Portrait Poem
An Introductory Assignment

Part 1

This assignment introduces poetry to children and serves as a community-building activity. Please look at the examples of the portrait poems (the templates, the examples by your instructors and ASU students, and the examples by children). After looking through these, your assignment is to write a portrait poem that tells us something about you. Include illustrations or photographs that represent you. Please label these, so we understand the connection to you. These should be typed into your blog for class, pictures inserted (illustrations may need to be scanned and then inserted); use the about page in your blog for this assignment.

I would also like you to complete an acrostic poem about yourself. Look at the examples; then complete the poem and post to your blog in the about page.

A suggestion is that you first use MSWord to write these so that you can edit for spelling, grammar, and word usage. Once you are satisfied with your poem, you can copy and paste into your blog.

Remember to consult the list of adjectives and lists of character trait words for ideas and inspiration--you want to use interesting and unusual words, not the everyday words that are so familiar. In this way this activity stretches students vocabulary--something that will be stressed in this course.

Ask if you have questions about this assignment.

Part 2 (for internship field placement and student teaching)

You will be modifying your poem to use as an introduction to your students in your intern classroom. You might need to modify your portrait poem to fit the grade that you will be interning. For example, if you are placed in a first-grade you will need to simplify your poem. Or, you may select a Me Map activity as an alternative for this introduction (see Me Map assignment and examples). After creating or modifying your poem (or Me Map), use it to tell students in your internship a little about yourself. Allow the students to ask you questions. If possible, it would be nice if you could ask your students to create a Me Map or simple poem to introduce themselves to you. You will be asked to reflect on this part of the activity and to turn that in at the end of the semester.