Teaching Poetry Spring 2008: Part 3 of Taboo Shape Poems

Today's third and final part to the Taboo Shape Poem workshop was pretty simple:

1. Bring in 2 typed copies of revised taboo poem.
2. Cut the poem into strips, line by line, trimming off the white space at the beginning and ends of the lines. (Cut up only one of the copies; the other is for reference.)
3. Draw the silhouette of an image that you want to represent your poem. (ex. balloon, lips, book, sword)
4. Layout the strips of the taboo poem on top of the silhouette until satisfied, then glue the strips down.

That was it, and the results varied greatly - from a basic box to a kid riding in a shopping cart.

Although it gave me joy to work with the students, it was how the teacher, Andy Burt, could kick back and engage in the activity with his class, too.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2008: Part 2 of Taboo Shape Poems

My Discourse on Revisions
Part 2 was probably the most boring yet important lesson for the students. I discussed the importance of revisions, as well as techniques. I touched upon the following approaches:

• Read it out loud - In all forms of writing, especially poetry, it is crucial to read your work out loud. This is most helpful in identifying issues with flow.
• Ask someone else to read it, just not your friends or family - Those who care for you most likely will tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. You can't trust those close to you; they love you too much to tell you the truth. On a humorous note, Andy Burt, the teacher, declared that his wife has no problem telling him what he's doing wrong.
• Consider word choice - Do the words work for you? Do they cause confusion or add clarity? Are your verbs descriptive or weak?

My Model of Critique
After discussing these revision techniques, I called one student to the front of the class and we swapped poems. I read his out loud, with slight troubles due to choppy penmanship, then proceeded to answer the following questions:

1. What is the poem about?
2. What words helped you figure out what the poem was about?
3. What words confused you?
4. How would you revise the poem?

Breaking Up Friendships
Since I told them not to ask friends for feedback, I began to pair the students up with other students they normally would never talk to. The process of actually getting them to pair up, instead of group up, was a touch difficult. They just kept meandering back into these buddy clumps. Eventually, they got some feedback and returned to their desks to begin revising their poems based on the feedback they received.

I had to spend a bit of time at the end providing one-on-one feedback to those who felt they didn't get anything substantial from their partners. One particular student even spent time after class to get my advice, although she needed little. The most I could advise her was to explore the deeper meanings behind her word choices and to try smoothing out the rhythm of her first few lines.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2008: Part 1 of Taboo Shape Poems

It's official: I can now say I've taught poetry to grades 3-6. Yesterday, I engaged in part 1 of this week's poetry workshop: Taboo Shape Poems!

Andy Burt's (Ashland Middle School) sixth-graders trickled in later than I expected, well amped from track and field and ready to refuel with a quick snack.

The Usual Introductions
Every time I teach poetry, I like to ask the same core questions:

• Who likes poetry?
• How many like to read poetry vs. writing it, and vice versa?
• Why do you (not) like poetry?
  
• Who can name some poets?
  
• What is poetry? What makes a poem a poem?

I got about the same types of responses. Most kids who do like poetry prefer reading it over writing it. Why? They cite not being able to write anything good as the main reason. Although Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss were named, I was excited to hear one girl cite Robert Frost as a favorite poet.

I was also delighted to hear another girl note that poems don't have to rhyme or have a particular form to be considered a poem. She said, "Sometimes, it's just the way the words are put together that can create a poem." I pointed out that this is absolutely correct and is the norm for most modern poetry. It's poetry that works on the principle of "association." Of course, I launched into a quick spiel about how as humans we can't resist the drive to find meaning in everything.

I then proceeded to present the students with some common poetry techniques/devices that they can use in writing a poem, and read examples of poems that use each of the devices.

• End rhyme
• Meter/Rhythm
• Alliteration
• Repetition

The Taboo Poem Exercise
After exploring the basics of poetry, I handed out the following worksheet:


(feel free to copy and use)

At the time I created this worksheet, my laptop was down so I was unable to make it more spiffy with the incredible Adobe InDesign. I used MS Publisher instead, and despite its limited capability, I think it turned out alright.

At any rate, I merely had the students follow the steps listed in each field of the worksheet.

