Tag Poetry: Playing With A Concept

May 2010

Site Tracking

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

Tag Poetry

Yesterday, Nancy White suggested that we add having the students create poetry from their tags. I was dashing out the door to get to the site in Dorchester, MA, but loved the idea so much I quickly responded via my treo (before I started driving).

When I got back from on-site work (reflections on that follow) and finished my mommy shift, I discovered that Nancy wrote a poem with her tags. Isn't it wonderful how work avoidance sparks our creative juices.

I wondered outloud in a comment. "What if you linked your tag words to something? Like your Flickr photos or your delicious bookmarks ....

So, the flow or sequence would go something like this:

* Read poems by poet (offline in books)
* Talk about the poems with peers facilitated by instructor (face-to-face)

* Browse Internet related sources online comlpeting mini lessons posted in blog
* Write a poem in their blog
* Bookmark their blog page/poem/post in delicious using selected words as tags
* Find another student's delicious bookmarked post with the same tag
* Link to it from their poem

Nancy reminded me of my Arts Wire days when she responded:

So what you are proposing is actually creating a network of poems. Did you ever seen the Noon Quilt project that was done by trAce online?
It was pre-tag days, but another look at hyperlinked poetry. The theme was the tag, in some sense.

My time onsite at the afterschool program was very exciting yesterday, but also had to push the pause button. I had come prepared with a general concept and the goal of exposing the staff and computer lab volunteers with the possibilities. They were excited about it and I jumped into doing a little how-to training -- it was the first time I showed someone else how to use blogger or delicious having just learned these tools myself a few days ago. I don't think I did the best job of making it very simple and easy which I'm working on now for our next meeting (step-by-step instructions with screen captures and simplified work processes).

Well off to write up a scope and sequence for this, instructional materials, and get my head back into instruction mode - I'm a little rusty.

Checked into their new delicious account and they are adding more links. Wow, some great afterschool program links and more ....