At my current school, students in Year 9 English study poetry as a way to share stories in a unit called “The Art of Storytelling”. Studying poetry by nature encourages a close reading of text structures and language selection, with particular focus on figurative language and imagery. Students also examine the context in which a poem is written (person, place, historical era, culture etc).
The study of poetry allows educators to cover multiple capabilities from the Australian Curriculum English strands, including but not limited to:
Language
- investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly using devices, for example allusion, evocative vocabulary and metaphor
- Understand that authors innovate with text structures and language for specific purposes and effects
Literature and Context
- interpret and compare how representations of people and culture in literary texts are drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts
- reflect on, discuss and explore notions of literary value and how and why such notions vary according to context
- explore and reflect on personal understanding of the world and significant human experience gained from interpreting various representations of life matters in texts)
Literacy
- analyse how the construction and interpretation of texts can be influenced by cultural perspectives and other texts
- explore and explain the combinations of language and visual choices that authors make to present information, opinions and perspectives in different texts
(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2014)
Rather than analyse a poem in the traditional sense (on the whiteboard or via a Power Point), my digital story is a visual poem based on the Oodgeroo Noonuccal poem Time is Running Out. It is a visual storytelling of the iconic poem, with links to helpful websites about the author, a verbal reading of the poem as well as a verbal analysis of vocabulary definitions, figurative meanings of words/phrases and interpretations. The choice to use this poem also connects with the cross-curricular priorities by examining the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The digital text will enhance student understanding of the poem and its meaning, as well as model an assessment task where they will create their own multimedia visual story of a selected poem. It also lends itself nicely to the unit title, in where the “art of storytelling” will be done digitally. In doing this, students will be using the ICT General Capabilities strands of creating and communicating with ICT, as well as continue to embed the following skills in the English Literacy strand:
- use interaction skills to present and discuss an idea and to influence and engage an audience by selecting persuasive language, varying voice tone, pitch, and pace, and using elements such as music and sound effects
- create imaginative texts that present a point of view and advance or illustrate arguments, including texts that integrate visual, print and/or audio features
- use a range of software, including word processing programs, flexibly and imaginatively to publish texts
(ACARA, 2014)
Book Creator has been chosen as it is free and easy to navigate, with multiple tools that students will easily pick up. Educators can create “classrooms” where students can collaborate and publish their work for the class to read. Students can operate it via Windows on school laptops, or their iPads if they have them at home. Book Creator is program that easily allows students to engage in what Botturi et al (2012) call “mastering storytelling” and the two different skill sets that requires: understanding narrative structures, and being able to give them shape verbally, visually or aurally, and with the help of various media (Botturi et al, 2012, p. 10).
The benefits of the poem being read out loud by me (or in their case, the students when they create their own digital story) will be that it appeals to students who prefer listening rather than reading, and students can engage with the intended intonation of their chosen poem. The cohort of Year 9s has quite a number of ESL students, so the fact the book can be read back to the students in a variety of languages is extremely beneficial. There is also the theory that “producing written words – that’s to say, reading them out loud – improves our memory of them” (Hardach, 2020). Indeed, I found this to be the case while creating my digital book – I have silently read this poem multiple times over the years, and it is only now after reading aloud for my piece that I believe I have memorised it!
REFERENCES:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2014). Foundation to year 10 curriculum: English. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/?layout=1#cdcode=ACELA1428&level=F
Botturi, L., Bramani, C., & Corbino, S. (2012). Finding your voice through digital storytelling. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 56(3), 10-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-012-0569-1
Hardach, S. (2020). Why you should read this out loud. BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200917-the-surprising-power-of-reading-aloud
