Page 138 - Resources and Support for the Online Educator

Visual Poetry Projects and Movie Making 69

I might annotate the sonnet displayed on a SMART Board or under a document
camera so students can see my interaction with the sonnet, as well. Then, I
post another sonnet on the board, and together we read it aloud and examine
it closely, trying to make sense of Shakespeare’s words and meaning. This is an
opportunity for students to articulate their questions and meaning making. We
might reread the sonnet multiple times or chunk it into stanzas to summarize,
outline, and synthesize. Lastly, I give students in small groups or independent-
ly a third sonnet to try on their own. This teaching formula is a gradual release
for students becoming independent thinkers and readers of complex text.

For my ELL students or students with learning differences, I sometimes
include a word bank with definitions under the sonnet. Additionally, I
might ask them to draw a picture of the images that come to their minds as
they are reading. Visuals are helpful for many learners. Resources, such as
SparkNotes’ No Fear Shakespeare site offer modern English translations of
Shakespeare’s texts that students can access for better understanding.

The most challenging aspect of Shakespeare for students today is his lan-
guage. When students read Shakespeare, they often struggle to make sense
of what he is saying because it is almost a foreign language for many. One
way to help students to make sense of Shakespeare’s language is to show
them a few Pop Sonnets, which turn popular songs into Shakespearean
sonnets, and have them figure out what contemporary song the sonnet
is channeling. Pop Sonnets can be found on the Tumblr page popsonnet.
tumblr.com or in Erik Didriksen’s collection Pop Sonnets: Shakespearean
Spins on Your Favorite Songs (2015). Similarly, in the William Shakespeare’s
Star Wars series of books, Ian Doescher depicts George Lucas’ epic movies in
Elizabethan English. These are fun to read or listen to and inspire students to
think how they might remix one of their own favorite tales and transform it
into a sonnet or poem. For these remix and Pop Sonnet assignments, I do not
require students to write in Shakespearean English but do require students
to modify the language to follow the sonnet rhyme scheme. An assignment
like this is more complex for secondary students and again, a graphic
organizer is helpful for students to draft their Pop Sonnets in the correct
rhyme scheme to match Elizabethan English sonnet formula. Imagine what
you might inspire if you assigned students to find a contemporary text and
rewrite it into Shakespeare’s Elizabethan English.

Excerpted from Chapter 4, “Poetry: Traditional, Visual, Makerspace.”

New Realms for Writing: Inspire Student Expression with Digital Age Formats 138