Dazzling Digital Poem Project ¨C 7th grade

This project takes me about two weeks to finish because I have students with all abilities and some students need extra time to finish all of the steps for the final digital poem.

Objectives:
¡Ì Students will create a digital poem using PowerPoint, Audacity (Audacity.com) and www.freeplaymusic.com
¡Ì Students will write and edit original poems throughout the school year
¡Ì Students will study and utilize figurative language and imagery in their poems
¡Ì Students will review the different features in PowerPoint especially how to apply transitions, insert sounds and music, setting up the timings and setting the slide show to run automatically.
¡Ì Students will learn how to use and save voice recordings on the recording program called Audacity which is a free download from Audacity.com
¡Ì Students will learn how access, play and save music for their slide shows using the website www.freeplaymusic.com
¡Ì Students will learn how to cite their sources used for this project
¡Ì Students will assemble photo collage representing the images in their poems.

Materials needed:
PowerPoint program on PC
Audacity program download from www.audacity.com
Headphones for listening to music, narration and final editing
Microphones for recording student narration

1. Students will take their original poem and break it into parts. Each part becomes one slide so the student has to decide which things similar and go on a slide together.

2. Have poem ready to go in final form with line breaks.

3. Make a poem folder ¨C
a. Go to my computer on your desktop double click
b. Next double click on the L drive (our students save their work on the student drive called L in a folder with their name)
c. Next double click on your folder
d. Next go to file in the top left of your computer and click New folder and this adds a new folder in your folder ¨C name the folder the title of your poem

4. Bring up PowerPoint

5. Make your picture slides
a. Your first slide is your title slide with the name of the poem and your name
b. Then create one Slide for each part of your poem
c. The last slide is your bibliography slide
d. Think about what pictures would go with what parts of your poem
e. Go to www.google.com then images to get your pictures for your slides to match your poems
f. Save these pictures in your new folder you created for your digital poem
g. Arrange your pictures in a collage style on each slide

6. Audacity program
a. Students will Record yourself reading your poem into the audacity program
b. Put 5 second pauses between parts to allow for slide transitions
c. Save this as the name of your poem with aud at the end in your poem folder

7. Freeplaymusic.com
a. Find a piece of music a few seconds longer than your recorded poem
b. Click preview to listen to music
c. Click MP3 and save as the name of your poem with mp3 at the end in your poem file

8. Go back to Audacity
a. Click new project
b. Click file - Open - and open the aud file from your poem file
c. Then click Project ¨C import audio ¨C and import your MP3 file from your poem file
d. Edit the volume and length of the music to go with the your recorded poem
e. Click save project as and save as the name of your poem and put aud2 at the end and save in your poem folder on the L drive
f. Click file - Export ¨C and export the project as a wave file and name it the name of your poem with finalmix at the end and save in your poem folder

9. Bring up your PowerPoint and click on title slide

10. Insert final mix
a. Go to insert - movie and sounds ¨C sounds from file
b. Find final audacity sound finalmix in you poem folder and press OK
c. This will put a megaphone onto your first slide which activates your sound



11. Set slide show advance and timing
a. Click slide show - Custom animation
b. Click on tab order and timing put a check in the media box
c. Click on automatically and set time at 6 seconds to start with
d. Click on title one and put a check there too
e. Click on multimedia settings, unclick everything except media, then click play using animation, continue slide show and stop playing after and put number of last slide
f. Then click OK

12. Click View ¨C slide sorter
a. Right click on first slide and click on slide transition
b. Unclick mouse click
c. Click automatically after and put 6 seconds
d. Click apply to all
e. Click OK



13. Slide sorter - Edit Transitions
a. You have to edit your transitions so the right slide comes up for the recording
b. For the next two steps DO NOT CLICK APPLY TO ALL button. Only click the apply button.
c. Right click on 1st slide ¨C click on slide transition - lengthen or shorten the automatically after __ seconds ¨C Then view slide show to see if the timing is right. You can also add in your transition for the slide at this point.
d. Start on slide 1 and do this in consecutive order first slide to last. Do one slide at a time, so they match up with the words. Continue until your PowerPoint and recordings match up. Don¡¯t forget to save your final copy and label it final in the new file you created for your poem.

14. Publication ¨C Making CDs
a. I have the students bring in rewrite able CDS so they can have a copy of their poem to give to their parents. I have one computer that will package the Power Points for a CD so it plays on any computer automatically.
b. I then invite the parents in for a Pop Tart Poetry Party and explain how the students made their digital poems and let them view the final products.

State objectives:
7.LA.2.2.4 Follow multi-step written directions.
7.LA.2.3.1 Read and respond to literature from a variety of genres, including poetry. (734.02.b)
7.LA.3.1.5 Produce a written product within a set time period.
7.LA.3.5.3 Use appropriate technology to create a final draft. (735.02)
7.LA.4.1.2 Create original works that include descriptive strategies and figurative language. (735.02.b; 735.04.c)