Genre Information

Last Will and Testament:
http://www.usattorneylegalservices.com/will-and-testament.html

http://dspace.oakland.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/10323/15/1/will.pdf

http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/Multimodal-Learning-Through-Media.pdf

http://www.ri.cmu.edu/pub_files/pub1/vo_m_t_1995_1/vo_m_t_1995_1.pdf

I honsetly didnt find any "authors" use a Will how I used it, but I simply researched how Wills were layed out. I also had to do some research on what beaches were around Wrightsville Beach and some of the other details about those beaches, like the fish, etc. I also did a little reasearch on why multi-modal projects are good for students and I really was shocked as to how well they work for students. I found a website that is listed above that has a graph/diagram that shows how this type of "information" is trasnsfered and how it influences people.

I Am Poem/Portrait Poems:

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/portrait.html

http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/iampoem.htm

http://www.helium.com/items/814022-what-is-an-i-am-poem-and-how-can-it-be-used-in-the-classroom

Writing the I Am poem was fairly simple, seeing as to how this poem has a specific way of writing it. The technique that I think is tricky and helpful to know is how to start off the first line. All the poems that I saw were mostly written by children and honestly their first line wasnt catchy enough for me. I wanted something that was going to grab attention. I also found some pedegogy on teaching this in my classroom which I found was important for me doing this poem myself.

Shape/Concrete Poems:

Blue Lipstick Concrete Poems By: John Grandits

A Poke in the I Editor: Paul B. Janeczko

http://www.netrover.com/~kingskid/poetry/shape_poems.htm

http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/2776.aspx


I LOVED this genre! The book by John Grandits was probably THE most amazing book I have ever seen. I opened it and I was blown away by his creativeness! I based my concrete poem off of a few of his in his book. He used some shapes of pictures and then used the words to create the rest and that is what I did. He used a computer program to do his and I downloaded it myself but it was a complete disaster trying to figure it out. I still feel like his concrete poems are THE best. You should definetly check out this book. I found another good website that talks about the teaching of this type of poetry that I found helpful in designing my own poem.

A Walk Along The Beach

With the Shape poem, that was a struggle in itself. I wanted to do one, but I couldn't figure out how I could compose it on the computer. I found an AMAZING book that really helped me out and in the back of the book it told the program the author used to create his Shape poems. [This program was THE hardest to figure out and it ended up being an EPIC fail for me, simply because technology and I are not the best of friends.] But honestly, the process for me developing this Shape poem was pretty simple. I took my Home piece at the beginning of the year and created a simple poem for it. Then I was feeling really creative and I made this cute little beach umbrella and I made a makeshift version of a Shape poem. I forgot that I actually already revised my Home piece until I looked through my DayBook. I found it and decided to make it into a real Shape poem. I found some cute clip art things of sandals and beach umbrellas and did a little bit of a crafty contraption and wrote out the poem by myself. I think this is one of my favorite pieces!

I Am...

I AM

I am a lonely granddaughter.
I wonder if I could be just like my grandmother.
I hear people say how alike we are...
I see photos of her and see how beautiful she was.
I want to meet her, someday, in heaven, cause
I am a lonely granddaughter.

I pretend that she is always with me, laughing.
I feel her presence when I am in need.
I touch quilts and clothes that she handmade.
I worry I wont ever be like her, and
I cry knowing I never got a hug and a kiss from her.
I am a lonely granddaughter.

I understand how important it is to never forget her, so
I say to people how wonderful I know she was.
I dream of one day meeting her.
I try to send her balloons to heaven,
I hope she gets them, because that's all I can give for now.
I am a lonely granddaughter.

This Portait poem has evolved into something heartfelt about my Grandmother from my Name piece. Since I was named after her, I felt it suited this situation very well.
In creating the I am poem, I had to do a little research on what a Portrait poem really was. I found some interesting examples and a few good websites that really explained how creative you can be with these types of poems. I took my Name piece in which I talked about who I was named after, my Grandmother. I decided to do an I Am poem simply because in my original piece of the Name activity, I talked about how I felt like people expected me to be like her and instead, I have come to find out that I am simply, me. I started looking at what I Am poems really consisted of and how to come up with a catchy beginning. I basically just took all my feelings that followed along with the generated format of the Portrait poem I chose. It really is an easy way to express your feelings. I struggled coming up with the repetition line simply because I needed something catchy and meaningful. I think I have captured that very well.

Last Will and Testament of Wrightsville Beach

First off, I chose to do a Last Will and Testament as a revision for my Multi Modal piece. The beach is where I feel like I am most at home, and I simply stated all the things I love about the beach in this will. I went through some tough times with this Multi-Modal piece because I literally had no clue what I wanted to do with the piece to begin with. I started with an acrostic poem, but honestly, it just didn't give my love for the beach justice. Then I came up with the idea of the Will and it really blossomed from there. I chose pictures that really stirred up emotions for me and the crashing beach waves gave me such a relaxing feeling that I HAD to put them in this video.

About the Author

Hi, my name is Amber and I am a Middle Grades Education major here at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. I am not a writer that thinks fast and comes up with ideas off the top of my head. I think, redo, change, delete, and revise everything I do at least ten times before I think it is what one would call "finished". I believe that no work is completely "finished" because all work can be revised for improvements.

After all of this, I think my ePortfolio has turned out to be a great success, simply due to my creativeness. As I have continuously said, I think that when a writer gets as creative as possible, it really allows the work being created to expand and become something great. I love how things come together when you least expect it, and that is exactly what I did with this project.