From Prints to Prose

My students live on an Air Force Base. I propose that putting a digital camera in their hands will allow them to fully appreciate the role their parents play in our country. Students will be charged with taking photos of the Base community: American flags, C-5's parents leaving for deployment/coming home, recruits in training, officers saluting one another, etc. They will peruse these visions and create a brainstorm list of words that come to them upon viewing. Next,students will use the list of types of poetry taught in the classroom: sonnets, limericks, odes, etc., to create a piece of poetry. The poem and the photograph will be framed in the Visions of Poetry display in the hallway for students and community members to admire.

This project allows students to deal with the stresses facing dependents of the military in a positive way. Further, it encourages patriotism.