Connecting the Visual to the Verbal in the Classroom

Classroom Activities

This unit is not meant to be an introduction to poetry, but to be used after the students have read and discussed several examples of good poetry. Before beginning this unit, students should have studied some of the techniques used to make writing come alive, techniques like sensory details, onomatopoeia, alliteration, or figurative language.

Lesson One

The first lesson will focus on guiding students in an analysis of the ways in which an artist tells a story and sets a mood. Students will practice critical thinking skills to draw conclusions and make inferences about the art work, while also developing their art vocabulary.

Students should already be seated in small, cooperative groups of three or five students. Keeping an odd number of students per group helps to keep the group functioning as a whole, rather than splitting off into pairs. Each student should understand his or her role in the group before beginning the lesson. For this lesson, I would assign general group roles. These are the roles that I teach the students from the beginning of the year. There is a Director who gives instructions to the group, watches the time, and makes sure all group members are heard and participate. Next is the Writer, who records the group's ideas after orally revising with the group. Last is the Reporter who shares the group's work orally with the rest of the class. The Reporter is also responsible for rehearsing with the group what he or she will say to the class.

Before group work, the students receive a checklist or rubric of my expectations for the work, which I explain. Student groups are responsible for completing the checklist together before work time has ended. For this particular lesson, I would be looking for appropriate group behaviors such as participation, mutual respect, cooperation, staying on task, and finishing the work on time.

Each group will receive one color copy of an oil painting by Julia Lemos, titled Memories of the Chicago Fire, to be analyzed, with an enlarged version projected for the entire class. The enlarged version will help students see small detail that they may not see in the smaller works, and will also be used for the whole class discussion later. The group's writer will receive a sheet of the prompts for analyzing the art. Generally, I guide the whole class through the prompts, followed by time for them to discuss in small groups. During small group discussion time, I walk the room and check that each group is understanding and having a meaningful discussion.

Every lesson begins with sharing the objective with the class, so students know exactly what my expectations are for their group work. The first prompt will ask students to observe the art as a whole, noting the event taking place, and what details they see to support this inference. Next students will look closely at all of the action taking place. What is happening, and how do the participants feel about it. They will share their evidence for drawing this conclusion. Evidence should be both details from the art along with the student's prior knowledge. Then students will discuss what they think the subject, or main idea of the art is, and explain their rationale. For what reason did the artist choose this moment to "freeze in time?" Last, students will draw a conclusion about the artist's purpose in creating the work. What kind of response did the artist hope to elicit from the viewer? Students will explain why they believe this.

The small group work stops for a whole class discussion led by the teacher. Starting with the first prompt, Reporters from groups share orally on a voluntary basis. The teacher helps draw out the discussion of each prompt, guiding students toward logical responses and subject–specific vocabulary from art and history as needed. At the final prompt, the teacher guides the students toward a discussion of the techniques used by the artist to create a mood. What feeling do we get from looking at the painting, and what techniques make us feel this way? Is it the colors, the lines, the style, the balance of space?

To conclude this lesson, the small groups reconvene to reflect, respond, and sum up the lesson. Students will think about, discuss, and record what they believe the artist wanted us to know, think, and feel. Students will include at least one sentence of support for each inference, as well as recording which of the artist's techniques the group found to be most effective in creating mood. Student groups should share these conclusions orally, or reports can be passed and read from group to group "Round–Robin" style.

Lesson Two

The objective of the second lesson is to make a prediction about the subject of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" based on learning of key vocabulary. Students will make connections between this selection and the artwork from the previous lesson. Although Poe did not write "The Bells" for the Great Fire, a few stanzas of it were published in October 9, 1871: The Burning of Chicago, Poems of the Great Chicago Fire.

