What can you learn from looking deeper into a photo of a Civil Rights demonstration or a refugee from Afghanistan? How do visual narratives inform our understanding of the world? How can poetry engage us with empathy as we learn about other people’s lives? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in this 3-day middle school residency. Using famous images or contemporary photos from today’s news events, students will learn the art of reading visuals to create powerful, original poems full of strong word choices and figurative language. Beginning with word lists and brainstorming and then developing observation techniques, students will see the world with keen eyes and learn to tell the story of a picture with poetic skill.
Artist Background
Michael Beadle is a poet, author and teaching artist with a passion for language, writing, and literature. His goal is to encourage, inspire, and challenge writers to express themselves so they can become more confident with writing and be lifelong learners and creative problem solvers. Since 1999, he’s taught thousands of students in poetry and creative writing workshops across the state and performed poetry at schools, libraries, churches and festivals. He’s the author of several poetry books, including What Makes a Giraffe Laugh?, Does Your Goblin Have a Problem?, and Foodtopia! His poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies including North Carolina Literary Review, Kakalak and River Heron Review. In addition to a 15-year career as a journalist, he’s worked as a high school English teacher, book reviewer, and freelance writer. Beadle has served as poet-in-residence at the NC Zoo, emcee for the NC Poetry Out Loud state finals, A+ Schools Fellow for staff development training, and student poetry contest coordinator for the NC Poetry Society.
Search Criteria
- Program Type: Workshop/Residency
- Discipline: Literary
- Grade Level: Middle
- Cultural Context: African-American, Asian, European, Middle Eastern
- Accepts bookings in Johnston County