1. Brainstorm 5 concrete things - like people, places, events, things.
2. Circle the one item that calls out to you most.
3. Brainstorm 15 words that best describe the item circled.
4. Read over the list of weak helper verbs and vague/unnecessary modifiers.
5. Write a poem of 15-30 lines in length without using any of the words from steps 3 and 4.

I created this poetry exercise based on the concept of the game Taboo and the defamiliarization poems of the New Poetry movement of Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound.

This is part 1 of a 3-day poetry workshop. Wednesday, we will focus on revision. On Friday, I will switch the focus of the project to art. I have chosen to withhold the art aspect from the students until Friday, so they focus on the process of writing instead of the physical artistic element.

One Final Note:
The girl who cited Robert Frost wrote a surprisingly biting political poem that adeptly uses end rhyme, meter and repetition to create a scary discourse on how screwy politics are squeezing the life from kids. In the past three years, I have never come across a student with such a strong handle on poetic devices, and she wrote it within one hour!

If you use this exercise in your classroom or on your own, I'd love to hear how it went.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #10 — Haiku

Finally on to the hot poem of all classes...the haiku.

The kids were hot to trot and already well familiarized with the concept of syllables. We worked with the word "veterinarian," breaking it into syllables and discussing the difference that pronunciation makes.

Then, I read three haiku while their eyes were closed. Then I read them again, only this time, I had them raise their hands for the one they liked best. Almost all preferred this one:

In a misty rain
A butterfly is riding
The tail of a cow.

There reasons varied from concrete imagery, to liking butterflies and cows, to the punchline effect of the last line.

After discussing the history of haiku and it's association with Japan and Zen Buddhism (read: simplicity), I guided them on a meditation. This didn't work last year, but I thought I'd give it another shot...with pretty much the same results. I asked them to visualize the last time something from Nature caught their attention, then when they had a clear picture of it, they wrote.

Time ran out, so I left them with specific instructions to circle the essential words in the poem and use those words to write a haiku. Thursday, we workshop our poems and I gave them the option of making the haiku their poem to revise into perfection.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #9 — Acrostic Mothers Day Poems

Upon the suggestion of Max Schmeling, I had the students write an acrostic Mothers Day poem. How do you write an acrostic poem?

1. Choose a word that represents the subject your poem will be about.
2. Write the word vertically.
3. Use each letter as the starting point for each line of your poem.

In the case of our Mother's Day poem, we identified letters in common names for mothers: mom, mommy, mum, mummy, ma, mama, momma, mother. Then we brainstormed positive words and phrases that started with each of the letters: M = magnificent, marvelous, most righteous. After filling the board with words, I set them free to write their poems.

Many got it, writing sentence length lines. Some just listed one word after another, and for them, I suggested that they identify what mom was "marvelous" at doing.

Mr. Schmeling worked more with them the next day before the poems were placed in their handmade cards. Most notably, he had them use the exercise to sharpen their dictionary and thesaurus skills. The results were astounding.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #8 — Place Poems

Today, we gathered up our "Life Story Collection" worksheets and wrote some place poems. The process is simple:

1. Fill in a worksheet with things common to your life. Things included family, objects, foods, sports and recreation, plants, people, sounds, etc.
2. Write a poem and begin each line with "I am from...", then fill in the rest with an item or items from the list.

What's left is a poem that sounds like such:

I am from cookies and roses
I am from AC/DC and Maroon5
I am from Sally and Ted

The students were encouraged to expand and play with the form, something like this:

I am from cookies and roses,
fresh and sweet
and tended by mom.

Not many of the students expanded, but most created really cool poems.

* This entry is post-dated from 8 May 2007

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #7— Poetic Devices & Tongue Twisters

What a chaotic day! We had a little later start to the session, and I rambled on about poetic devices for too long. We started with a little word play overheard on the playground (more found poetry?).

Eaves dropping & Eaves dripping

The kid was warning another about the water dripping from the roof, or eave, and I wrote it on the board to start our discussion on poetic devices. Word play or puns are rampant through children's poems and I told them to look for it everywhere, the opportunity to do clever things with words, to stretch their meaning.

