The lesson and accompanying videos I viewed at INTIME is something that I could definitely adapt to use in the classroom. The lesson called for students to publish haiku in a class anthology through a site called Avid. Students record their voices reading the haiku and add images and sound (music) to the class anthology. Students made decisions as a whole class and in small groups. The classroom seemed to be set up with computer stations as well as collaborative work areas. I was impressed with this 9th grade classroom. (There are only 41 kids in this Kansas high school, and the teacher teaches English in grades 7-12.)
As we write haiku during our poetry unit in spring, I think a class anthology would not only be feasible, it could be relatively easily incorporated. Although I would not use Avid, at it costs to use the service, I am confident I could use a free site, such as Prezentit, that would serve the same purpose. We could make our class anthologies available on-line to parents, teachers, etc. thus creating an authentic audience. I like that the teacher in the video assessed students' haiku and gave daily grades to students based upon personal and group progress and participation. Students were afforded opportunities to be decision-makers and critically think which provided a plethora of opportunities for students to feel ownership on the project. The materials necessary to creating the anthology--computers, audio recording technology and Internet image and sound sources--should be easy to get my hands on as well as a free site conducive to the project. A sound source that is suggested for school use is Soundzabound. It offers royalty free music which helps students understand some of the ethics involved in using technology.
In fall we also write Where I'm From poems as well as 6-Word memoirs that afford themselves to this type of project. I offered, as extra credit, an option for students to present these products in a tech savvy fashion. Next year, I'd like to have students work collaboratively and change the assignment a bit so that all students are collectively exposed to technology, especially as we don't have a technology class offered to all students in our middle school. My students technology capabilities are greatly varied and quite "sad" in some situations.
