Bio-Poems and Word Clouds

As part of our identity theme, we've been really exploring different facets of ourselves - our likes and dislikes, the role within our family, what our dreams and aspirations are, how we would describe ourselves to others.

The students have all written a "bio-poem", following a set pattern. They turned out quite lovely, especially when coupled with their self-portraits. Here is an example:

First Name (redacted to keep private)
Child of Ore and Ade
Who loves video games
Who wants to go to Canada
Who wishes he could meet Bill Nye
Who is scared of guns
Who dreams of being a scientist
Who is determined to be president
Who is proud of his dad
Who lives in Ypsilanti
Last Name (redacted to keep private)

We also did beautiful word clouds using the website Wordle. This came on the heels of learning about nouns and adjectives. After brainstorming quite an impressive list on the board, students take turns sitting one-on-one with me to name all the adjectives and nouns that describe themselves. Then they scroll through all the layout and color options until they come to one they like best. Here are some we did yesterday (I have just a few students left - all should be done by Art-Music Cafe tonight, along with bio-poems and self portraits - come look!):