One girl brought up a poem she had remembered that consisted of three words with one letter dropping off the end until one letter remained:

Pencil and paper
Pencil and pape
Pencil and pap
Pencil and pa
Pencil and p
Pencil and
Pencil an
Pencil a
Pencil
Penci
Penc
Pen
Pe
P

This unexpected contribution launched into a terrific discussion on form as a poetic device. Just like e.e. cummings' poem "l(a," this poem uses the shape to mimic the point of a pencil, the disappearing of space on a piece of paper, and the shortening of a pencil as each line is written.

We revisited rhyme scheme and line breaks as poetic devices, and I repeated my not-so-blatant statement of repetition as a poetic device, as a poetic device. The we launched into the most chaotic session of poetry instruction yet: alliteration as a poetic device.

One boy already knew about alliteration and defined it quite aptly to the class as a form of rhyme in which the first sounds of the words of a poem are the same. When I asked him to give me a common and fun example of something that uses alliteration, he didn't know. Most of the class had no clue until I spouted out:

How much wood would woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

The class went nuts, giving their best take on this classic tongue twister, and many had more to share. We went on a tirade of tongue twisters, and it took considerable effort to calm them down. I then wrote down two of my favorite short tongue twisters:

six sick sheep
pack of pesky pixies

The class was split on which was the easier of the two, so I inquired as to why they found them particularly difficult. When it came down to it, the "sk" and "ck" and "x" transition was actually the hard part of these poems. To demonstrate why, I had them beatbox with me using the sound pattern "p-x." After about 20 times, they slowly stopped and asked if their jaws hurt, and all but one agreed.

What was the point of the exercise? To illustrate the importance of not using alliteration if the aim is to have a smoothly read poem, or to use it if you wish to slow down the read of the poem or to just make it fun.

With all these poetic devices revealed, I ran out of time but called one kid forward to read the poem he wrote from a piece of found poetry. He cleverly rhymed words like "shield" and "yield" and even skewed syntax at one point.

To end the class, I handed them a sheet with things from their life and told them to fill it in with as short of information as possible. From these sheets, we will craft a "Who I am" poem.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #6 — Exemplary Sense Poems & Found Poems Shared

Today's lesson was spent sharing examples and reasons.

I started the class by reading several poems that did a particularly good job striking the senses and that illustrated the impact locality has on the effectiveness on the reader.

"Summer Song" by John Ciardi

By the sand between my toes,
By the waves behind my ears,
By the sunburn on my nose,
By the little salty tears...

And the poem goes on, but it was the best example of a poem that strikes at multiple senses with simple language. In fact, only one boy claimed that he had never tasted his tears. Aside from that one, macho-too-early boy, everyone in the classroom could relate to each of the experiences mentioned in Ciardi's poem.

"Knoxville, Tennesse" by Nikki Giovanni

I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy's garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbecue
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream...

Whereas I thought this poem would really strike the kids' senses, it fell short by a landslide. What was the problem with the poem? Why couldn't the kids taste the foods listed? Locality. These foods are a staple in the southern states, but not well-known in Southern Oregon. So, I advised them to be aware of the power of locality and regional writing. It can either kill a poem's universality, it can capture the unique aspects of a region, and it can successfully blend both aspects with an eye toward helping others "travel" to your region without leaving their own.

"Velvet Shoes" by Elinor Wylie
(started mid-poem)

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

Now, this poem struck a chord with the class that I hadn't expected. I wanted to illustrate how even near-silence can receive an effective treatment in poetry. One kid, in particular, surprised me with his out-of-nowhere applause when I finished. This boy has dreaded every time I step in the class and admitted he hates poetry. Yet, this poem sparked something in him and the rest of the class joined in his enthusiasm for the poem, and no one was lost on the metaphor of walking in snow being like walking in velvet shoes.

After reading these poems, I told them to revisit their sense poems and to keep in mind the techniques I shared through the poems I read. No similes needed, just simple concrete words.

We followed this revisit of sensory poems with a sharing session. You may remember from the previous lesson, I gave each of them a book and a pen and instructions to go find poetry. Mr. Schmeling awarded those who found three or more items with a "dip" (their choice of one of three snack treats). I called those students up one at a time to share their favorite piece of found poetry, and to tell the class why they thought it was poetic.

