Poetry as Sound and Object

Teaching Strategies

Close Reading

Because poems are dense, close reading will be an important teaching strategy to use in this unit. According to Oczkus and Rasinski, close reading involves multiple rereadings to identify key moments in the text, ask and answer questions about the text, and consider the author’s choices and purpose²². When I teach poetry, I typically have students read the poem three times, giving each reading a different focus. I have the students read the poems on paper, with guiding questions for their annotations printed in the margins around the poem. For the first read, I ask students to notice the structure. I might ask students to discuss whether the poem rhymes and to consider the line and stanza lengths. For the second read, we focus on the author’s word choices. Are figurative language or literary devices used? What is the tone, and what words create that tone? For the final read, students summarize the poem and clarify its theme or message. In between each reading, I give students time to talk with a partner or small group and note their observations. We then share our conclusions as a class and try to come to consensus about what the poet is saying and doing in the poem.

Notice and Wonder

While close reading is familiar to my students because I introduce it early in the year, I plan to implement a different strategy for examining the videopoems. The “notice and wonder” strategy encourages students to make observations and ask questions about a text, in this case a visual one. It is low-stakes for students and does not require a lot of background knowledge, which makes it a perfect vehicle to begin discussions on the film aspects of the videopoems. Most students are not familiar with film terminology, even though they may recognize some commonly used effects. I will provide them with a list of common terms and definitions to aid their discussions and writing about the videos. While watching a videopoem, students will record what they notice (for example, The video in “Situation 7” uses a lot of repeating images) and what they wonder about it (for example, Why are those particular images repeated?). I would give students time to share their observations and questions with small groups, and then ask groups to share out with the class. After listening to each group’s observations, we should be able to answer some of the students’ questions. This will allow the students to build a collective understanding of the videopoems and the filmmakers’ choices as they prepare to write an analysis of one of the videopoems and eventually create their own videopoems.

Accordion Writing

I teach students a specific way of structuring their paragraphs for academic writing called accordion format. In this format, students need to begin the paragraph with a topic sentence that includes starter words, like many or several. This is followed by a reason, detail, or fact (RDF) supporting their response to the writing prompt. After the RDF, students need to introduce a piece of evidence paraphrased from text, followed by a sentence or two explaining how the evidence they chose supports their answer. Students need to include two to three RDF sentences in the paragraph, and each RDF sentence needs to begin with a transition phrase (a popular sequence of RDF transition words is first … next … last, although I push students to branch out from this over the course of the year). I allow students some freedom with the structure within the paragraph; they may write three RDFs, each supported by one piece of evidence and explanation, or two RDFs, each supported by two pieces of evidence with explanation. The paragraph ends with a concluding sentence, where students use a concluding word or phrase (all in all, clearly, etc.). The conclusion does not simply restate the topic sentence, but instead reflects on the impact of the topic on the characters, readers, or text itself.

I teach students to outline their paragraphs before writing and to highlight each type of sentence with a different color after writing to check and make sure they have all of the information they need in the right order. Students will use this format to write their own paragraphs analyzing one of the videopoems from the unit.

Collaborative Groups

In their demonstration of the use of videopoetry to engage students in multiple academic disciplines, Armstrong, Lutze, and Woodworth-Ney write that they imagine their project to be completed by groups of three to four students²³. For their demonstration, each author used their own expertise to tackle a particular aspect of the project: Woodworth-Ney researched the life of a historical figure, Armstrong composed a poem inspired by Woodworth-Ney’s research, and Lutze filmed and edited the video in collaboration with the other two authors²⁴. I plan to use a similar approach with this project for a few reasons. First, because of the complexity of the task, students need support and motivation from their peers. They can help and encourage one another, developing socio-emotional skills alongside academic skills. Working with a group can be highly engaging for middle school students, particularly if they share similar interests. Additionally, my students have diverse strengths and weaknesses, and a collaborative structure offers students the chance to play to their strengths within the group. A student who is highly comfortable with technology and has lower confidence in their poetry-writing ability might choose to focus on the technical aspects of editing the film, for instance. With students selecting their preferred roles within the group, I expect to see higher quality final products than I would if I were forcing each student to take on all three roles. Finally, collaborative learning helps teachers to use their scarce resources efficiently. I am referring here both to the technology resources like Chromebooks as well as the intangible resource of teacher time and attention. I can support and guide five or six small groups much more quickly and efficiently than I can individuals.

When students select their topics for the POI project, they tend to fall into several common categories. Environmental issues such as recycling, reducing pollution, and green energy are popular. Many students are also inspired to tackle social issues like racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTQ+ issues. For this project, I group students with common interests together, and then allow them to select their roles within the group. One student will be in charge of either composing or selecting and editing a poem, the second will be in charge of the visuals, and the third will be in charge of the audio. Unlike Armstrong, Lutze, and Woodworth-Ney’s project, I would require all students to participate in the research because ultimately they are all approaching their causes from slightly different angles and will be pursuing different independent projects later in the year. However, I would attempt to replicate their collaboration on the video itself.