Friday, August 31, 2012

Welcome Back!

Margo's Calligram

 Welcome back to another exciting school year at USM!  After settling in last week, students really got back into the swing of things.  In composition, we started to learn a little about each other and ourselves by creating shoe calligrams.  Calligrams are words, phrases, and even poems visually arranged to look like the object they are representing.  After thinking about nouns and adjectives that students felt described themselves, they created similes and metaphors that exemplified those words.  At the same time, they considered how those nouns, adjectives, similes and metaphors might also be similar to a shoe.  For example, if I described myself as sleepy, quiet, and a little lazy, a loafer might be a good representation of those characteristics.  I am as laid-back as a loafer.  Quiet, methodical, and in need of a nap.  Once the students had numerous descriptive phrases, similes, metaphors, adjectives, and nouns, they began to arrange them in the shape of their shoes.  Check out the one above or click on the link to the right for more examples.


Blackout Poetry


In literature we created found poetry using pages from The Lightning Thief.  Specifically, students created blackout poems.  These poems are crafted by using words or phrases found on a page from the novel.  By blacking-out the surrounding text, students were able to create new meaning. As you can see, they turned out beautifully!