Fpvp

Favorite Poem Video Project

(or FPVP)

The potential:• to serve a variety of learning styles

• to ensure a long-term understanding/memory of a poem and a reading experience

• to build community (teacher-student, student-student, parent-child/teacher)

• to offer a model for reading (reading as rereading and as dialogue)

• to provide practice problem-solving

• to arm students with skills in technology

The Task

Your task is to create a video that includes the following components:

(1) recitation (2) explication

(3) explanation of why poem is meaningful to you

Length: 3-7 minutesMinimum length of poem: 10 lines

Sample Timeline

• Explication: Thursday, April 2

• Recitation (to class): Tuesday, April 7

• Storyboard: Monday, April 13

• FPVP & process paper: Monday, April 27

Models

www.favoritepoem.org

Book Recommendations• Terry Blackhawk—Body & Field• Toni Blackman—Inner-Course: A

Plea for Real Love• Gwendolyn Brooks—selected• Billy Collins—Sailing Alone

Around the Room• Mark Doty—Atlantis• Louise Gluck—Wild Iris• Robert Hass—Human Wishes &

Praise• Tony Hoagland—Sweet Ruin• Marie Howe’s—What the Living

Do• Langston Hughes—selected • Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

—Essential Rumi• Jane Kenyon—The Harvest Home

• Yusef Komunyakaa—Talking Dirty to the Gods

• Maxine Kumin—selected• Stanley Kunitz—Passing Through • Philip Levine—What Work Is• Sharon Olds—The Dead Among the

Living• Mary Oliver—Dream Work• Linda Pastan—Carnival Evening• Octavio Paz—selected• Marge Piercy—The Crooked

Inheritance• Jane Shore—Happy Family• Cathy Song—Picture Bride

Assessment

of the FPVP

A. Knowledge of Poem

• meaningful recitation that takes into consideration speaker’s tone and poet’s punctuation & sound devices (consider multiple recitations and/or showing text on screen)

• discussion of poem that shows understanding of poem’s ideas and literary devices (e.g., paradox, irony, etc.)

B. Illustration that Poem Matters

Thoughtful discussion of poem’s themes/ideas through …

anecdote/personal story,

self-reflection, and/or

general observation about human condition/society/world we live in.

C. Effective Use of Visual Language

• language that is figurative and inventive (i.e., illustrate poet’s metaphors, but come up with your own too)

• language that is easy to follow (i.e., not too busy or quick-moving, moves seamlessly from one image to the next)

• language that complements words• aesthetically pleasing and/or eye-catching images

D. Organization

• smooth transitions

• logical order of ideas (tip: move from literal to figurative representation)

• clarity at the sentence level

E. Coherence

• ending recalls another moment in video

• ending gives closure and leaves viewer thinking

• all elements complement each other, build on what comes before

F. “Readability”

• adequate volume

• clear picture

Assignments Along the Way

I. The Explication

Please attach a copy of your poem to your responses.

1. Any new vocabulary in your poem? If so, list the words with the definitions that best apply given the context. Be sure to consider how the poet might be applying multiple connotations as you select definitions.

2. Paraphrase each line, or stanza, of your poem. That is, restate the poet's words in your own words as best you can. Feel free to offer multiple versions in places in order to capture a double meaning.

3. (a) What is your poem's occasion? (b) Characterize your poem’s speaker as precisely as you can.

4. What are the sound devices in the poem? If there’s rhyme at the end of lines, what is the rhyme scheme?

5. Consider the poet’s use of punctuation. Account for at least one punctuation choice: how does it add to the poet’s meaning?

(continued next page)

6. What is the poem's tone? Is the speaker ever ironic?

7. Does your poet employ figurative language? If so, how does such language add to the poet’s meaning? What are some images that would bring out, in your video, the poem's metaphors? (Keep in my mind you will be expected to come up with your own visual metaphors too.)

8. If there is a title, consider how it enhances the meaning of your poem.

9. Think about the last line, or lines, of your poem. What question/s do they pose?

10. Given your answers to these questions, what does your poem mean to you? How do you personally relate to it? What personal story can you tell that illustrates your connection to the poem?

