Grade 7 AEP students have recently been involved in a unit focusing on natural disasters. They have been reading non-fiction articles on the causes and effects of earthquakes as well as narratives written by survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. They also viewed paintings of volcanoes and wrote descriptions.

In response to the Unit Question “What are the effects of different natural disasters?” students wrote acrostic poems about a natural disaster they chose to research themselves. After finishing their writing, they discussed how to best present these poems to their peers.

The class was lucky to have A. Mtheto, a spoken word poet and performer, visit the class and share some tips with the group. He discussed his process in deciding how best to perform a selected poem and supported the students in deciding how they wanted to share theirs.

While this activity was valuable in giving students a chance to practice both writing and speaking, it was also challenging in asking students to evaluate their own work and make a judgement on how it would best be presented to an audience. Students took risks in sharing ideas in a new way.

Please see some examples of the students’ acrostic poems below, as well as some videos of their performances.

Frank

Brisingr

Ling and Ken