Poetry PBL Ideas
There are so many ways we can bring poetry PBL projects into the classroom. Poetry is everywhere. People use poetry to convey important political messages, wish friends a happy birthday, share love letters, or persuade an audience through advertisements. Poetry is in cinema, music, commercials, Christmas cards, religious prayers and so naturally, poetry PBL is a perfect fit.
Here is a very relevant and timely poetry project-based learning idea that can be customized to fit any curricular topic or event of interest. In this particular poetry PBL plan, students will use poetry to promote civil rights and social justice in their community. Students choose and analyze a social justice poem. What makes the poem effective and powerful? Students use this knowledge of poetry to address a social justice and civil rights issue in their community. Students will need to identify an issue that is meaningful to them and build a body of work (poetry) that will address the issue.
If you are looking for a more general PBL writing assignment, you can use this PBL writing project template.
ROADMAP
Stage 1 - Launch
How can we use poetry to advocate for civil rights and social justice? What do you already know and what do you need to know? Students generate questions about civil rights/social justice poetry and begin to identify issues they care about.
Pathway 1 - Identify Problem or Opportunity
What do you already know about civil rights and social justice poetry (or songs)? What have you seen, heard, read, or experienced about them or their impact? 1) Identify prior knowledge 2) List and/or document below.
Do informal research to learn more about 1-2 specific areas under this topic that interest you. Research what you still need to know using digital or social media, collaborators, experts, etc.
Identify one problem or opportunity you would like to act on and explain why.
Create a driving question to guide the rest of your project. This question should be complex and bring up more questions for you to explore.
Stage 2 - Investigate
Read, analyze, and evaluate a social justice poem of your choice. Identify topics that resonate with you and discover the poetic techniques that make these poems effective. Research the author and context of their selected poem. Upload a short video explaining why you chose each poem. Do an analysis of each poem: author's background, context, poetic devices used, and what the poem is trying to accomplish. Share your findings.
Pathway 2 - Workshopping
Share poem 1 analysis.
Share poem 2 analysis.
Share poem 3 analysis.
Share a video: What social justice issue are you going to focus your work on? Why?
Stage 3 - Plan and Act
You need to come up with a local social justice issue that you would like to tackle. What could be done? Develop a plan of action using poetry as your medium. Think of the audience and experts who can support your plan. Carry out your action plan. Get feedback on implementation. Iterate: make adjustments and improvements.
Pathway 3 - Solve a Problem
Brainstorm social justice and civil rights issues in your community. Share with your peers. Which one is the most meaningful to you? Why?
Empathize with your target audience. Identify the people who are impacted by your identified problem. Who are they?
Complete an empathy map
Determine problem statement
Ideate solutions by turning your insights into "How might we...?" questions. Choose a medium that will reach your target audience best. How will your product (or service) solve your problem? Or address your need? Or make good use of the opportunity you've identified? Be prepared to test your ideas on the intended audience. How will you document tests and feedback?
Plan a timeline of to do's
Set a goal
Stage 4 - Present
Create poetry that does a job or tackles a problem. How will you present that poetry in the most compelling way? Do you need visuals, spoken word, or a video? What is the best way to create impact on your intended audience?
Pathway 4 - Build a Body of Work
What's your poetry's goal: to inform, inspire, persuade? Understand your audience. What information is better displayed visually? What information is difficult to understand without a visual?
Visualize how your audience will see your slides, video or prototype start to finish. Create a storyboard to show all the steps.
Share your poetry work and get feedback on how your messaging is coming across. Consider: color choices, font, size, spacing, titles, headings, animations, video quality. Test on device(s) that will display visuals to ensure quality (ie. resolution, sound, etc.) is as intended. Did you meet your objective?
If you are interested in customizing this poetry PBL project idea, sign up for Spinndle to access the project.