INTRODUCTION

The ballad--a story told in rhyming verse--is a form of expression common to many countries around the world. It has been a way of passing down oral traditions, and continues today in many traditional and modern forms, including various kinds of popular music. How can we use the structure of the ballad to help students develop their creativity and their facility with language? What can students learn from a creative, ballad-writing partnership with students in another place?

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In this project, students learn about the ballad form as a way of telling stories in verse, and then write their own ballads, in partnership with students in a distant classroom. Throughout the project, the Internet provides a communication link, and a class Web site (created ahead of time by the teacher) serves as a collaborative workspace and publishing forum.

Phase 1: Learning about ballads

After identifying a partner classroom (see Preparation), launch the project with a discussion about how people have told stories throughout history, touching on epic poems, songs of heroic deeds, and ballads. Ask students for examples of modern storytelling that borrow from these traditional forms.

Next, invite groups of three or four to explore the unit on Ballads in The Writing Trek. In this unit, students read model ballads, learn about the elements of ballads, and are given opportunities to test their knowledge and practice writing this type of poetry. When they have completed the unit, ask groups to write (in AppleWorks) short reports entitled "What We Have Learned About Writing Ballads," which will be shared with students in the partner classroom in Phase 2.

Groups exchange email messages with their contacts in the partner classroom, introducing themselves, describing the project and how it will work, and sending their reports on writing ballads.

Phase 2: Beginning the stories

Ask groups to invent a main character about whom they'd like to write a ballad. Groups brainstorm different characters, agree on a particular one, and then flesh out this character by defining some of his or her characteristics. Groups can also define a second character with whom the main character will interact.

Using a Web page editor such as Netscape Composer, each group creates a Web page for the ballad that they will write (together with the partner group) about the character. This page contains a short description and image of the character, and a description of the partner group in the distant classroom (see the Web Ballads Template).

Groups write four-line stanzas to begin their ballads, and give the ballads titles. The stanzas each have a rhyming scheme, determined by the group, that will be followed for the remainder of the ballad. Each group writes its stanza directly on the Web page it began at the beginning of this phase.

Phase 3: Taking turns telling the story

Each group posts its Web page to the class ballad site (see Preparation). It then sends an email to its contact in the partner classroom, announcing that the ballad has been posted. It is then the partner group's turn to write a stanza.

The partner group writes its stanza, and sends it to the group via email. The group then meets to write another stanza that continues the story. Once this stanza is written, the group adds both new stanzas to the Web page and reposts the page to the class ballad site.

Phase 4: Taking stock

Each group repeats the process outlined in Phase 3, until, by mutual agreement, the ballad is completed. When all the ballads have reached a conclusion, each group reads its collaboratively written ballad to the entire class. In a follow-up class discussion, students talk about what they learned.