Publishing a Page in a Poetry E-Book

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

Digital Literacy and Computer Science
English Language Arts

Grade(s)

8

Overview

This lesson should be used at the end of a poetry unit or lesson. Students will use technology tools, including the internet, word processing tools, and Canva to produce a page of original poetry which will be published in a collaborative e-book. 

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Phase

After/Explain/Elaborate
Digital Literacy and Computer Science (2018) Grade(s): 8

DLCS18.8.R6

Produce, review, and revise authentic artifacts that include multimedia using appropriate digital tools.

UP:DLCS18.8.R6

Knowledge

Students know:
  • feedback is important in a design process.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • create a multimedia artifact.
  • critique the work of others.
  • revise their work based on feedback received.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • much like the writing process, design of a multimedia artifact nets the best results when creators have the opportunity to be given feedback and revise as needed.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 8

ELA21.8.13

Create and edit digital products that are appropriate in subject, occasion, audience, point of view, purpose, and tone.

UP:ELA21.8.13

Vocabulary

  • Digital product
  • Subject
  • Occasion
  • Audience
  • Point of view
  • Purpose
  • Tone

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Necessary skills to create and edit digital products.
  • The intended audience and occasion should be identified before selecting a subject and purpose of a digital product.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Create and revise a digital text to ensure a clear subject.
  • Create and revise a digital text for an intended audience and occasion.
  • Create and revise a digital text to achieve a particular tone and purpose.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Digital products can be used to communicate with a variety of audiences and occasions.
  • They should modify the subject and purpose of their digital products depending on the audience and occasion.
  • Revision is important in establishing a clear purpose and tone in writing a digital text.
  • Revision is important in appealing to a particular audience with a digital text.
  • Revision is important to articulate a clear subject and occasion for writing a digital text.

Learning Objectives

The student will be able to use the internet, word processing tools, and Canva to produce, publish, and present a page in a collaborative e-book. Each page of the e-book will contain an original poem written by the student as part of a previous lesson.  

Activity Details

The students will produce and publish a page in a collaborative poetry e-book that contains original poetic compositions.

1. The student will have pre-selected a poem that they wrote during a poetry unit.

2. The student will use Canva, a graphic design website, to design a page that includes their poem and a background image that relates to the theme or mood of their poem.

3. Students will download their Canva design and either save it to a designated drive (for teacher access) or insert it into a slide in collaborative presentation software (such as PowerPoint or Google Slides).

  • The teacher should create a collaborative presentation using Google Slides or PowerPoint. If the teacher does not use collaborative presentation software, they can upload each student graphic to the presentation themselves.
  • The students will download their Canva design and save it to the desktop. 
  • From there, the students should go to the collaborative presentation and INSERT their graphic into a blank slide.

4. The teacher will convert the Slides to a PDF and upload the e-book to the desired website. 

Assessment Strategies

Since students are publishing a work that has been previously assessed, the assignment will be assessed using the following rubric.

Variation Tips

Students could create their own publication of work. This could serve as a writing portfolio or a portfolio of work from all classes. 

Publications could include video, pictures, QR codes, etc. The options are endless.

Most any publishing software could be used to produce/publish student pages.

This activity can be completed without internet as students could create a collage from magazines or draw/design their own page on paper. These documents could then be scanned by the teacher and compiled into an e-book.

Background / Preparation

This activity would follow lesson(s) on various poetic forms in which students would write their own poems using models.

Reserve appropriate facilities/tools (i.e. computer labs, laptop cart, etc.) and ensure that these resources are Internet accessible.

If using Google Slides, the teacher should set up a collaborative Slides presentation to share with their class (using the share button or Google Classroom).

If using PowerPoint, the teacher should set up a collaborative PowerPoint presentation to share with their class. 

  • To make book size-Go to FILE, PAGE SETUP, Click CUSTOM, Change the size to 8.5 X 11 INCHES. Click APPLY

A NOTE ON USING CANVA:

  • EMAIL IS REQUIRED. If students do not have Google accounts or email they may search Creative Commons for images to use in Google Slides/PowerPoint and create their page within the presentation software instead of within Canva.
ALSDE LOGO