Welcome to the project where anything is possible: creative writing, poetry, argument, rhetoric, and research all have a home in this unique makerspace project for secondary ELA students.
The Northern Lights are an incredible phenomenon of the natural world. As ELA teachers, we can sometimes get stuck in the day-to-day of reading books and teaching writing, but this makerspace project taps into the overlapping beauty between science, creative writing, and human nature.
ONE PROJECT -- TWO WAYS
Option 1: Creative Writing
If you're looking for a new way to teach extended metaphor and give students a chance to write using this poetic technique, this project is for you. After studying the Northern Lights, students use their research as a metaphor for something in their own lives that extends throughout their poems. I even share with you my own sample seen below the description box. After writing their poems (guided by the exercises in the lesson) students then create their very own oil/chalk pastel drawing of the Northern Lights. When the poem is printed and the art piece completed, hang them in your classroom or in the hallway for an inspirational and unique visual for any one walking by.
SPEECHLESS
At any given moment,
energized particles from the sun
blast against Earth’s upper atmosphere.
They slam against our magnetic shield as fast as
forty five million miles per hour.
We stand, ankle deep in fresh snow,
looking up at a rainbow sky. Breathless.
Speechless.
The fluorescent hospital lights
illuminate the blood
and the rooms are not soundproofed.
White knuckles and beaded sweat,
one more push
And in an instant the pain is over.
They lay there in the bed, together,
looking down at the little one
who can’t see yet.
His first breath.
Speechless.
Option 2: Rhetorical Analysis and Argument
If you're not feeling the creative writing angle, this project can also be done by examining the luxury and unique travel sector of the tourism industry. Many unique and historical sites have surged in exposure due to new forms of marketing for tourists to visit these locations. Ask your students:
Are unique travel experiences more likely to protect the environment or exploit it?
Using the Northern Lights and the various communities in Canada, Norway, Iceland and other Nordic regions, students will step-by-step examine the ways in which tourism can both help and harm cultures and communities around the world. Culminate this study with the same makerspace project or make it your own with an essay or socratic seminar!
WHO IS IT BEST SUITED FOR?
This project can be used with varying levels of scaffolding in grades 6-12.
