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Voices from the Middle, Volume 11 Number 3, March 2004

Kuroly | The Power(Point) of Poetry

The Power(Point) of PoetryNicholas Todd Kuroly

Ihate technology in the classroom. Iuse it all the time in my personal life:e-mailing, instant messaging, surfing

the net. But when it comes to the class-room, I hate it. It’s burned me too manytimes. Computers freeze, servers crash,printers malfunction, files mysteriouslydisappear—all when you need them themost. My best intentions ruined by someglitch or another. Therefore, I resistedusing technology extensively with mystudents. Sure, they could type workusing a word-processing program, andsome would research on the Internet, butthat was it. Anything else just seemed toooverwhelming for me.

Then last year, a district coordinator came to en-courage the use of technology throughout ourschool. She felt strongly that technology could beused to engage even the most reluctant student.She talked me into giving it another shot. But as Iexplained to her, I needed a project that would bemeaningful to my eighth-grade students and man-ageable for a technophobe like me.

The ProjectAt the time, our eighth graders were finishing theirpoetry unit and National Poetry Month was fastapproaching, so I wanted the project to involvepoetry. Ideally the project would celebrate anddeepen their understanding of poetry and exposethem to a wider circle of poets. In addition, the

project would integrate useful technology skills.Cyndi Kerr, the technology coordinator, suggestedwe introduce students to PowerPoint. Although Ihad no experience using the program, I put myfaith in Cyndi’s reassurances and agreed to give ita try.

For an end product, students would create aslide show on a famous poet. The slides wouldinclude biographical information, a poem accom-panied by graphic representation and studentvoice-over, and a personal reflection on that poem.We had spent a considerable amount of timethroughout the year reflecting and responding toliterature, and I wanted students to extend thispractice to poetry. Students would be evaluatedon the completeness of the required information,the quality of their reflection, the successful in-corporation of PowerPoint functions, and overallpresentation, including the voice recording. Stu-dents had the option to work individually or inpairs; since most chose to work in pairs, we neededaccess to fewer computers at one time.

We began the unit by showing students a fewexamples of general PowerPoint presentations.Cyndi brought some in, but we found othersonline. Students seemed genuinely excited by thegraphics, animation, and sound effects. After hook-ing students with the presentation, I went intomore detail about our poetry project. I explainedto students that before they created any slides, theywould have to collect the necessary information.We came up with a list of famous poets, and I chal-lenged students to choose one with whom theywere not familiar.

I didn’t want students to get bogged down withresearch for this project, so I gave them specificguidelines. In keeping with the “technology in the

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Voices from the Middle, Volume 11 Number 3, March 2004

Kuroly | The Power(Point) of Poetry

Computers freeze, servers

crash, printers malfunction,

files mysteriously disappear—

all when you need them the

most. My best intentions

ruined by some glitch or

another.

classroom” mantra, students would use theInternet to research their chosen poet and agraphic organizer to take notes. Students neededto gather the following information for the biog-raphy slide:

• Name of Poet

• Date and place of birth

• Date and place of death (if applicable)

• Three interesting or notable facts

• A list of major works (at least three)

To keep the researching phase manageable andto ensure reliable sources, I directed students tothe Academy of American Poets Web site (http://www.poets.org). This site contains biographicalinformation, a selection of poems, and links toother poetry sites. Students were required to useat least two different sites to collect information.All students began at the Academy of AmericanPoets site, and most used a provided link to getmore information.

Once students completed their biographicalresearch, they selected a poem for their presenta-tion. I suggested they find a poem they “like, findmeaningful, and feel comfortable reciting.” Us-ing www.poets.org, other Web sites, and printanthologies, students selected their poems, chosetwo or three possibilities, and conferenced withme about their selections. These conferences gaveme a chance to ask why they selected that particu-lar piece and get a sense of their oral reading. Oncethe conferences were complete, I modeled writ-ing a reflection for the class. Students then draftedreflections on their chosen poem, after which wewent through the writing process with thesepieces—revising, peer conferencing, and proof-reading. Students who had a difficult time reflect-ing on their first selection switched to a “back-up”poem. Once the reflections were completed, wewere ready to start using PowerPoint.

Bringing in TechnologyIn order for students to complete this project, weneeded to teach two main technology skills: howto use PowerPoint and how to import graphics

and text from the Internet. Cyndi modeled thebasics of using PowerPoint for students, includ-ing creating slides, inserting text boxes, using theformatting palette, saving work, and animating.Working in pairs at computers, students were ableto practice what Cyndi modeled. We charted com-mands and functions so students could refer tothem throughout the project. I also photocopiedcertain cards from The Techtools Resource Kit forMicrosoft PowerPoint and placed them at every com-puter. Students found it useful to have these cardsavailable. I, too, found them incredibly helpfulwith troubleshooting and guiding studentsthrough the process. The cards clearly laid out howto complete any task we needed on PowerPoint,and many students wereexperienced enough toserve as great resourcesas well.

