Poems, Prose, and Drama

In this unit the students will explore the elements of poems, prose, and drama. This webquest can be used to guide you and your students in completing the objectives of this unit with detailed instructions to follow and examples. Good luck and have fun exploring!

In the next process, the students will complete objectives one through six with the help of a teacher. The objectives include:

1. Introduce the definitions of poetry, prose, and drama with the different characteristics of each. The teacher will use a nearpod, prezi, or powerpoint to introduce the topics. (15 minutes)

2. In groups, students will be given examples of poems and must highlight the different structural elements (verse, rhythm, and meter) within the poems. (10 minutes)

3. In groups, students will be given examples from dramas and must define the characters, setting, important dialogue, stage directions, and theme within the excerpts. (10 minutes)

4. In groups, students will be given examples of prose, poems, and drama, and they must identify which category each piece of writing falls into. (10 minutes)

5. The class can review the elements of each style of writing by playing a game of Jeopardy. (20 minutes)

6. Students will then be paired in groups and choose which style of writing they would like to write (prose, poetry, or drama), and then they will present their writing to the class by acting it out. They will collaborate using Google Docs and highlight the aspects of their writing that meets the criteria for either prose, poetry, or drama. (45 minutes to create, 25 minutes for presentations)

By the end of this process, students will have explored examples of poems, poetry, and drama. They will complete a mind map of an example of drama, a class post-it note activity, a class review jeapordy game, and a group presentation on their chosen topic. Examples of these tasks are included in the process page of this webquest along with links to resources. 

Objective 1: Introduce the definitions of poetry, prose, and drama with the different characteristics of each. The teacher will use a nearpod, prezi, or powerpoint to introduce the topics. (15 minutes)

     Nearpod allows teachers to upload a powerpoint that they have made previously and add links and questions to their powerpoint. Then, teachers can give their students a class code to join their presentation by typing in their code and their name. Questions can be posed to all of your students throughout the presentation and you can review their answers instantaneously. I have included a screencast linked below about how to use Nearpod along with the account information for the Nearpod presentation that I made. This presentation includes the definitions and elements of poetry, prose, and poems. It will also have video and example links throughout the presentation on examples of poetry, prose, and drama. Finally, there will be questions in the presentation to assess your students knowledge and understanding of the content.

Nearpod Presentation Screencast Link:https://youtu.be/3ujjjZMXJLM

Nearpod Website Link: https://nearpod.com/

Account Information:

Nearpod Username: educbgleibel@gmail.com

Nearpod Password: IUteaching

Objective 2: In groups, students will be given examples of poems and must highlight the different structural elements (verse, rhythm, and meter) within the poems. (10 minutes)

     Giggle Poetry is a website for students to explore the many types of poetry that there are. Students can explore previously written poetry, read instructions for writing different types of poetry, participate in poetry theater (reading poetry as a group), and play poetry games. The best part of this website is that the example poetry is fun and innovative while also relating to subjects that kids relate to.

Giggle Poetry-http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass.aspx

Objective 3: In groups, students will be given examples from dramas and must define the characters, setting, important dialogue, stage directions, and theme within the excerpts. (10 minutes)

     Popplet is a mind mapping tool that teachers and students can edit at the same time on. This can be used after a teacher shows a video of a drama. Then, the teacher can have the students create a mind map in class of the different elements of drama that were shown in the video. You can show the students the videos that we have included below along with any other videos you choose. Then, you can allow students to work in groups to create a mind map of the elements of drama they saw in each video. I have also attached a screencast on how to use popplet below.

Popplet Website Link: http://popplet.com/app/

Popplet Screencast Link: https://youtu.be/-1i2DZNguZs

Popplet Example Link: http://popplet.com/app/#/3618842

Example Video Link: https://youtu.be/MVU1aeJdBfM?t=1s

Objective 4: In groups, students will be given examples of prose, poems, and drama, and they must identify which category each piece of writing falls into. (10 minutes)

     The Post-it app allows teachers to collect students ideas and thoughts on a particular concept. A teacher will create a post it note activity for his or her class. After all of the post-it notes have been collected and posted on the whiteboard, a teacher can use the app to take a picture of all of the post-it notes. The app will allow the teacher to store the information on each of the post it notes and share it with the class to use for future reference. With this app, you can organize the information about poetry, prose, and drama into categories so that the students can understand the aspects of each and pair the different structural elements with their specific style of writing. We have provided an example of how this information can be classified and stored with this app below.

Post-It App Example Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2L6MriQZGJbTDZZd0NrbDJVRk0/view?usp=sharing

Post-It App Tutorial Video: https://youtu.be/ztXqmZVrKpY

App Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/post-it-plus/id920127738?mt=8

Objective 5: The class can review the elements of each style of writing by playing a game of Jeopardy. (20 minutes)

     Jeopardy is a technology tool that allows teachers to create an interactive quiz in the format of a game show. The teacher is able to customize many questions for the students to answer within different categories that they will choose from. Jeopardy allows you to organize the information into categories, making it easier for students to comprehend the information and differentiate between poetry, prose, and drama respectively. The jeopardy game includes information on the definitions of poetry, prose, and drama, the structural elements of each, and some examples of the writings that the students would have to classify. We have included an example jeopardy game involving this lesson.

Jeopardy Game Link: https://www.jeopardy.rocks/prosepoetryanddrama

Objective 6: Students will then be paired in groups and choose which style of writing they would like to write (prose, poetry, or drama), and then they will present their writing to the class by acting it out. They will collaborate using Google Docs and highlight the aspects of their writing that meets the criteria for either prose, poetry, or drama. (45 minutes to create, 25 minutes for presentations)

Students will be evaluated based on their participation in Objective 1 through 5. For objective 6, the rubric to asses students on their project can be found below. 

Objective 6 Rubric: https://iu.box.com/s/597clh8k2jkyg2xciqxhfdebjxaazfk1

Now that you have completed Objectives 1 through 6 you should be ready to face the world with your knowledge of poems, prose, and drama. Poems, prose, and drama can be seen in books, newspapers, and other media that you read in your daily life. If you wish to explore more about these topics, try your local library to find books, newspapers, magazines, and many other sources that have been written recently and in the past. Have fun exlporing!