Back at the beginning of 2010, in the dark days before I had iPod Touches in the classroom, I came across a blog post by John Johnston (@johnjohnston) It told about an app that he had developed using Creative Common searches in Flickr and how he used this with a class of children in Scotland.
I was greatly impressed with how simple it was to write a type of poem called a Lune (Lune (poetry) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and how interesting the result looked.
Every year my school gets involved with a poetry competition and this seemed the perfect opportunity to try this app out ourselves.
I showed my class the video of John’s Lunes and we then discussed what pictures they would use. Initially the boys were going to search quite different groups of things but it was decided as the final plan was to turn it into a film as well using my new MacBook! that it would be better for the Lunes to have a common theme.
The children quickly got the hang of the app and took care in searching for ‘just the right picture’. I even learned something… there is an animal called a Liger (Liger Wikipedia)
After choosing the picture, writing the Lune and saving the picture the children shared their work with me using the app Bump.
Here are the children’s first attempts at writing Lunes and my first attempt at using iMovie on a Mac. Many thanks need to be added here to John Johnston not only for his great app and blog but also for his very helpful How To movie about making a Lunes iMovie ;o)
Please comment on the children’s work if you have a minute. They loved it last year when people did this ;o)
Like this:
Tags: iPod, iPod Touch, Lunes, poetry, writing
October 12, 2010 at 9:22 pm |
What fantastic work! I have never heard of a ‘Lune’ before and I love all the wonderful description you have included in these short poems.
October 12, 2010 at 9:27 pm |
Thank you so much for introducing me to a new form of poetry. I had not heard of lunes before but think I might use them with children that I teach.
I enjoyed the way that you combined images, words and sounds together and the words you chose described the animals very well.
I have an ipod touch so will try and write one of my own on it.
October 12, 2010 at 9:41 pm |
Thank you for sharing your great poetry! I would like to try this artform with my class. This will be especially beneficial for students who are also new to using the ipods in a classroom setting. My class and I are looking forward to more of your work!
October 13, 2010 at 6:58 am |
I really liked to hear your voices on the poems. It added to the poems immensely. Where can we get the flicker lunes app? Can we buy a copy? Hope to see some more of your work soon. Thanks.
October 13, 2010 at 7:17 am |
I have never heard of a lune. What interesting poetry.
Your work is wonderful. I sending this to the kids at the Paia Youth and Cultural Center in Paia, Maui, Hawaii.
Thank you!
October 13, 2010 at 7:17 am |
Goodness – how brilliant! Great pictures and such amazing wow words! Well done boys!
October 13, 2010 at 8:37 am |
Jack says: Thank you for watching.
Pat: I hope you like the next one.
Tyrique: Thank you for commenting.
Joseph: Thanks for watching. We really liked watching John Johnston’s as well. It was good!
We are now going to make another one…. right now.
October 13, 2010 at 9:20 am |
Thanks for sharing your lunes. Lots of sharp teeth! Great descriptive writing. I love the ‘watch out man’ which makes me feel the poet has really empathised with the divers. I am delighted you are writing lunes with your iPods and look forward to reading some more.
October 13, 2010 at 10:20 am |
What a great idea! I’d never heard of a lune, but will certainly be telling the rest of the teachers at our school about them. Will certainly show them your video down here in Victoria, Australia!
October 13, 2010 at 7:48 pm |
What a fantastic production. Well done all of you. The pictures, poems and music were really great. You’ve all done a wonderful job, you should be really proud.
October 13, 2010 at 8:41 pm |
I love this idea. Your work is brilliant. It’s so simple and yet so effective. I’d never heard of a Lune before either but I think I’ll have to get my class to make some. Well done to you all.
October 14, 2010 at 8:30 am |
@johnjohnston…..Pat would like you to know that the 1st animal is a Liger, it’s a tiger and a lion put together. It is illegal to breed it because you are basically playing God.
Tyrique says he really likes it that @johnjohnston got in touch.
Alfie says thank you for liking his work. (He’s the poet you referred to)
Joseph says to @johnjohnston: Thanks for watching the video. If it wasn’t for you we couldn’t have done it.
Pat says he hopes you like the next ones.
Jack says the fish was a wolf-fish.
October 14, 2010 at 10:11 am |
Hi Pat, I used to be a zookeeper so should have recognised the liger, but didn’t, thanks.
Tyrique & Alfie, I am very excited that someone is using something I’ve made. It is a bit like getting a comment on a poem you have written!
Everyone, your poems encourage me to try and improve my app, in the same way comments encourage you to write more poems.
October 15, 2010 at 9:30 pm |
What wonderful work! Thank you children for sharing. Can’t wait to introduce this new style of poetry to my little ones.
October 22, 2010 at 8:51 pm |
[...] or lesser degree of success. Co-incidentally, at the same time I read a blog post entitled “Writing Poetry with an iPod Touch” by Mary Farmer (@ebd35) where she explained how she had discovered a very easy app for [...]
January 30, 2011 at 4:29 pm |
This is another awesome idea. I have never heard of Lunes before, but I think I may try them with my class. I loved them!
January 30, 2011 at 4:40 pm |
Thanks very much for reading and commenting! You don’t even have to have iPods to do them as it is a web app and works the same on computers.You can use the ‘fake phone’ app http://johnjohnston.info/lunes/fakephone.html and when you finish choosing the picture and writing the lune you can right click and save the finished product!