Classroom Activities
I anticipate this unit taking approximately 10 days to complete. The first three days focus on close reading and analyzing videopoems. Day 4 is dedicated to writing and editing a paragraph analyzing one of the videopoems, and days 5-9 are set aside for students to create their own videopoems.
Hook: “Blue Flash Flash”
Students are constantly creating, consuming, and sharing video content on their phones. I harness their thirst for novelty by showing a brief and impactful videopoem called “Blue Flash Flash.”25 The poem is written by Julia Bird and describes the moment a young child learns the word “octopus.” At just 40 seconds long, with vivid images flashing rapidly on the screen and narrator Robert Glennie reading the poem in a single breath, this videopoem makes a good launching point for conversations about how poetry, images, and sound effects can combine in new and intriguing ways.
After showing the video, I would ask for students’ reactions. This would be a good place to introduce the notice and wonder strategy with guiding questions like, What do you notice about the narration? What do you notice about the images? What are you wondering after watching this video? It may be helpful to model some observations and questions in a think-aloud if students are struggling to come up with their own.
Introduce Videopoetry Terms
In order for students to have a common vocabulary to discuss and write about videopoems, it is necessary to introduce some new vocabulary words. It is not essential that students memorize the terms and definitions; I plan to give them to students on a handout or in a Slides presentation that they can refer back to later. Brooklyn College’s Film Department provides a glossary of film terms.26 The list is extensive, but the terms that would be most useful for students are those dealing with transitions (wipe, fade, dissolve), pacing (slow motion, fast motion), and distance (long shot, medium, close up). I would provide students with these terms and definitions, along with a more student-friendly version of Konyves’s definition of videopoetry and the five types, and remind students to refer back to their notes on these topics throughout the unit as we complete the other classroom activities.
In terms of the Parallel Curriculum Model (PCM), this activity would be considered part of the Core Curriculum. Students are learning content that is central to the art of videopoetry, but are not yet learning how to apply it to new contexts.
Close Reading of Texts and Notice and Wonder with Videopoems
Once students have a shared vocabulary, we can dig into the videopoems themselves. As discussed above in the Teaching Strategies section, students will use close reading to examine the written texts of the poems and notice and wonder to explore the videos. I begin by having students closely read “We Real Cool”. This is the shortest poem in the unit and provides an easy entry point. Students follow the close reading process described above, with guiding questions centered on the use of rhyming stanzas, rhythm and alliteration as well as the poem’s speakers and theme. Then, students watch the Poetry Foundation’s video. Class discussions based on the notice and wonder strategy should focus on the use of sound effects to develop the setting and music and color to show transitions in time and place.
Next, I show the video for “Multitudes.” Both “We Real Cool” and “Multitudes” are adaptations of famous poems, but there is a nice contrast between Brooks’s narration and the multiple narrators in “Multitudes.” The notice and wonder conversation for this videopoem should be directed towards the use of multiple narrators, imagery, alliteration and assonance. Because Song of Myself is a long poem, it would take too much time to do a close reading of the entire poem. However, I would show students the entire poem and talk about it a little bit so they can see how the filmmakers selected certain lines to fit their project. I estimate that the hook, vocabulary, and first two poems would take about one class period.
In the next class period, I begin with “Choices”. I show the video first, guiding students to use the notice and wonder strategy. The conversation should focus on pacing, imagery, and sound effects. Then students closely read and analyze the poem in pairs or small groups. After watching the video and closely reading the poem, I lead a discussion about how the poem’s message differs slightly from the video’s. We then move on to “Wade in the Water.” Before watching the video, students read a brief excerpt from the Moran article for context since they would not remember the events and media coverage surrounding Hurricane Katrina. I may even show a news clip or political cartoon from the time. Next, students are ready to watch the video and see Imarisha’s powerful performance. The notice and wonder discussion should center around Imarisha’s use of breath and body language as well as her depiction of multiple points of view. Students continue their analysis with a close reading of the poem highlighting alliteration, metaphor, and oxymoron as well as the poem’s theme of the injustice of the government’s inadequate response to the disaster compounded by the media’s disrespectful portrayal of its victims. Depending on the background knowledge of the students, some may recognize the allusion in Imarisha’s title to the spiritual “Wade in the Water.” If students do not make the connection, I would ask them to read the Song of America essay about the song, which outlines its history through slavery, along the Underground Railroad, and into freedom27. I would guide students to think about Imarisha’s choice to reference this spiritual in the title of her performance poem. Both “Choices” and “Wade in the Water” are thematically heavy, and I anticipate the discussion taking up an entire class period.