All but one, my son Baylin, had found poems that rhymed, and several off one student's desk. Baylin's found poem, however, was not found in words, but in a poetic moment. He wrote:

Wanting a hole in the fence, do we go left or right, we go left and find the perfect hole made just for us

After he read this little found poem, I saw lights spark in many students' eyes. They misinterpreted my challenge to find poetry. Some even asked their parents to help them find some good books of poetry. After Baylin read his found poem, you could feel the "a-ha"s rise in unison.

I finished the class up with a poem I had written from several pieces of found poetry, as an example of what you can do with found poetry, using it as a launching point for something really cool. They loved my poem and I sent them on the mission to use their favorite or most inspirational piece of found poetry to write their own.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #5 — Revision Revisited & Found Poems

Today's class extended our discussion on revision, and it seems that the idea of vague or subjective terms continue to elude the young poets. As you may recall from last week's post, I assigned them the task of circling all the vague/subjective words like good and cute from their poems, and then to revise them to be more concrete.

I started today's lesson with the reading of two kids poems. The first one used a rather clever and classic line about candy smelling like roses in the spring. She hadn't brought her original, but we had her name some of the words she circled and removed. Although her piece didn't really succeed in helping me taste the candy, she did pique my interest with her choices of metaphor and language.

My younger son, Baylin, was the second to read. He started with his first not so good (to use the language of his original) draft, and everyone agreed that it wasn't even close to helping us taste his new chapstick. His second draft provide concrete tastes of fruits and a comparison of banana and potato. The class agreed that his revision worked, except perhaps for his end line that switches from a food theme to an electronics theme.

I then attempted to launch into the next lesson, alliteration, but I got the cue from the teacher to continue working with the revision process. So, after doing a quick read through of two volunteers, I chose to work with a girl's poem about her dog. But before I began, I asked if she had thick skin, which launched into a discussion about staying strong and not taking feedback personally.

After identifying weak words, I broke the class in two and had each half work on a different line. As the first few finished, I had them pass out something that put big smiles on their mugs. Each of them received a pen and a little notebook with instructions to FIND POETRY. Since Thursday is an early release, I won't be teaching again until next Tuesday. In the meantime, I sent them out on a mission to find poetry everywhere, to keep their notebooks close, and to report back on Tuesday with what they found.

I read a few of poems I found as examples, and they got really excited:

• closed clique of clans
• I feel privy to a party and it feels pretty good.
• No more tingle in the tangle
• Girls in boots are the best.
• Six stealthy snakes slither sideways through sand.

To help incite enthusiasm for the mission, Mr. Schmeling is going to have a few share their findings between now and next week. I look forward to their findings.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #4 — Revision

Aside from crushing one girl, today's lesson went well...considering we discussed the dreaded revision process. I called several of the students to the front of the room to read their sense poems, and after each read, I asked the class to answer the following:

1. Did the poet only use a simile twice?
2. Could you taste, touch, or smell the item the described?
3. What words or phrases make it so you can taste, touch, or smell the item?
4. What's another word or phrase that you could use to really make me taste, touch, or smell the item?

Now, it was the fourth question that crushed the girl. I made the mistake of using the word "better," which in a way, proved my later point about the necessity of avoiding vague words.

Overall, the class provided some good feedback to their peers, like naming a specific candy. My example was how plum trees smell like Pez when in bloom. Most of them knew the smell of Pez. We also discussed how to convert similes to non-simile lines while retaining the same essence:

My dog's fur feels like silk
is easily converted to
My dog's silky fur...

We ended with a roundhouse of revision suggestions for my son's, Baylin's, poem about the flavor of his new chapstick. Most specifically, they suggested that he name the two fruits it tastes like. Their assignment for the weekend is as follows: circle all the vague words they find in their poem and make them concrete. They then need to revise their sense poem for Tuesday's lesson, which will launch into alliteration ala tongue twisters.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #3 — Imagery & The Senses

We began today's lesson with a refresher on the sonnet, as well as an expansion of the idea.

I talked about how the form mimics a waltz, partners dance and court each other until they inevitably wind up as a couple (couplet). Of course, this form mimics the early stages of love, so we talked about love in the broader sense. Not so surprisingly, most of them cited animals/pets as things they love. Snowboarding, skiing, and candy ranked high on their lists as well.

I finally picked 5 students to come up to the front of the class to read their sonnets. Of course, there were many disappointed students who were dying to get up in the front of the class but didn't.

