The Titanic and Poetry writing Project

This idea came to me while in that "zone" one gets in while making 
copies. I thought of Edgar Lee Masters and the people in Spoon River 
Anthology and the movie Titanic was sweeping my students off their feet. 
So, I said, "Why not mix the two?"  Soon I had students researching the 
actual survivors and victims who were on the Titanic.  Each person chose 
a person to "be." They then wrote a poem from the point of view of the 
person.  When it was over, the students created a "ship" to sail outside 
of our classroom and each poem (with the photo of the person, if 
possible, found on line) was displayed on the ship.  

Many students later told me it was their favorite project of the year.

Jennifer Dickey
Smiths Station High School
Smiths Station, Alabama