Poetry in Motion

Poetry in Motion

Goal: Students will create a Poetry in Motion movie (using Tool Factory Movie Maker) involving a collection of poems which share recurring themes, patterns, and symbols. Students use images collected and created to illustrate the movie and record the poems in their own voices.

Procedures: After reading a variety of poetry and discussing the many styles, symbols, and patterns occurring in the poems, students will create a collection of poems which either follow a similar theme (poetry of seasons, poetry of love, life and death, growth and change, etc…) follow a particular pattern (haikus, nursery rhymes, sonnets, etc..) or involve similar symbolism (such as the earth as mother, the forest as a challenge, etc…) Students will write their own original piece of poetry to add to the collection. Students will practice and rehearse the reading of their collection in order to record their own audio.

They will import photos taken with flip cameras as well as gather graphics and artwork to illustrate their understanding of the poems. With graphics, voice, and transitions, each student will complete a movie to present to classmates which highlights the theme, pattern, or symbol which unites the poems within the collection. Students will connect the written expression of the poetry with technology and the visual arts in order to create a multi-sensory product to share with the others. A CD of the entire group’s movies will be made and distributed.


Timeline:
About 5- 45 min. periods to learn about themes, patterns, and symbolism in poetry.
About 3- 45 min. periods to explore poems and gather copies of poems for collections.
About 5- 45 min. periods to use Tool Factory Movie Maker to put movies together.
About 2 to 3- 45 min. periods to present movies to class.