Friday 2 November 2018

Digital Visual Poetry Tool

The Tool

About the Tool
Earlier this week my friend Andrew Fenstermaker reached out to ask me about a tool for making shaped poetry - a.k.a. concrete poetry.  I shared Visual Poetry - an online tool that allows you to paste in lines of text and then, using your mouse or track pad, have that text lay out on the page in any shape you desire.  This is an example of Robbert Burns’ poem “Red, Red Rose”.

How to Use the Tool (from the site)
1. Enter your text in the "Text" field.
2. Optional: Choose minimum size, maximum size, random angle, text color, and/or background color.
3. Click anywhere on the page, hold down the mouse and draw a picture.
4. Click "Clear" to start over or "Save" to save your drawing as an image.


Why I like it
I love the creativity aspects of this tool.  Students can make meaning not only with their words but also their art.

Three uses in education
1. The obvious - it allows students to create concrete poetry
2. Allow students to write, in any genre and attach images to the words to make more meaning.  I can see this working in procedural writing tasks.

This post is part of anual NaBloWriMo exercise wherein I  write a blog post every work day in November.

20 comments:

  1. I have browsed most of your posts. This post is probably where I got the most useful information for my research. Thanks for posting, maybe we can see more on this. Are you aware of any other websites on this subject.
    convert pdf to text file

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. what if you suck at drawing? I still need to write it, just can't write it in the shape of a star and I can't get it to look like a star in the editor!

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  4. The sharp cold air stung fingers as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The smell of bagels filled my nostrils as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The warm laughter from my family filled my heart as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The taste of the strange butter lingered on my tongue as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The feel of love in the library across the street kept my eyes as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The soft puffs of the 3 legged st. bernard drew my attention as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The thoughts of this snowy wonderland filled my brain as I sat on the hard wooden bench
    The thoughts of never leaving over flowed my soul as I sat on the hard wooden bench

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  5. oops posted my poem in the wrong place

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  6. One last day

    a second, an instant
    but I say goodbye
    for you once promised me until the end of time
    but today is my last day

    One last smile

    my heart
    gone with the wind
    so it will be
    there is only loss today

    One last laugh

    the bottomless pit comes upon me
    you promised me an eternity of laughter
    yes, you once promised me for eternity
    yes you put me to rest, in the abyss with no happiness

    One last breath

    don't cry for me, for you put me here
    one last breath
    I weep for life
    one last breath
    You say, all good things must end
    one last breath








    Do you guys like my poem

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  7. Where is the "text field?" I don't see anything like this on my document.

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