English Department Comes Together to Create in Advance of Hansell Poet Visit

The 7th grade reads a lot of poetry throughout the year. Sometimes we write our own poems in response to work we have read, and sometimes we respond visually to the written word.

Each year before our Jeanne Harris Hansell Endowed Poet visits Parker, I ask my students to read a curated selection of the poet’s work and select a line or a phrase from one of the poems that evokes a visual image for them.

Using beautiful, handmade papers and craft or white card stock, they create a collage that represents the image the poem inspired for them. They can be realistic, work in an abstract way or create in any way that feels appropriate to the poem and the visual, but they must incorporate the line of poetry in their collage.

This year our department has spent time sharing curricular ideas, and when it was my turn, this is the project I chose to share. I gave the department members a collection of Julian Randall’s poems and rich art materials to work with. The results were bright and varied, and the character of Randall’s poems comes through the images created. 

The posters are these collages.