Brief Description

Prior to this lesson students will have spent 2 class periods in the computer lab learning about acrostic poetry by looking at an acrostic website and typing one acrostic poem of their choice.  For this lesson, the students will be connecting to the same acrostic website as before, and looking at acrostic poetry in history, particularly primary source material in the form of newspaper clippings from the 1700’s where readers wrote acrostic poems praising their president, George Washington.  Students will then choose a person they would like to research and find information online about the person they chose and write an acrostic poem using both the first and last name of the person using the biographical information found online.  Finally, the students will publish their poems online.

Standards and Frameworks

    Technology Standards

        5T-F-1:  Technology Research Tools.

•     PO 2:  Locate information in a resource selected by the teacher.

     Arizona State Writing Standard 3: Concept 1-Expressive Writing

• PO 2:  Write in a variety of expressive forms (e.g., poetry, skit) that may employ rhythm.

    Arizona State Writing Standard 6:  Research Writing

• PO 1:  Paraphrase information from at least one source (e.g., internet, reference materials)
• PO 2:  Organize notes in a meaningful sequence

Academic

• Using information gathered from an internet site, students will successfully paraphrase in writing, the important biographical information about a person of their choice in the form of an acrostic poem, using the first and last name of the person selected, scoring at least a 3 on all parts of the Biography Acrostic Rubric.
• Using the website Biography.com, students will take notes about a person of their choice, having gathered at least 5 biographical details.
  

• Using the website Biography.com, students will locate biographical information about a person of their choice with 100% accuracy.

• Students need to have prior experience accessing Internet websites as directed by the teacher.  Students need to have prior experience using word processing with programs such as Microsoft Word, using formatting techniques including bold, underline, center, font size and style.

• Access to computer lab with both Microsoft Word, Internet, and printer
• Writing paper and pencil for taking notes off the web

Special Education - Special Education Students may also benefit from breaking down the lesson into smaller increments, as in starting with just the first name of the person to be researched.  Information from Biography.com could be printed out and highlighted ahead of time by the teacher.  The teacher may also allow the students to dictate their poem if writing is a difficulty.

 ADD/ADHD – This lesson may be broken down even further for ADD/ADHD students.  In the computer lab, these students may benefit from using the earphones to mute out the distractions.  These students also benefit from close proximity of the teacher during less structured note taking tasks to help them retain focus.

Procedures

Day 1:

1. Verify that all students have permission to access and publish on the Internet.
2. In the computer lab, have all students access the Internet.
3. Have the students type in the following web address

http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/dhummon/acrostics/acrostics.html

4. Once on the website, have students click on the link titled “Acrostics in History,” and then click on the link to “George Washington Acrostics.” 
5. Ask the students to look at the five acrostic poems published about George Washington during the 1700’s.  Have them discuss the meaning of the poems.  How did the writers feel about George Washington? 
6. Ask the students to think about writing an acrostic poem about a person.  Have them think about whom they would write about.  

7. Explain to the students that are going to write an acrostic poem about a person of their choice using both their first and last name.  Tell the students that they are going to research biographical facts about the person, and then put them in the form of an acrostic poem.  They will then type the poems using Microsoft Word, and the poems will be submitted to the Acrostic Website for publishing. 
8. In order to gather biographical information, the students need to access the website called Biography.com by going to the following website:

http://www.biography.com/

9. Have the students type in the name of the person they would like to research in the “Search” bar and begin taking notes on note cards, or in their writing notebook.  Allow time for the students to search and take notes. 

Day 2 - 3:

1. In the computer lab, have students log onto the Internet.  Have them access Biography.com again and continue to gather biographical information about the person they have decided to research. 
2. Once students have finished note taking, have them begin writing a rough draft of the acrostic poem.  Remind students that each line of the acrostic must begin with the letters of their persons first and last name in a logical sequence.
3. The students should write and edit a rough draft of their acrostic during this period and the next.  They need to have finished editing and be ready to type their final draft by the next time in the computer lab. 

Day 4:

1. In the computer lab, have the students open a blank Microsoft Word document.
2. Have the students select a font style and size and type their name, date, and time in the top right hand corner of the document.
3. Have the students skip two lines and select Center, Bold, and Underline and make the font size 36.  The students should then type their title. 
4. Then, the students need to turn off the Center and Underline and skip two lines to start typing their poem.
5. Students should type the letters of their person’s name in bold font and a larger font than they have selected for the rest of their writing.  After each letter is typed, they need to hit the Enter key to type the person’s full first and last name.
6. After the name is typed, the students need to return the cursor to the first letter of the person’s first name, take off the bold and return the font size to the regular font size and write the rest of the acrostic poem. 
7. Students need to print one copy of their poem when they are done and save the poem to their own file.

The teacher will copy and send the poems for publishing to the address provided by the acrostic website:

http://www.holycross.edu/departments/socant/dhummon/acrostics/acrostics.html