Before reading any text, my students must "prepare their brains" for the information. To prepare our brains for this selection, we will define some key vocabulary in small groups, then make a prediction about the poem. I would read through the list of words first, then have the students divide up the work in small groups for about 20 – 30 minutes before I stop them to discuss what they have found. The vocabulary that I have chosen from "The Bells" includes eight words. All definitions are according to the Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary. Brazen meaning "sounding harsh and loud like struck brass, of the color of polished brass, marked by boldness." Turbulent (since turbulency may not be included in students dictionaries) meaning "causing or being in a state of unrest, violence, or disturbance." Startled is "to move or jump suddenly (as in surprise or fright), to frighten suddenly and usually not seriously." Clamorous meaning "a noisy shouting, a loud continuous noise, strong and active protest or demand." Expostulation meaning to present and urge reasons in opposition. Frantic meaning to be "wildly excited, marked by wild and hurried activity." Resolute to be "marked by firm determination." Endeavor meaning to make an effort: try, to work for a particular goal or result."

Next, whether every group is finished or not, we would stop for a whole class discussion of the words and their meanings, and if there are multiple meanings, we predict which meaning we think will make sense with the other words. Before finally making a prediction about the topic of "The Bells," I would ask students to discuss whether these words could be used to describe the artwork from the previous lesson, and to explain how the words could be used. Last, each group will write a prediction about the topic of "The Bells" and provide evidence to support their prediction.

Lesson 3

The objective is for students to analyze a selection from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Bells" for topic, imagery, and mood. Students will make connections between this selection and the artwork from the previous lesson.

To start the lesson, I will share the objective and review the students' predictions and rationale. As the students provide their rationale, the key vocabulary is also being reviewed.

Next, I would distribute copies of the poem to students, while also having a large version available to refer to. As students follow along, I read the poem aloud, followed by the students doing a chaoral reading of the poem. The first read is to model the rhythm, vocabulary, and phrasing. The second reading is to ensure that students are focused on the poem and for oral reading practice.

Then students gather into their small, cooperative groups for discussion of the poem. I guide their discussions with the following prompts: Which words or phrases create strong images? Which words have more than one meaning, and which meanings make sense in the poem? What poetic devices are used and to which senses do they appeal? There may be need to review poetic devices with the students before discussing the last prompt. My students learn about sensory details early in the year, so that would be one poetic device they would recognize. Other devices that we use during the year are onomatopoeia, alliteration, simile, metaphor, and personification.

Discussing what the small groups identified with the whole group is the next step. Again, at this point I will guide the discussion in the right direction if it goes askew. As part of this discussion, I will ask students how they think the poem connects to the art (or photo).

To conclude this lesson, small groups discuss and write a reflection together on one sheet of paper. Student groups record their conclusions about what the poet wanted us to know, think, and feel, including of course, evidence to support the response. To build their vocabulary, students will decide and record which word they feel best represented an image from the art, and explain why they think so. Last, students will discuss the elements of the poem that were most effective, and explain why it was effective. Having the Reporters share the group's ideas is always a valuable part of the lesson. This helps spread knowledge, clears misconceptions, and provides discussions that can lead to understanding on a deeper level.

Lesson 4

In the fourth lesson, students will make a judgement as to whether the art or the poem more effectively depicted the event by comparing and contrasting the elements.

As always, the lesson begins by sharing and discussing the objective with the students. There are a variety of graphic organizers that can be used for comparing and contrasting, depending on the ability of your students. The Venn Diagram is the most commonly used , however I have found that beginning third grade students have difficulty writing inside the circles. If using a Venn Diagram, I draw ruled lines through it before copying it for the students. Another organizer is a simple T–Chart, two columns with the title of the art on one side and the poem on the other for contrasting. For comparing, no columns are needed. An organizer I really like is the Comparison Analysis Organizer, which has four columns labeled as "Technique, Art, Both, and Poem," in this order left to right. For this assignment, I might include "techniques" of "strong feeling, vivid imagery, accurate details, describes an event, includes action," plus additional items that I brainstorm with my class beforehand (they often come up with better ideas than I do).

