Final Project

Unit Plan: Bring Poetry and Pictures Together

Part One: Using Flickr

This week the students will gain an understanding of how to search the Creative Commons section in Flickr and put together a Flickr slideshow.

The students will also reflect on their Flickr slideshow as well as give feedback to their peers' Flickr slideshows.

Day One:

1. Show Google Presentation "Flickr Slideshow"

2. Have students sign up for Flicker.
3. Have students brainstorm topic ideas for a Flickr Slideshow in their blog.

Day Two:

1. Go over rubric for the Flickr Slideshow Project.
2. Have students sign into Flicker.
3. Students should search the Creative Commons section and add pictures to their "Faves".
4. Once each student has found enough pictures, the student should create a slideshow and post the link or embed the link on his/her blog.

Day Three:

1. Go over rubric for Reflection.
2. Each student should log into their blog.
3. Once there, they should watch their Flickr Slideshow.
4. After they have watched their slideshow, the student should complete a reflection post on their blog following the guiding questions handed out.

Day Four:

1. Go over rubric for Peer Responses.
2. The students should have the hour to watch and respond to their peers' Flickr Slideshows.

Part Two: Using VoiceThread

This week the students will take their understanding of Flickr and take it one step further. Using pictures they either find on Flickr or upload from their computer, the students will create VoiceThread and share it with their peers.

The students will also reflect on their VoiceThreads in a blog post as well as provide responses to their peers' VoiceThreads.

Day One:

1. Watch tutorials found on voicethread.com

What is VoiceThread?
VoiceThread in one min
Comment Moderation
Video Doodling

2. Go over the Educator's Guide to VoiceThread with students
VoiceThread Guide

3. Have the students sign up for VoiceThread.
4. The students should have the rest of the hour to play around with using VoiceThread.

Day Two:

1. Go over the assignment sheet and rubric for the VoiceThread project.
2. The students should complete a blog post in which they brainstorm ideas for their VoiceThread. They should also discus which of their poems they are going to read as their images come onto the screen.
   
3. Upon completion of their blog post, the students should begin searching for pictures either on Flickr or download them from their email for use in their VoiceThread.

Day Three:

1. The students should be at the point where they can begin recording and using the other tools in VoiceThread.
2. Let them have the hour to record their VoiceThreads.
3. Once they finish their VoiceThread, they should upload it into their blog.
   

Day Four:

1. Give the students time to watch their own VoiceThread and write a reflection in their blog.
2. Once complete, the students should have the rest of the hour to watch their peers' VoiceThreads and provide responses to them based on the rubric for peer responses.
   

Part Three: Using StripGenerator

This week the students will understand how to create a comic using strip generator, and do so using a poem as the subject for the comic.

The students will also give peer feedback and revise their comic strips based on the feedback they receive.

Day One:

1. Show Google Presentation "Creating Comics"
   

2. Give the students time to play around on stripgenerator.com
3. The students must decide on a poem that they are going to create a comic strip around.

Day Two:

1. Go over rubric for first comic assignment.
2. Allow students time to create their first comic strip.
3. After they have created their strip, the students should either link to their comic strip on their blog or embed it.

Day Three:

1. The students should start the day by revisiting their comic strips.
2. The students should complete a reflection post on their blog about their comic strip following the guiding questions handed out.
3. We will then review the rubric for Peer Responses.
4. The students will have the rest of the hour to begin looking at their peers' comic strips and writing responses.

Day Four:

1. The students will continue writing responses to their peers for half the class period.
2. Once the peer responses are complete, the students will read the responses they received on their own comic strip. They will then use the next day and a half to revise their strip based on the feedback received.
   

Day Five:

1. Once the students have completed their revised comic, they should either post a link to it or embed it in their blog.

Day Six:

1. Today, the students should revisit the comics they provided feedback for.
2. They should post a new response in using the revised comic.

Part Four:

This week the students will learn how to use the different features of iMovie. They will also put their knowledge to use by making an iMovie in which they speak one of their poems aloud while providing background pictures and sound to help deepen the meaning of their poem.

The students will also create an iMovie for a partners poem. Then, the students will reflect on the similarities/differences between their interpretations.

Finally, the students will reflect on this process in a blog post.

Day One:

1. Watch tutorials on how to create an iMovie.
2. For the first iMovie assignment, the students must upload images from Flickr into iMovie. They must then learn how to add sound, voice over, and other effects depicted in their rubric.
3. Once they have completed this assignment, they must upload their iMovie into their blog.
4. The students then must reflect on their experiences with their first use of iMovie. What they liked/disliked. What was easy/hard. What they want to learn for their next assignment.

Day Two:

1. Go over the iMovie assignment sheet with the students.
2. The students must first decide on a poem to work with on iMovie. The poem that they choose must be one that they wrote during this class.
3. Once they have chosen this poem, they must blog about what this poem means to them and what images could represent and deepen the understanding of the meaning of the poem.
4. Once they have completed their blog post, the students can spend the rest of the hour searching on Flickr for images they want to use in their iMovie.

Day Three:

1. Review the rubric for the iMovie project.
2. The students should have the rest of the hour to begin working on the iMovie project.

Day Four:

1. Today, the students should finish up their work on their iMovie project.
2. Once completed, the students should post their iMovie onto their blog.

Day Five:

1. Today, the students will get partnered with another student
2. The students should trade their poem with that of their partner.
3. For part two of the iMovie project, the student must now create a second iMovie using their partners poem.
4. The student should first read their partner's poem and write a blog post describing what they believe the poem means. Also, the student should brainstorm and come up with images that they could use during the reading of the poem to aid in making the poem understood and help to deepen the meaning of the poem.
5. Once their blog post is complete, the student can log on to Flickr and search for images.

Day Six and Seven:

1. The students will have the next two days to complete their second iMovie.
2. Once completed, the student must post their second iMovie on their blog.
3. They must also complete two blog posts. The first one should describe why they choose each image when depicting their poem and how they add to the meaning of the poem. The second one explains the images they chose for their partner's poem and how they add to the meaning of the poem.

Day Eight:

1. The students should get together with their partner and watch all four iMovies.
   
2. They should compare and contrast the similarities and differences in the iMovie based on poem #1. Next, they should do the same based on poem #2.
3. Once they have compared the iMovies, they must then reflect on this process on their blog. How were their visions similar? How were their visions different? What was similar/different in the interpretations of the poem and it's meaning? What images did their partners use to depict their poem that they really liked? Why did they like those images? What images did their partner use that didn't seem to reflect the "intended" meaning.

Day Nine:

1. On this day, each student will get up and show their iMovie to the class. This will be a time for the students to show off their poetry as well as their work on providing images to their poetry.