Storm

Present the poem in a multimodal format.

Read the poem to the class without the illustration. Draw students’ attention to any unfamiliar vocabulary (slick down, mosaic) and to the use of simile and metaphor in the poem:

his body as glistened and oiled / as a folded down umbrella

in a mosaic of water reflection

Explain to students that they will create and deliver a multimodal presentation of this poem. It will require them to highlight key words to emphasise in their reading of the poem, accompanied by illustrations of each line and (advanced) a use of sound effects or music to create mood.

Show students an example of an illustrated poem (suggested resource: Miller's End by Charles Causely). Explain that given the length of ‘Storm’ students should have an illustration for each line of the poem.

Provide students with a copy of the text of the poem. Ask them to reread the poem carefully, highlighting the words that they will illustrate and underlining the words that they will emphasise in their reading. For example:

Absolutely no-one out

in this slick down rain,

except a black crow

Then distribute a seven cell storyboard template. Students quickly draft their sequence of images onto this storyboard. Encourage students to be creative and interpretive, especially with figurative language. Ask them how they would represent a crow that looks like a folded down umbrella, or raindrops that hit puddles like a mosaic?

Give students the option of how they create their illustrations and publish their work. For example, students could use a mixture of collage and drawing, such as the image of a crow and then choose colours for the background. Alternatively, they could draw their illustrations on a digital platform such as Microsoft Paint 3D. Students can experiment with turning key words into images, or emphasising them using size or shape. You may also want students to incorporate sound effects or soundscapes using a creative commons search tool like Freesound.

Finally, once students have created their seven illustrations, they should compile them into a presentation document (Google Slides, Microsoft PowerPoint or Canva). Students then have the option of prerecording their reading of the poem and embedding it into the presentation (for guidance, see the Canva instruction page: Capture every move with our free online video recorder). As an alternative, they can read the poem aloud while launching their presentation.