II. The Recitation

Assessment

of the Recitation

• Posture/body language—in “confident stance” (stand tall, legs uncrossed, arms still at side)

• Eye contact—a good way to engage your audience

A. Physical Presence

• Volume—be sure you can be heard in back of room

• Speed—be aware of speaking too fast/too slow; decide if each line break requires a pause, a full stop, or no stop at all

• Articulation—enunciate word-endings; be aware of sound devices (e.g., consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme) & emphasize as appropriate (note: with rhymed poems, make sure not to recite them in a sing-song manner)

• Tone/Inflection—Is your narrator’s tone mournful? Joyful? Are there parts of your poem that require you to raise your voice? Lower it?

• Pronunciation—make sure you know the proper pronunciation of every word in your poem

B. Voice

Assessment of Recitation

Your recitation should engage your audience and reveal your understanding in the following ways:

A. Physical Presence

Posture : 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

Eye Contact: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5

B. Voice

Volume: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5

Speed: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5

Articulation: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5

Tone/Inflection: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5

Pronunciation: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

III. Storyboard

See handout.

Working with Technology

Technology SkillsIn addition to basic iMovie skills, students should also be able to … • work with still images: import still images to iMovie & create still images from video clips• use online sites to convert a YouTube video• video-record: use the Flip video camera & the internal web cam to record video• import songs into iMovie: obey copyright rules, gain iTunes strategies, & search for music online • work with sound within iMovie: extract audio, adjust volume, & lock an audio clip at a playhead• use titles: adjust the duration of a clip to incorporate text & use the scrolling block feature• export iMovie to Quicktime: compress the file• save correctly

Materials (for 60 students, 2 sections)

• 15 laptops (with recording feature) & locked truck—for school use

• 17 cameras & locked truck—for school and home use

• iMovie (version HD06)

• Perian, free software that will allow the Flip videos to be viewed and edited: http://perian.org/

Copyright Permissions

NCTE Updated Fair Use Information: http://wwwdev.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy

Guidelines:1. Students can use no more than 30 seconds (10%) of a song (but they can loop that 30 seconds).2. Some songs are public domain, and students can find them by googling "songs public domain” or “GarageBand” (music tracks, free software from Apple).3. “Creative commons. org” is a search engine for copyright-friendly visual images and music.4. Most clips on YouTube are embeddable.

Camera Sign-Out

I, , promise to take responsibility for the camera I borrow for home use during the Class 9 Favorite Poem Video Project (FPVP). I will be sure to keep the camera away from liquids and other harmful substances, keep it in my sight or in a safe place at all times, and return it to the English Department Office (5B) the morning after I borrow it. I also promise to return the camera, fully charged, to the hands of one of the Class 9 English teachers.

I understand that taking good care of the camera and returning it on time are responsibilities that will earn me the opportunity to use the camera again. Fulfilling my responsibilities will, moreover, ensure that my classmates have access to the cameras too and will help build a Class 9 community full of trust and good will.

Date:

Downloading from YouTube

• http://www.mediaconverter.org/• http://www.splandoo.com/• http://clipnabber.com/• http://www.zamzar.com• http://www.vixy.net• http://www.kcoolonline.com/• http://www.videodownloadx.com/

Copy the URL of the video (not the embed code and not the related video code) and go to any and all of the following sites:

Process Paper

• Did you rely on Chapin technology? If so, did you feel you had enough access to it while working on this project?

• Is there a student or teacher who was particularly helpful to you while working with the computer equipment?

•  Do you have any suggestions for the teachers who facilitate this project in the future?• What did you learn in the process of completing this project? • What are you most proud of?• Were you ever frustrated while completing this project? If so, why?•  What would you do differently next time?

In a paragraph, please respond to the following questions, in any order you choose.

The potential:• to serve a variety of learning styles

• to ensure a long-term understanding/memory of a poem and a reading experience

• to build community (teacher-student, student-student, parent-child/teacher)

• to offer a model for reading (reading as rereading and as dialogue)

• to provide practice problem-solving

• to arm students with skills in technology

Mara Taylor

Chair, US English Department

The Chapin School

[email protected]