Next, I model the desired behavior for completing the organizer and for cooperative group work. Students work together in their small groups, as defined in lesson one. Once the graphic organizer is complete, students use this information to judge which medium is more effective at telling a story. poetry or art. All arguments are discussed and evaluated. Once a judgement is made, students record it with three reasons to support.

After the predetermined work time has ended, students will share the judgements the group has made, and provide evidence from their graphic organizer as support.

Lesson 5

The objective for the final lesson is for students to draft an ekphrastic poem based on an artistic interpretation of an historical event. Students will apply previous learning about the techniques used by artists and writers to tell a story and create a mood.

Each student will choose one of about five works as a basis for their writing. For the Great Fire, the art options will be chosen from The Great Chicago Fire of 1871, A Book of Postcards, which is listed in the Materials for Classroom Use at the end of the unit. Students should choose a work where they can imagine the story and feel an emotion.

Next, I would guide the students in filling out a plan for their first draft of the poem. Again, I model what I want the students to do, give assistance when needed, and encourage appropriate peer discussion in the small groups to help refine ideas. The planning will ask the student to describe elements in the art such as the setting and the characters. Students will choose and describe the plot taking place in the art, and describe how the main characters feel about it. Character, setting, and plot are all elements of determining importance in fiction integrating this activity with reading comprehension as well as writing. Students will determine the mood they will give their poem. From poetry previously studied, or other sources, students can record some "sparkle" words they would like to use in their poem. "Sparkle" words are lively, descriptive, clear words that replace dull, unclear words. The planning stage will most likely take a full session.

To teach students to draft the poem, I would start with an example of ekphrasis, perhaps one that we have previously studied for a poetic device. Because the poem is similar in style to what I want the students to write, I will use "Big French Bread" by Marvin Bell, which is based on the mixed media art called French Bread by Red Grooms. The poem tells the story of the painting and that is what my students will be doing.

With both the art and poem visible, I read through without stopping first. Then I guide my students into trying to think like the poet as he looked at the painting. On a class chart, I would list out the poet's process for us to follow in writing our own ekphrasis. The guiding questions I would ask about this piece are:

Which part of the art does the poet lead with, and why do you think he chose this as the lead? The poet begins with one line about the setting, then describes in detail, the central figure. Since the poet is recreating the art in words, he needs to have a setting in which to place the man, otherwise the man would be floating in space. The writer uses sensory details and a simile to help our brains create mental images.

What does the poet do next? In the second stanza, the poet describes the loaf of bread with sensory details of sight, touch, and smell. He also uses a simile at the end of the stanza. Students might say that the bread is the second most noticeable object in the art.

At this point, our class chart would show the following steps:

Describe the setting. Choose the most noticeable figure and describe him or her. Choose the second most noticeable person or object in the art and describe it using multiple senses.

Since this is about all the attention third graders can maintain, I would begin a class draft with them now. With older students, you might continue to the end of the poem in this same manner – thinking like the poet and recording his processes on a chart.

Using the painting from lesson one, Memories of the Chicago Fire, (which is not one of the student choices), we will follow the steps on the chart to begin a class draft of our ekphrastic poem. I would go through one step at a time, then allow the students to write, helping as needed. For example, "What is the setting? It is a dark night in a crowded city. What is the person or object our eye is drawn to first? First, we notice the orange, smoky clouds. Probably I would guide the entire process this way, allowing students to work at their own pace if they appear to understand well. Holding students back who are ready will only stifle their ideas. If a student finishes early, a struggling student can always use a writing partner to guide him or her. In many instances, students can understand their peers better than they understand me!

The drafting process will probably take at least two sessions, depending on the level of the students. The subsequent lessons would be mini–lessons on identifying and applying poetic devices of alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, personification, sensory details, line length, line breaks, or use of white space. For my mini–lessons, I follow the same procedure of providing and discussing examples, writing together, and writing independently.