This document outlines the Favorite Poem Video Project (FPVP) assignment. Students are tasked with creating a 3-7 minute video that includes reciting a poem of 10+ lines, explicating it, and explaining why the poem is meaningful to them. A timeline is provided, with checkpoints for explicating the poem, reciting it to the class, creating a storyboard, and submitting the final video. Models, book recommendations, and assessment criteria are also included, along with information on using technology, obtaining permissions, and submitting process papers. The goal of the project is to serve various learning styles and ensure long-term understanding of poems through multimedia creation and reflection.

1. Favorite Poem Video
Project
(or FPVP)

2. The potential:
• to serve a variety of learning styles
• to ensure a long-term
understanding/memory of a poem and a
reading experience
• to build community (teacher-student,
student-student, parent-child/teacher)
• to offer a model for reading (reading as
rereading and as dialogue)
• to provide practice problem-solving
• to arm students with skills in technology

3. The Task

4. Your task is to create a video that includes the
following components:
(1) recitation
(2) explication
(3) explanation of why poem is meaningful to
you
Length: 3-7 minutes
Minimum length of poem: 10 lines

5. Sample Timeline
• Explication: Thursday, April 2
• Recitation (to class):
Tuesday, April 7
• Storyboard: Monday, April 13
• FPVP & process paper:
Monday, April 27

6. Models
www.favoritepoem.org

7. Book Recommendations
• Terry Blackhawk—Body & Field
• Toni Blackman—Inner-Course:
A Plea for Real Love
• Gwendolyn Brooks—selected
• Billy Collins—Sailing Alone
Around the Room
• Mark Doty—Atlantis
• Louise Gluck—Wild Iris
• Robert Hass—Human Wishes &
Praise
• Tony Hoagland—Sweet Ruin
• Marie Howe’s—What the Living
Do
• Langston Hughes—selected
• Rumi, translated by Coleman
Barks—Essential Rumi
• Jane Kenyon—The Harvest
Home
• Yusef Komunyakaa—Talking
Dirty to the Gods
• Maxine Kumin—selected
• Stanley Kunitz—Passing Through
• Philip Levine—What Work Is
• Sharon Olds—The Dead Among
the Living
• Mary Oliver—Dream Work
• Linda Pastan—Carnival
Evening
• Octavio Paz—selected
• Marge Piercy—The Crooked
Inheritance
• Jane Shore—Happy Family
• Cathy Song—Picture Bride

8. Assessment
of the FPVP

9. A. Knowledge of Poem
• meaningful recitation that takes into consideration
speaker’s tone and poet’s punctuation & sound
devices (consider multiple recitations and/or
showing text on screen)
• discussion of poem that shows understanding of
poem’s ideas and literary devices (e.g., paradox,
irony, etc.)

10. B. Illustration that
Poem Matters
Thoughtful discussion of poem’s themes/ideas through …
anecdote/personal story,
self-reflection, and/or
general observation about human condition/society/world
we live in.

11. C. Effective Use of Visual
Language
• language that is figurative and inventive (i.e.,
illustrate poet’s metaphors, but come up with your
own too)
• language that is easy to follow (i.e., not too busy
or quick-moving, moves seamlessly from one
image to the next)
• language that complements words
• aesthetically pleasing and/or eye-catching images

12. D. Organization
• smooth transitions
• logical order of ideas (tip: move from literal
to figurative representation)
• clarity at the sentence level

13. E. Coherence
• ending recalls another moment in video
• ending gives closure and leaves viewer
thinking
• all elements complement each other, build
on what comes before

14. F. “Readability”
• adequate volume
• clear picture

15. Assignments Along the
Way

16. I. The Explication

17. Please attach a copy of your poem to your responses.
1. Any new vocabulary in your poem? If so, list the words with the
definitions that best apply given the context. Be sure to consider how the
poet might be applying multiple connotations as you select definitions.
2. Paraphrase each line, or stanza, of your poem. That is, restate the poet's
words in your own words as best you can. Feel free to offer multiple
versions in places in order to capture a double meaning.
3. (a) What is your poem's occasion? (b) Characterize your poem’s speaker
as precisely as you can.
4. What are the sound devices in the poem? If there’s rhyme at the end of
lines, what is the rhyme scheme?
5. Consider the poet’s use of punctuation. Account for at least one
punctuation choice: how does it add to the poet’s meaning?
(continued next page)

18. 6. What is the poem's tone? Is the speaker ever ironic?
7. Does your poet employ figurative language? If so, how does such language add to
the poet’s meaning? What are some images that would bring out, in your video, the
poem's metaphors? (Keep in my mind you will be expected to come up with your own
visual metaphors too.)
8. If there is a title, consider how it enhances the meaning of your poem.
9. Think about the last line, or lines, of your poem. What question/s do they pose?
10. Given your answers to these questions, what does your poem mean to you? How
do you personally relate to it? What personal story can you tell that illustrates your
connection to the poem?