After each of the five read their sonnets, I asked the class to name the line that stuck out in their head and the image it created. Some of the poems were more like lists, but others created vivid images, like the wolf borrowing the girl's kiwi lip balm while playing golf.

All of this led to the next activity: sense poems. I set up the rubric as follows:

1. Choose one sense from the following: taste, touch, smell (hearing and sight not allowed).
2. Choose one item to apply the sense to (i.e. the smell of a rose).
3. Write a poem between 5-10 lines long that only uses a simile (like & as) twice.

I'll be curious to see how these turn out, as this is pretty advanced stuff for most writers: the neglected senses, especially smell.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: Lesson #2 — Form and Rhyme

Perhaps, one of the most intimidating aspects of traditional poetry is rhyme scheme, followed closely behind by form. Being the type of person who eats my least favorite part of my dinner first, I chose to teach the kids about the English (Shakespearean) Sonnet, which is only fitting in this Shakespearean hamlet we call Ashland. Not to mention, working with the Sonnet kills two birds with one stone: form and rhyme.

The first step was to introduce them to the form:

14 lines total
3 sets of 4 lines (quatrain)
and
1 set of 2 lines (couplet)

This was easy enough for them to grasp, but the idea of lines vs. sentences and stanzas vs. paragraphs threw them for a loop. We then discussed the abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme of the Shakespearean sonnet, followed with a reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet #65 and the sonnet we wrote last year in Mrs. Hansen's class. They claimed to like Shakespeare's better, but laughed loud at Mrs. Hansen's class's poem.

Finally moving past the basics of form and rhyme, I introduced them to the collaborative lightning sonnet. I asked for a word, wrote it in a big circle on the white board, asked for another, and repeated the process until we had 7 circles with one word each. Then, we went through more rounds filling in the circles with words that rhymed.

Time ran out far quicker than I hoped, but we were left with 7 circles filled with rhyming words. The next morning, I delivered a worksheet for them to work with and to help write the sonnet.

I saved this file in large format for those readers
who wish to download it in order to write their own sonnet.

I'm excited to see how their sonnets turn out this upcoming Tuesday.

Teaching Poetry Spring 2007: The First Lesson

I started teaching Max Schmeling's 3rd/4th grade class at Bellview Elementary today. Despite my apprehensions about teaching the 3rd graders, I found this year's batch of future poets far more lively than my straight 4th grade class of last year. This batch is full of vim and vigor, raising their hands with an eagerness that almost makes me think I'm asking them, "Who wants to go have recess the rest of the day?"

I asked the class my usual opening questions:

"Who likes poetry?"

The majority raised their hands.

"Who doesn't like poetry?"

A few rose their hands.

"Out of those who say they don't like poetry, how many are afraid of poetry?"

Only a couple hands dropped.

After asking more questions about their fears and distastes for poetry, I probed for reasons why. Most simply feared writing poetry, thinking they just couldn't write a good poem. This is when I promised them that I would help them get over their fear by the end of my time with them.

After discussing the classes feelings toward poetry, we launched into defining poetry. Thanks to Mr. Schmeling's course work this year (his students memorize a poem a week), they already knew about many of the poetic conventions: rhyme, rhythm, repetition... They couldn't quite define it though. One student did come up with an interesting definition:

"It's a song without music."

I went ahead and read them a few poems, finishing with my favorite class husher, e.e. cumming's "l(a." They loved it, but approached it more as a puzzle and less as a poem. More notably, when I instructed the class to write any kind of poem they wanted, not one wrote a cummings poem (contrasted with last year's class, in which I couldn't get some students past cummings' style).

I look forward to teaching poetry to Schmeling's blended-grade class, as they are hungry to learn and highly attentive.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 7 - The Final Lesson

Today marked my last day in Mrs. Hansen's fourth grade class. I warmed when I saw more than a few of the students posture disappointed to receive the news.

I kept it simple this time around. I compiled a list of poetry Websites the students could visit to learn more about writing, and others that listed places to submit their poems. After handing out the list, I opened the floor for the students to express things they wished we would have spent more time on. A good many wanted more time to work with specific forms, like haikus and sonnets. Their feedback provided me with an eye toward any future poetry lessons I may lead.

