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Poetry and Coding in the Elementary Classroom

Rachel Rothmeyer

Northwestern University

CSED 575

Layne Henn

July 16, 2023

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Poetry and Coding in the Elementary Classroom

After browsing Code.org, the lesson that I thought I would be most likely to implement in

my classroom was Animate a Poem Introduction. I am a Title Reading teacher, so I work with

small groups of students for about twenty to twenty-five minutes each day on a variety of reading

skills. Some groups still need phonics instruction, while other groups may just need

comprehension or reteaching of other skills. I thought this lesson would be a great way to tie in

computer science with English Language Arts, and more specifically, poetry. Poetry is often an

abstract topic for some students, which can lead to boredom if they do not understand it. I think

incorporating computer science with poetry could get some students who are not interested in

poetry more excited about it.

Prior to teaching this lesson, in regards to English Language Arts, I would have to give

direct instruction on what poetry is and give students plenty of exposure to different types of

poetry. We could spend a few days before beginning this lesson reading different poems,

discussing their purposes, and determining the moods of each poem. In regards to Computer

Science, students would need to have some exposure to Code.org coding before beginning this

project. However, the introduction video for this lesson does a nice job of explaining how to

animate the poem.

The objectives of this lesson are as follows: “students will be able to represent figurative

and literal language in a text, use code to animate shifts in the mood of a poem, and use event

blocks to trigger an action to occur at specific lines of the poem.” The Iowa Core standards that

are connected to this lesson are “RL.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are

used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology” and
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“RL4.7 Make connections between the text of a story of drama and a visual or oral

representation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and

directions in the text.” The ISTE standards that are connected to this lesson are “1.3.c Students

curate information from digital resources using a variety of tools and methods to create

collections of artifacts that demonstrate meaningful connections or conclusions,” “1.6.b Students

create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations,”

and “1.5.d Students understand how automation works and use algorithmic thinking to develop a

sequence of steps to create and test automated solutions.”

Throughout the duration of this lesson, students will be animating a poem with code to

show the mood of the poem. The students will get to pick which poem they want to illustrate.

Once students have decided which poem they want to illustrate, they will have to determine the

mood the author of the poem was trying to convey. Once they have determined the mood of the

poem, the students will find images and effects that correspond to the mood. Finally, students

will use code to add the images and effects to convey the mood of the poem. I think students

would really enjoy this, as they would have a lot of creative freedom, as long as they are able to

accurately convey the mood of the poem.

In order to encourage collaboration and cooperation, I think there are a few ways that this

could be done. The first way I think collaboration and cooperation could be encouraged is by

using paired programming. Students could complete this project with a partner. Another way I

think this could be encouraged is students who choose the same poem could be given time to

think, pair, and share their ideas of how they want to convey the mood of the poem before

getting started and creating their own projects. Finally, I think allowing students who want to

share their final projects is a great way to encourage collaboration.

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Finally, in order to determine student learning outcomes, the lesson provides a two sticky

note share-out option where students write one thing they learned about computer science on one

sticky note, and one thing they learned about poetry on the other. I think this is a great informal

assessment tool to see what students know and to guide future instruction. I also think I would

have students turn in their project so I could look at them. Finally, as mentioned above, in

addition to encouraging collaboration, I think having students have the opportunity to present

their finished projects would be a great way to assess the learning outcomes, as well.
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References

Animate a Poem Introduction - Lesson 1. Code.org. (n.d.-a).

https://studio.code.org/s/poetry-2023/lessons/1

Grade 4: Literacy. Grade 4 | Literacy | Iowa Department of Education. (n.d.).

https://educateiowa.gov/standard/literacy/grade-4-literacy

ISTE Standards: Students. ISTE. (n.d.).

https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-students