19. II. The Recitation

20. Assessment
of the Recitation

21. • Posture/body language—in “confident
stance” (stand tall, legs uncrossed, arms still
at side)
• Eye contact—a good way to engage your
audience
A. Physical Presence

22. • Volume—be sure you can be heard in back of room
• Speed—be aware of speaking too fast/too slow; decide if each
line break requires a pause, a full stop, or no stop at all
• Articulation—enunciate word-endings; be aware of sound devices
(e.g., consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme) & emphasize as
appropriate (note: with rhymed poems, make sure not to recite
them in a sing-song manner)
• Tone/Inflection—Is your narrator’s tone mournful? Joyful? Are
there parts of your poem that require you to raise your voice?
Lower it?
• Pronunciation—make sure you know the proper pronunciation of
every word in your poem
B. Voice

23. Assessment of Recitation
Your recitation should engage your audience and reveal your understanding in the
following ways:
A. Physical Presence
Posture : 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Eye Contact: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5
B. Voice
Volume: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5
Speed: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5
Articulation: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5
Tone/Inflection: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 – 5
Pronunciation: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

24. III. Storyboard
See handout.

25. Working with Technology

26. Technology Skills
In addition to basic iMovie skills, students should also be able to …
• work with still images: import still images to iMovie & create still
images from video clips
• use online sites to convert a YouTube video
• video-record: use the Flip video camera & the internal web cam to
record video
• import songs into iMovie: obey copyright rules, gain iTunes
strategies, & search for music online
• work with sound within iMovie: extract audio, adjust volume, & lock
an audio clip at a playhead
• use titles: adjust the duration of a clip to incorporate text & use the
scrolling block feature
• export iMovie to Quicktime: compress the file
• save correctly

27. Materials
(for 60 students, 2 sections)
• 15 laptops (with recording feature)
& locked truck—for school use
• 17 cameras & locked truck—for
school and home use
• iMovie (version HD06)
• Perian, free software that will allow
the Flip videos to be viewed and
edited: http://perian.org/

28. Copyright Permissions

29. NCTE Updated Fair Use Information:
http://wwwdev.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy
Guidelines:
1. Students can use no more than 30 seconds (10%) of a song
(but they can loop that 30 seconds).
2. Some songs are public domain, and students can find them
by googling "songs public domain” or “GarageBand” (music
tracks, free software from Apple).
3. “Creative commons. org” is a search engine for copyright-
friendly visual images and music.
4. Most clips on YouTube are embeddable.

30. Camera Sign-Out
I, , promise to take responsibility
for the camera I borrow for home use during the Class 9 Favorite Poem Video
Project (FPVP). I will be sure to keep the camera away from liquids and other
harmful substances, keep it in my sight or in a safe place at all times, and
return it to the English Department Office (5B) the morning after I borrow it. I
also promise to return the camera, fully charged, to the hands of one of the
Class 9 English teachers.
I understand that taking good care of the camera and returning it on time are
responsibilities that will earn me the opportunity to use the camera again.
Fulfilling my responsibilities will, moreover, ensure that my classmates have
access to the cameras too and will help build a Class 9 community full of trust
and good will.
Date:

31. Downloading from
YouTube
• http://www.mediaconverter.org/
• http://www.splandoo.com/
• http://clipnabber.com/
• http://www.zamzar.com
• http://www.vixy.net
• http://www.kcoolonline.com/
• http://www.videodownloadx.com/
Copy the URL of the video (not the embed code and not the
related video code) and go to any and all of the following sites:

32. Process Paper
• Did you rely on Chapin technology? If so, did you feel you
had enough access to it while working on this project?
• Is there a student or teacher who was particularly helpful
to you while working with the computer equipment?
• Do you have any suggestions for the teachers who
facilitate this project in the future?
• What did you learn in the process of completing this
project?
• What are you most proud of?
• Were you ever frustrated while completing this project? If
so, why?
• What would you do differently next time?
In a paragraph, please respond to the following
questions, in any order you choose.

33. The potential:
• to serve a variety of learning styles
• to ensure a long-term
understanding/memory of a poem and a
reading experience
• to build community (teacher-student,
student-student, parent-child/teacher)
• to offer a model for reading (reading as
rereading and as dialogue)
• to provide practice problem-solving
• to arm students with skills in technology

34. Mara Taylor
Chair, US English Department
The Chapin School
taylor@chapin.edu