For the third day of videopoems, I introduce students to “Situation 7.” Here, as with “We Real Cool”, I begin with the poem first and follow with the video. As students closely read the poem, guiding questions will focus on the use of the second person point of view and the theme of the corrosive power of suspicion. After reading and discussing the poem, students will watch the video. The notice and wonder discussion should highlight the imagery and visual rhythm created by the repeating images. A thought-provoking discussion might arise from asking students whether their assumptions about the man’s identity based on the poem were confirmed by the video or not. The remainder of this class period can be used to introduce the writing task and give students some time to brainstorm.
Throughout this process, students are engaging with the Curriculum of Connections and the Curriculum of Practice from the PCM. Students are encouraged to compare and contrast the texts to their videos, the different videopoems to one another, and the videopoems to the events or situations that inspired them. They are practicing applying the terms they have learned to new contexts and learning how to think in a scholarly, analytical way about videopoems. The next classroom activity builds on this practice by having students communicate their analysis in writing.
Written Analysis of a Videopoem
As a formative assessment, students choose one videopoem from the unit and explain how the poet/filmmaker uses literary devices and film techniques to convey their message. It is important to emphasize with students that they need to respond in accordion format using evidence both from the text of the poem and from the video. I stipulate that the theme needs to be mentioned in the topic and concluding sentences, that one RDF needs to be about literary devices, and one RDF needs to be about film techniques. Students can choose to use multiple pieces of evidence to support each of these RDFs, or add a third RDF about a second literary device or film technique. As a first step, students need to decide which videopoem to write about. They then need to review the poem itself as well as their close reading guides and notes on film terms. Next, students create an outline for their paragraphs. Each point on the outline should be no more than a few words; the purpose is to come up with a structure for their ideas, not to write a full draft of the paragraph. Once students have their structure in place, they can begin drafting the paragraph. As students draft, it is important to remind them to use transition words to show the relationships among ideas and to attribute their text evidence. If students are paraphrasing or quoting words from the poem, they should provide the line number. If they are referencing the video, they should provide an approximate timestamp. Once students have completed their paragraphs, the final step is to go back and highlight. I require the topic and conclusion sentences to be highlighted in green, RDF sentences in yellow, evidence in pink, and explanation in blue. This step helps to ensure that students have incorporated enough reasoning, evidence, and explanation into their paragraphs and that all of the elements are arranged in the correct order. If time permits, students can peer-edit one another’s paragraphs, offering positive feedback and suggestions for improvement.
I give students class time to complete the assignment, and also provide a grading rubric in advance so students can see how they will be scored.
Collaborative Videopoem Creation
For the culminating activity for this unit, I assign students into groups of two to three based on their POI project topics. Students who have related topics are grouped together. As a group, they decide on a theme or message relating to their topic that they want their videopoem to express. (For example, We should invest more in renewable energy to combat climate change, or, Schools should do more to prevent bullying and harassment.) This takes us into the realm of both the Curriculum of Practice, as students become videopoets themselves, and the Curriculum of Identity, as they are self-evaluating and taking on roles within the group. There are three roles within the group. The poet must either write an original poem or select and arrange lines from an existing poem. The sound designer is responsible for any sound effects or music choices in the video. They are also in charge of selecting narrator(s) for the video if necessary. The visual artist is responsible for the visual aspects of the videopoem. They may choose to animate the text, use stock footage and images, or create their own animations, drawings, photos, or video. Because class sizes vary, there may need to be two students in a group instead of three. In this case, I would combine the sound designer and visual artist roles into one filmmaker role, similar to the collaboration between Rankine and Lucas. I would use separate rubrics to grade partners vs. triads, and would provide the rubrics to students in advance.
I anticipate this portion of the unit taking the longest, and would allocate about five class periods for students to work together on their projects in class. All of my students were issued a district-owned Chromebook, and I keep several extras in my classroom just in case. Students can use their Chromebooks to look up poems, music, sound effects, and stock images and videos and/or to record their own video and audio. Many students are familiar with the platform Canva, which offers video editing tools, but it is important to allow some flexibility here as its availability may vary. In our district, we use a learning management system called Schoology to house instructional materials and for students to submit assignments electronically. This will be the place for my students to submit their finished products; again, some variation may be needed here if your school uses a different system.
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