Online PowerPointtutorials offer yet an-other helpful resource.Since I had never usedthe program before,Cyndi suggested I try asite called PowerPoint inthe Classroom (http://www.actden.com/pp). I found it very helpful, andI was able to create my own PowerPoint presen-tation after completing the tutorial. Although thesite is set up for teachers, you could share certainparts with students and have them use this tuto-rial as well. It includes all relevant information,commands, and quick quizzes after each section.

Cyndi and I also modeled how to import textand graphics (found using Google’s image search)from the Internet and insert them into a slide, giv-ing students plenty of hands-on practice. Withthese skills mastered, they were ready to createtheir slide show.

I directed students to type all information ontotheir slides before experimenting with animationand effects. PowerPoint has some fantastic pre-sentation options; however, it’s important that stu-dents don’t get distracted by the bells and whistlesand forget to include the required elements. Dead-

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Kuroly | The Power(Point) of Poetry

lines were set along the way so I could checkprogress. At the first deadline, students needed tohave all their text written and proofread. Luckily,PowerPoint has a spell-check feature built in. Forthe second deadline, graphics—pictures of theirpoets for the biographical slide and a visual repre-sentation to complement their chosen poem—were to be in place. Figure 1 shows slides 1 and 3of one presentation; the second slide containedthe poem “Mourning Grace” by Maya Angelou,along with a photo imported from the Internet ofa young girl who could have been “Grace.” (Thefull poem can be read at http://www.geocities.com/

starnet6/mgrace.txt.) By the third deadline, ani-mation, transitions, and effects needed to be fin-ished. At this point, I felt comfortable modelingsome of the more useful effects and animationfunctions. As the students’ projects began to takeshape, I found I needed to adjust my guidelines.First, students needed to be reminded that theycould not alter the poem’s layout, a problem thatoften surfaced when they did not open a largeenough text box to accommodate a poem importedfrom the Internet. We also talked about the effec-tive use of the many visual and aural options avail-able to them. For instance, I strongly suggestedusing the same background for an entire slide showto create unity, thus avoiding overly busy back-grounds, and reminded them that fonts needed tobe readable in terms of size, color, and visibilityagainst certain backgrounds. We also discussedhow distracting sound effects could be if not usedappropriately, and ultimately, most of my studentsused them sparingly. I also needed to teach stu-dents how to cite Web sources correctly.1

The last part of the project, and my favorite,was the voice recording. The Web site Poetry 180(http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180) has tips fromBilly Collins on how to read a poem out loud.Using those suggestions, I modeled reading apoem with emotion and feeling. Students hadplenty of time to practice reciting their poems; ifthey worked in pairs, they divided up the readingor read the whole poem in unison. Since we couldnot record during regular class time, students cameup at lunch and after school. Our computers’ in-ternal microphones made recording easy. Usingthe custom animation function, we were able toplay the recording automatically as the poem’s textappeared (you can review how to do this under“Sound” and “Tooting Tunes” on the PowerPointin the Classroom Web site). Students were ner-vous about recording at first, but they were ex-cited to hear their voices reciting great poetry.Even shy students who might have balked at read-ing in front of an audience felt comfortable par-

Figure 1. Slides 1 and 3 of a student PowerPoint presentation on MayaAngelou

1 Editor’s note: For guidelines on citing online sources, seewww.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html.

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Kuroly | The Power(Point) of Poetry

ticipating. Students could rerecord their readingsas often as necessary, which relieved some anxi-ety.

Students presented their slide shows to othermembers of the class using an LCD projector.Seeing how well the projects turned out, I wouldexpand the audience next time to include parentsand other classes as part of our Poetry Month cel-ebration. Each presentation had a very professionallook, and students were impressed by the finishedproducts.

At this point, you might expect me to declaremy love for technology in the classroom. Hon-estly, computers did shut down unexpectedly, serv-ers crashed, and slides mysteriously disappeared.It was not always smooth sailing. Some days Iwanted to abandon the whole thing (to put it po-litely). I did discover, though, that when you findthe right project, it’s worth all the hassles. Stu-dents found a creative and entertaining way to

celebrate poetry. My eighth graders felt excitedabout reading poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay,Dylan Thomas, Walt Whitman, and Ralph WaldoEmerson—poets they avoided in class. And on topof that, they (okay, we) learned valuable technol-ogy skills.

So maybe hate was a strong word. Technol-ogy in the classroom still frustrates me, but it canbe an important academic tool and motivator. Ifthis self-proclaimed technophobe can do it, thereshould be nothing stopping you.

ReferencesBraun, J. (2001). The techtools resource kit for Microsoft

PowerPoint. Westminster, CA: Teacher CreatedMaterials.

Poetry 180: A poem a day for American high schools.(2002). How to read a poem out loud. RetrievedSeptember 2003, from http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-howtoread.html.

Nicholas Todd Kuroly teaches seventh and eighth grades at Greenwich Village Middle School inNew York City. He can be reached at MrKuroly@yahoo.com.

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