After discussing their experience with my lessons, I had them all spend ten minutes writing in whatever form they wished, just as long as they wrote for ten solid minutes. I actually gave them fifteen.

Then we had our own mini open-mic. I chose the kid who hammed it up the most as the em cee, but he surprisingly clammed up. Nonetheless, the kids read some terrific poems, many of which they wrote using the lightning sonnet exercise we learned a few lessons before. We had just enough time for each student to read one poem each.

Thus ends my lessons. I plan on making a chapbook from their work, with hopes of handing each of them a copy to pass around and sign, much like a yearbook. As for future lessons, only the future will tell. Hopefully, these documented lessons will help you in teaching your own classes, writing your own poems, or in wondering how the school district could allow a nut like me to sit in the teacher's seat.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 6

For the penultimate poetry lesson, we worked with metaphor. This may have given the students their toughest challenge. We discussed the nature of a metaphor, and talked about how it is a stronger form of simile. Now, these kids can bust out similes without a second thought, but metaphors were eluding them. But, I set them to work anyway.

I handed each of them a strip of yellow poster board and had them use one side to complete the sentence “Nature is…” with a metaphor, and to do the same on the opposite side using the sentence “Ladybugs are…” as the launching point.

Many of them insisted on writing similes and were quite disappointed when I would say things like, “That’s a great simile; can you make it a metaphor?” After much ado, they wrote their lines and went to the front of the room to await further instruction. Once all had made their way to the head of the class, I split them into three groups, collected each groups’ strips then handed each cluster of kids a different pile. That’s when the real fun began.

They laid the strips down and read the poems as they fell, switching between “Ladybugs are…” and “Nature is…” Then I had them check out both sides of the strips and to switch them around until they found an order they liked best. I leave you with my favorite:

Nature is…

the circle of life
a soaring bird flying high
an apple to be picked
a checker board
a rainbow of color and life
a book to read
the little people
a peaceful pest

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 5

Excuse the belated post, but my week swifted past last week. I was only allotted one day last week to teach Mrs. Hansen's class poetry.

I had prepared a couple collaborative writing exercises , but had to drop them. Apparently, the students had made colorful paper from recycled material and wanted to write Mother's Day poems on them. So, I taught them how to write a sonnet...all within one half hour's time.

Now, I know what some of you may be thinking? How could you even begin to teach the rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter, and scansion to fourth graders in that amount of time. And the answer is that I didn't.

I focused on rhyme scheme and theme.

We had a history lesson around the form, talking about Shakespeare and such. A few kids even knew that a sonnet typically addresses the theme of love. I talked a little about iambic pentameter and feet a bit before launching into the heart of the days lesson: rhyme scheme. To do so, I needed to first discuss stanzas and the different types.

Now, many of you reading this are aware that a sonnet consists of 14 lines broken up into 3 quatrains and 1 couplet. I laid out that historically persistent sonnet rhyme scheme on the board and asked for a word from one student and a rhyme from the other:

A = you
B = glad
A = boo
B = sad

C = cat
D = cheese
C = bat
D = please

E = elephant
F = as
E = shunt
F = jazz

G = bee
G = knee

Note the E rhyme, elephant and shunt. One student asserted the word "elephant," so I presented the class with the challenge of finding a rhyme for it. After a whole slough of made-up words and near rhyme, we came upon "shunt." There's something to be said for the positive effects that online role-playing games have had on the younger students' vocabularies.

This was the first step in the composition of a collaborative "lightning" sonnet, or at least a variation on it. The next step was to create lines, so I asked for the first suggestion, then asked for another if I thought we could do better. The toughest part was keeping the kids on theme. Many starting saying "ugly" things for the sake of humor, or making each line a separate poem. Alas, we stayed on track and came up with this poem. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we had in creating it:

I love you.
You make me glad.
I will never say boo
To make you sad.

You're a love cat.
You're my precious cheese.
You're swift as a bat.
Never leave me, please.

Let's go ride an elephant!
I love you as
much as a shunt
between me and jazz.

You would save me from the killer bee
That just landed on my knee.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 4

The fourth graders and I traveled to Japan today. Well, not really. But, we worked with that classic poetic form from the land of the rising sun: haiku.

