Walking into the bright atrium of Lyseth Elementary School in Portland, you are met by giant black-and-white photographs of the 20 students in Leigh Quigley’s 4th-grade class. Hanging from the skylight are even more pictures, pictures that students took after learning photography elements like composition, light, and focal point from professional photographer Liz Bieber. Proud adults gather around, taking pictures of student work. As you walk to the end of the atrium, framed images of students and the poetry they wrote, the conclusion to a poetry unit designed to build empathy, understanding, and community within the classroom, hang on the wall in neat rows.
The unit began as a single-focus poetry unit where students were exposed to classic and modern poets and forms and then transferred their learning to create original poetry that captured their voices. After a visit to the Bowdoin Museum of Art, student’s curiosity and excitement transformed the single focus into a multidisciplinary unit that included original photography. Students added knowledge and skills around photography to their poetry knowledge and applied those skills by taking candid and studio pictures of their peers that would accompany their poetry. Once photos were taken and poetry was written, students created frames, chose pictures, and typed their poems, which included different fonts and effects that emphasized certain words and phrases.
4th-grade student Patrick explained his choice of purposely using lowercase letters to “make it different than the others.”
The final products were mounted in the atrium, where they would be a prominent addition and visible to every member of the school community.
“I really like taking pictures and writing poetry,” 4th grade student Grace shared. “The hardest part was figuring out what to write, but I used a poem we read before for inspiration.”
Mrs. Quigley noticed an increase in student engagement but also grew professionally herself. “Working with them every day opened my eyes to new ways of thinking. They provided a fresh take on the subject matter through their unique interpretations.”
This project gave students an opportunity to share their voices, but it also has had ripple effects throughout the school. Lyseth principal Sara Goodall shared that “kids, families, and staff are asking and excited to learn more” and that “less than a week after it opened, Lyseth is exploring a photography club.”
The student voice in their poetry, the choice of which photos to use to illustrate their poetry, the community gathering to celebrate, and the ripple effects it has caused throughout the school are concrete examples of the school’s core value of “we all belong here at Lyseth.”
This story was a collaboration between the Maine Department of Education’s Interdisciplinary Instruction (II) Team and Lyseth Elementary School. If you are interested in collaborating with the Maine DOE’s II Team to showcase your school’s interdisciplinary instructional work, reach out to Kathy Bertini at kathy.bertini@maine.gov. You can also submit Maine school highlights to Maine DOE’s Good News Submission Form.