources
5 minutes
Warm-up: Groups are written on the whiteboard. Students should sit with their group members and take out their poetry unit packet.
Whiteboard with prompt Extra poetry unit packets
15-20 minutes
Go over directions for poetry analysis wiki. Explain each portion of the assignment and show students examples exemplary work.
Directions handout Model of an “A” project
15-20 minutes
Give students a tour of the wiki they will be using. Explain how to navigate between pages and the features of each page. Show students how to edit a page and how to read the page’s history.
Computer with video projector and internet access
30-45 minutes
Students will begin discussing how to format and organize their wiki. Each group will have a laptop with access to the wiki so they can experiment.
One laptop per group with internet access and word processing
30-45 minutes
Second Class: Students will begin writing their personal responses. Each student will have a computer with internet and word processing. If students finish their personal response to the poem, they may add it to their group’s wiki.
Class set of computers
45 minutes
Students continue working on the other portions of the assignment. Once they finish a section, they must post it to their wiki.
Class set of computers
Monitor Ongoing Assessment(s): Students will be assessed on their group’s wiki as well as their independent participation in the wiki. Each student will also be assessed on the their personal response to the poem. Throughout this lesson, students will also be assessed on their use of technology while using the wiki. In order for them to demonstrate their content knowledge, students must effectively navigate the wiki site and use the computer. Accommodations and Extensions: Students with a higher reading level will be assigned a poem with more complicated language. Students who struggle with reading will analyze a poem written at a lower reading level. Back-up Plan: Should the wiki or needed technologies be unavailable, students will complete the same assignment on a poster board. Since students will not be able to collaborate, like they would with the wiki, an additional class period will be needed so students can communicate and work on the aesthetics of their poster. Evaluate Lesson Reflections and Notes: For this lesson, students should be grouped by the teacher. Groups must be separated to some extent by reading level. Discussion boards should be monitored closely by the teacher to ensure that students are not misusing the wiki (i.e., cyber-bullying).
Goals
Content Standards:
New York State ELA Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression (New York State Standards, 2009).
ISTE NETS-S:
£=Not Used
Instructional Objective(s): Students will create an acrostic poem of a word of their choosing. They must accompany the poem with a collage made up of symbolic images. The words and pictures must work together to present an idea to the reader/viewer.
Actions
Before-Class Preparation: During a previous class, students learned about the acrostic style of poetry. They will also need to know how to use a photo editing software before beginning this lesson. Students can use Microsoft PowerPoint to arrange and alter images if other software is not available or students are unfamiliar with it.
During Class
Paper for students
Model of an “A” project
Monitor
Ongoing Assessment(s): In class, monitor student effort as they search for images. Make sure students are not simply searching the words of their acrostic and pasting images into a college. All student work will be assessed using a rubric that measures students’ understanding of using words and images symbolically.
Accommodations and Extensions: Students who require accommodation will use lower-level vocabulary and focus more on the images in their college. Gifted students will use above grade-level vocabulary and modify their images to more fully fit the theme of the poem.
Back-up Plan: Students create their acrostic and college on paper using images from newspapers and magazines.
Evaluate
Lesson Reflections and Notes: Students will reflect though a journal entry after the poem is submitted. They will need to write about weather literal or figurative language is more powerful. They will also write about acrostic poetry and whether they liked using the computer for creating the college.
Online Collaboration Lesson
Goals
Content Standards:
New York State ELA Standard 2: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression (New York State Standards, 2009).
New York State ELA Standard 3: Students will read, write, listen, and speak for critical analysis and evaluation (New York State Standards, 2009).
ISTE NETS-S:
Actions
Before-Class Preparation: Teacher must set up a class wiki page ahead of time and divide students into collaboration groups. Students should have their own log-ins on the wiki. Students should also have some instruction on how to edit the wiki and how to use its features (i.e., discussion, history, etc.)
During Class
Extra poetry unit packets
Model of an “A” project
Monitor
Ongoing Assessment(s): Students will be assessed on their group’s wiki as well as their independent participation in the wiki. Each student will also be assessed on the their personal response to the poem. Throughout this lesson, students will also be assessed on their use of technology while using the wiki. In order for them to demonstrate their content knowledge, students must effectively navigate the wiki site and use the computer.
Accommodations and Extensions: Students with a higher reading level will be assigned a poem with more complicated language. Students who struggle with reading will analyze a poem written at a lower reading level.
Back-up Plan: Should the wiki or needed technologies be unavailable, students will complete the same assignment on a poster board. Since students will not be able to collaborate, like they would with the wiki, an additional class period will be needed so students can communicate and work on the aesthetics of their poster.
Evaluate
Lesson Reflections and Notes: For this lesson, students should be grouped by the teacher. Groups must be separated to some extent by reading level. Discussion boards should be monitored closely by the teacher to ensure that students are not misusing the wiki (i.e., cyber-bullying).