We returned to the oak grove circle and explored the concept of syllables. How do you count them? I had each of them clap their hands to the beat of their names. Three had monosyllabic names, most had disyllabic, a handful had trisyllabic, and one had a quadsyllabic name.

After establishing what syllables were and how to count them, we discussed Japan for awhile. We chatted about things that are signature to Japanese culture.

We heard about line drawings, sushi, and sumo wrestlers, before hitting on my segue. Martial Arts. I asked them what the first thing a sensei had a student do before beginning practice. Of course, most knew the answer: bow.

I hadn’t thought about that before I asked the question, but they were absolutely correct. So, I revised my question to inquire about the second thing. It took some cajoling, some working them into the word I sought: meditate. And, that’s exactly what we did.

Haiku is a meditation, a simple meditation that lends itself to poems about nature. Three lines of 5-7-5 syllabic construction.

Then I shared my online find with them. A single description about a burst of light through dark and foreboding trees. The teacher of this class read this to their students and had them write a haiku in response. Naturally, each of my pupils related to the different haikus the other class had written. One kid thought about heaven, so I read the one with the “halo of light”; another two were enamored with the dread of the trees, so I read the one that dripped with despair. And so on. Some even had haikus of their own in response to the online description, but I stopped them in their tracks, saving their creativity for the description I devised, a description more devoid of such leading adjectives.

I instructed them to all move to the grass below the trees, to lie on their backs and look into the sky through the branches, to breathe and clear their minds. I impressed on them the need for silence, shear and utter silence. And, I got it.

You lie on your back looking at the sky through the branches, when a crow swoops between you and the branches, something shiny in its beak.

I repeated the description several times. I repeated the structure of a haiku several times. Then I let them meditate on both, to write once the image solidified in their minds.

With this single exercise, they struggled. They had to work with a set form and it stumped those who shined with free verse. Some worked together to write one. Others used most of the words from my description. But one thing stuck out above all, the word “shiny.” Some kids saw it as gold, others as silver, another as a watch, and two as a coin. One student even told the others they were wrong, that the crow had something silver. I think this will become my starting point for next Tuesday’s lesson: word choice and its effect on the reader.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 3

We made it to the oak grove circle today.

After missing recess to work on their Oregon Road Trip Project, the fourth graders welcomed the sun and fresh air. We started the lesson with a discussion of why people write poetry. Many of them offered dead-on answers which included "for fun," "to express feelings," and "because you feel inspired." This last answer hit on my focus for today's lesson: inspiration.

We explored the many sources of inspiration, especially how nature seemed to spark something creative in all of us. I read three poems that addressed natural inspiration —two haikus from Margaret Atwood and one series of couplets written by yours truly.

One of the Atwood poems used a comparison approach, and the other drew a connection between the shape of driftwood and the waves that shaped it. My poem worked with an interaction between wildlife and myself (an encounter with a cougar).

Next, I pointed out what poems do; they box a subject in so it's seen the way the poet wants it to be seen.

Finally, I sent them off to seek inspiration from nature. The result? Seven students stood poised to read their variations of the same natural occurence: ant infestation. The poems ranged from rhyming rap to a narrative about a confrontation between boy and the hive.

I ended the lesson with an invitation for all to share their poems, which nearly all did. The bell rang and I sent them on their way. As they walked off, many were overheard composing more poems. I lapsed into a rocking chair and bathed in the rhyme and meter poring from their mouths and pondered Thursday's lesson.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 2

Today, I confessed to the kids that I’m a liar. That’s right. I lie often, especially when engaged in my favorite style of writing: fiction. And as a self-professed liar, I informed them that we wouldn’t be going outside on this fabulous April day. Why not? I needed the whiteboard to illustrate ways to revise poems. In particular, we discussed where, how, and why to make line breaks.

I explained that even though April is National Poetry Month, National Poetry Day is actually not until October 5, before discussing differences between the following:

prose and poetry
sentences and lines
editing and revision

I asked for volunteers tough enough to handle an open critique of their poem and got several hands in response.

Two of the volunteers had written poems ripe with rhyme but without line breaks. So, I had them Roshambo to decide whose poem we would work with. Twice, scissors beat paper.

