I've seen this used a lot in English classrooms. It gives the students a chance not just to read poetry, but to be poets themselves. In black poetry they highlight the words that mean a lot to them and cross out other words and phrases. In this sense, the student shows they know the deeper meaning/theme of the poem or their new composition and interpretation of it. I could use this in a unit on poetry or to better understand an article or text. It's important that teachers do what Burvall suggests: "Ask students to document the INTENTION behind their blackout poems by writing or recording their explanations" (147). This isn't just a piece of cool art to give to students without content. What students blackout shows their overall understanding of the theme and meaning. This activity asks students to construct, rearrange, juxtapose ideas, uncover hidden meanings and establish new relationships in the text.
Erasure poems are another option, they are a spin-off of black poetry!
Creating with Images: ImagED
Students find images to explain and show their understanding of a concept. The images must convey the essence of the concept. The three activities are Icon Challenge, Five-Card Flickr, and Two Images, One Question.The whole point is to synthesize complex ideas into simple but poignant images, like Burvall says, and thus students show understanding of content.
Icon Challenge: Students find or design icons, that stand as symbols to represent an idea or concept. They learn the important nature of icons as a means of communication. A series of icons can tell a sequential story, just like the EMOJI story activity.
Again, it is important that teachers have "students explain their intention--why they chose those particular aspects of the subject to translate into icons and why they designed the icons as they did," as Burvall suggests (170).
I really like the idea of creating a library catalogue of "four-icon novels" and displaying the posters around the class or school.
Five-Card Flickr
In a nutshell, students can use this activity to help them create a story from the images, or to use images to convey a story or match the content of a story, poem, text, speech or concept.
Students really have to think deeply and know the content to match it with images.
I really like the "Three of Me" activity that Burvall described on page 174.
Two Images, One Question
I can do this with my students when they are working on oral presentations and research topics. The images and question act as essential prompts to the research. The students will have to think metaphorically and critically about the images they select. Burvall says, "The images students find should serve as prompts for their presentation of the information (172)". Then students come up with an "original" question or discussion prompt for the third slide.
Creating with Sounds: Playlist a Life
This time, instead of using pictures or icons to demonstrate a concept or story, students use music to demonstrate the life or times of a subject. They make a playlist, choosing songs because of their lyrics, tone or themes that go along with the subject. They find songs that represent significant moments in the story or about the person. Consider having students make a playlist for a book like The Great Gatsby. Have them write a couple of sentences on why they chose each song. Scaffold student learning by having them do their own autobiographical playlist first. This representing things through a musical lens, would appeal to a lot of kids!
Creating with the Body: Dallowinian Party
Burvall described this activity: "Demonstrate the personality traits and mindsets, relationships, and dynamics of a group of individuals or characters by staging an improvised, role-play dinner party. During periodic breaks in the action, use first-person, in-character, stream-of-consciousness journaling to explore the attendees' thoughts and feelings" (217). It also says, "Dallowinian Party requires students to apply their knowledge of characters and personalities to an interactive and original context" (219). The teacher should be a facilitator of the overall interaction and conversation.
I think this activity would be very useful to help my students understand character personalities and motivations by taking on the role of the character or acting as them. How fun! I could definitely see this activity working for some of the books we read in class. The students will need to understand the character very well in order to play their role and behaviors. This activity also encourages student WRITING with their stream-of-consciousness reflections, killing two birds with one stone. The debriefing at the end allows them to reflect as well on the whole experience. In order for this "party" to not get out of hand, the students should know it is a graded oral presentation or performance. The teacher or a student can serve as the host of all the guests at the dinner! All the guests should have a relationship to the host.
The pre-activities are very important as well, like building a family tree to show how the guests are connected or know one another, as well as the list/bowl of "interruptions". I also love how students can dress up as the characters for this! They will really enjoy that part. And they can have food...sounds like something every kid will like. I would do this activity as an assessment but also as a sort of reward for getting through a unit or difficult book. What if one or two students don't know the character they are role-playing? How do I keep all my students accountable to know their character so they won't interfere with transmitting the content and understanding to other students? I don't want this to get out of control. Overall, I love the interactivity of this!
Creating with Stuff: Board Game Remix
Have students create a board game with objectives, rules, game pieces and game play based on the context of a story like say, Beowulf or Homer's Odyssey or Iliad. I think this would work best with a story with a lot of action and plot, or the hero's journey. By creating a board game, students demonstrate their understanding of a given plot line, process or journey, and things such as conflict, climax, resolution. The game design must represent the key information and concepts of the book.
However, there are other game options besides just making a typical board game, such as remixing and mashing up games such as word games, strategy games, and chance games into a completely new game. Students become inventors and creators of the rules and name of the game. What student wouldn't want to get the chance to make their own game? How cool! Another assessment, besides the finished designed board game product, is to have students play the game and video/record their intentions of the game. It also allows students to understand and break the limitations of the game genre.
Creating with Social Media: Volley
Students collaborate and exchange ideas back and forth and build upon the work of another through visual and verbal metaphors. Some ideas for this are: visual verse, blimage, vizvo volley, hashtaggerie and headline riff. A student shares something and another student responds or exchanges with it in a different medium such as an image, poem/prose, audio, blogpost or hashtag. In this way, students are exchanging or sharing content knowledge. This "volley" can be between a team or group of students, say classes, or just between two individuals.
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