What students said about The Tribes Project
I want to remember the actual performance itself because my poem actually made people laugh, and that was the intention and goal. Knowing I achieved that feels great.
-Riley (you can read more on her Digital Portfolio) |
When it comes to writing for a client, I've learned quite a bit. I think that most important thing to take away from this is that this is also your clients piece as well, so critique from them should be very important to the piece, but not the end all be all. This means that if a client doesn't want a certain part in because it isn't important to who they are, that should be more important to you than yourself or your teacher telling you the piece is great. Because this is so important, it should also be essential that you actively seek for their opinions on your piece if they don't give you anything on their own.
-Jakob (you can read more on his Digital Portfolio) |
I learned that when trying to write about a sensitive subject don't do an "interview", make it like normal conversation. Get to actually know the person, don't just do it for the grade.
For our final performance my group decided we wanted a humorous skit so we made the Unspoken Rules of the Boys Bathroom. It's about what you should and shouldn't do while using the boys bathroom, and we decided to act it out as if it was an 1960's instructional video which gave it it's humor. -Victor (you can read more on his Digital Portfolio) |
What this project is all about
You can learn everything you need to know about the Tribes project from the project sheet.
Part 1: the "portrait" poem
Step 0: our models
Dr. P's prototype:
Step 1: Dialogical Interviews
On the fourth day of school, writers were randomly paired with a partner who they spent 20 minutes interviewing, asking the following open-ended questions and listening silently to their partner's response:
Step 2: Poem first drafts (handwritten)
Writers could either write their first drafts based on Dr. P's prototype, using this graphic organizer, or use their own structure.
Step 3: typed drafts
Writes typed their first drafts and submitted them on Google classroom.
Step 4: critique from eighth-graders
In order to get a totally fresh take on their poems, students shared them with eighth graders from Ms. Staff's class, focusing on sensory images and using this graphic organizer to structure the critique.
Step 5: "specificity" self-critique
At this point, many of the poems had a fair amount of general descriptions that could apply to just about everyone (a bit like what you might see in a Hallmark card). In order to get more specific students analyzed the level of specificity in their own poems line by line. Here's the model for this.
Step 6: Commentary from Dr. P
I read each draft that was turned in to me, and gave commentary, focusing particularly on specific descriptions and sensory images. I provided the commentary as "comments" directly on the google doc.
Step 7: Feedback from the person the poem is ABOUT
Finally, it was time for writers to share the poems with the people they had been written about! Readers provided useful factual information as comments, and highlighted the text using the following color-coding system:
Step 8: Final Draft
Once writers (and their partners) were happy with their poems, it was time for a final spelling and grammar check, then time to print them out and display them with the self portraits.
Dr. P's prototype:
- I started out by interviewing my teaching partner, Ms. Soler, and recording it. As a class, we listened to this interview and took notes on it.
- Based on the interview, I wrote poems about Ms. Soler. You can read the first two versions (written on the whiteboard in class) here.
- You can read the version I wrote next (which the class used as a model) here. This is a draft version of the poem, and includes feedback from Ms. Soler.
- "Lost Voices" by Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley
- "Accents" by Denice Frohman
- We also read and annotated poems printed on 11"x17" paper, looking at their use of sensory images. You can see some examples of annotated poems here.
Step 1: Dialogical Interviews
On the fourth day of school, writers were randomly paired with a partner who they spent 20 minutes interviewing, asking the following open-ended questions and listening silently to their partner's response:
- Who is the most important person in your life? Tell me about them
- What is the most important place in your life? Tell me about it
- What have been the most important moments in your life? Tell me about them
Step 2: Poem first drafts (handwritten)
Writers could either write their first drafts based on Dr. P's prototype, using this graphic organizer, or use their own structure.
Step 3: typed drafts
Writes typed their first drafts and submitted them on Google classroom.
Step 4: critique from eighth-graders
In order to get a totally fresh take on their poems, students shared them with eighth graders from Ms. Staff's class, focusing on sensory images and using this graphic organizer to structure the critique.
Step 5: "specificity" self-critique
At this point, many of the poems had a fair amount of general descriptions that could apply to just about everyone (a bit like what you might see in a Hallmark card). In order to get more specific students analyzed the level of specificity in their own poems line by line. Here's the model for this.
Step 6: Commentary from Dr. P
I read each draft that was turned in to me, and gave commentary, focusing particularly on specific descriptions and sensory images. I provided the commentary as "comments" directly on the google doc.
Step 7: Feedback from the person the poem is ABOUT
Finally, it was time for writers to share the poems with the people they had been written about! Readers provided useful factual information as comments, and highlighted the text using the following color-coding system:
- Green: This sounds like me
- Blue: This sounds like SOMEONE, but that person isn’t me.
- Pink: This sounds like it could be about lots of people - it feels impersonal.
Step 8: Final Draft
Once writers (and their partners) were happy with their poems, it was time for a final spelling and grammar check, then time to print them out and display them with the self portraits.
- Green: This sounds like me
- Blue: This sounds like SOMEONE, but that person isn’t me.
- Pink: This sounds like it could be about lots of people - it feels impersonal.