The student read his poem about a snake sliding on the sand. Then I wrote it on the board and had the kids take turns making breaks. We discussed the way the breaks affected both the effect of the poem as well as the way it could be read. I was most pleased to see so many lights popping on all over the place. One even remembered the term “alliteration” from the previous lesson.

We also talked about how punctuation affects a poem. The most notable example was how the parentheses in e.e. cummings “l(a” created an invisible word: within.

Then time ran out. I handed back their poems complete with suggestions for revision and sent them home to improve on their initial attempts. I look forward to reading them next week, when we hopefully get fair enough weather to enjoy the outdoors.

Teaching Poetry: Lesson 1

I taught my first poetry class today to a fourth grade class. Ingrid Hansen, my eldest son’s teacher, graciously consented to letting me take a crack at shaping future poets. I think things went over well. They seemed to enjoy themselves, both in listening to poetry and in discussing it. Oh yeah, they also had a great time writing some of their own.

The children filed into the room, each taking turns at the water fountain before sitting down at their respective desks. I resigned to the rocking chair in the corner, so as not to twiddle my thumbs while waiting for the last of them to plop into their chair. Mrs. Hansen introduced me, making sure to clarify that I wanted to go by “Kyle” instead of “Mr. Stich,” or some variation.

I tore to the tall chair and planted my butt so as to appear as a bird perched upon high. That’s when the interrogation began.

“Who likes poetry?”

Half the class raises their hand.

“Who doesn’t like poetry?”

Almost the other half raises their hand.

“Why don’t you like it?”

“I don’t know.”
“It’s hard to understand.”

“Name some poets for me.”

Jack Pelutsky
Shel Silverstein
Dr. Seuss
Roald Dahl
(From this list, I informed the kids that these are also some of the first names college students say when asked the same question.)

“Who likes reading poetry or hearing poetry read?”

A majority of the class raises their hands.

“Why do you like hearing poetry?”

More than one said they found it calmed them.

“Who likes writing poetry?”

Less than half the class raises their hands.

“Who wrote at least one poem this year… this month… this week… today?”

Around five hands go up…then three… then two… then one from a kid playing the class clown.

“What do you write about and why?”

The answers varied from a get-well poem for a sick mother to being acceptably inappropriate on a boring day (he claimed the poem wasn’t fit for the classroom.)

I reserved one last question for them, one last question to ask after I’d read them a few poems:

“Picture Puzzle Piece” by Shel Silverstein
“Put Something In” by Shel Silverstein
“Bumblebee Hides” by Joanne Ryder
“Black Snake” by Joanne Ryder
“Galapagos Tortoise” by Alice Schertle
“Sonnet XV” by Shakespeare
“Haiku 7” by Richard Wright
“Haiku 57” by Richard Wright
“The Germ” by Ogden Nash
“l(a” by e.e. cummings

Now the last one threw them for a loop. Initially, I experienced difficulties writing the poem on a large piece of poster board, so I ended up printing them out as a size 170 font. I taped them together with the appropriate spacing then rolled it all together. This made it look like a scroll, and much different than any of the other poems I’d read.

The room stirred to a frenzy when I unfurled “l(a”, and everyone wanted to have a crack at deciphering the poem. One kid actually came pretty close.

Then, I popped the whopper of a question, the question I wanted to ask all class:

“What is poetry? Define it.”

One kid said, “Eminem,” to which I replied his rapping could be considered an “example,” but not a definition.

Another kid modified one of Richard Wright’s haikus and said, “Snake, make up your mind. You’re halfway in the tree and halfway out.” I explained that while probably an example, he could use that as an excellent metaphorical definition.

At this point I had five minutes left of the half hour I was allotted. So, I had the kids take out a piece of paper and think of something from nature to write a poem about. I told them I would write about the Canadian geese that had a nest next to the lovely pond down Siskiyou Blvd.

Most of them finished in no time and handed them into me for comments. I glanced over most and was pleasantly surprised at the results. One student even attempted a cummings style piece.

Thursday, I will continue to work with the kids, and hopefully we will have some nice weather. I’d like to get them out into this circular bench seating circled by oaks. Then I’ll feel a touch like Henry David Thoreau or even Socrates.

This poetry module continues every Tuesday and Thursday for the next four weeks. I shall report each session on this blog, and maybe even include some of the students’ work.