Two Birds, One Stone: Digital Poetry for ELLs

Over the past few years, school districts in 46 states have been reshaping their literacy instruction to align their curriculum with the Common Core State Standards (CCSSI, 2010). Two of the more significant changes to English Language Arts standards are in the area of writing and multimodal instruction. CCSS place a stronger emphasis on writing and indicate a broader definition of literacy. For example, fifth grade students are expected to analyze the author’s manipulation of media, create a multimedia presentation, and produce a two page typed document (CCSSI, 2010).

In addition, new literacies challenge our relationship with the writing process. As a result, educators need to re-evaluate and expand their understanding of literacy to include multimodal composition. In traditional poetry, composition is mediated on a piece of paper. The author’s goal is to evoke feelings and mental images through the printed text on a page. In digital poetry,  composition is mediated on a screen and meaning is defined by the author’s use of sound, images, and textual motion (Hayles, 2008).Click here to interact with a digital poem by Jason Nelson. http://www.secrettechnology.com/sydney/

Curwood and Cowell (2011) maintained their iPoetry project increased 10^th grade students’ awareness of audience, a greater attention to mood, and self-reflection. Findings from this study suggests multimodal composition afforded students a meaningful tool to explore poetry within a collaborative, multimedia environment. In addition, digital poetry connected out of school literacies with classroom instruction and added relevance to the study of poetry as a genre.

Canadian researchers, Hughes & John (2009) implemented digital poetry with 6^th and 7^th grade students. The results highlighted the development of critical literacy and collaboration skills. According to the authors, the use of multimodal composition taught students how the use of multiple modes could increase the mood, imagery, and voice of the poem. In addition, the quality of students’ writing improved along with their ability to edit.

Is poetry instruction still relevant in a time when we are preparing students for high-stakes testing in school while we read and write on cell phones, iPads, and laptops out of school? According to these two studies, the answer is, “Yes.” Digital poetry bridges new literacy skills with traditional poetry instruction in a collaborative environment. Any opportunities educators can build a bridge between out of school and in school literacies could increase student motivation and engagement to learn. The affordances of digital poetry instruction can provide the collaborative digital environment students’ desire while meeting the academic demands of the CCSS.

For a blog response choose one of the options below:
1. Choose one of the six principles of writing from chapter 5 in Li & Edwards' (2010) Best Practices in ELL Instruction, and make an Animoto video to represent your learning. 
2. Use an Animoto video to compare your process of typing a blog response  to making and Animoto video for a response. What did you notice? Which did you like better? Why?