Dental Health
Floss in between teeth
consume desserts sparingly
Visit the dentist.
“I” Poems February 17, 2009
The article by Kucan quotes Dunning and Stafford (1992), “We imitate not so much be like someone else as to learn what she/he has already learned. When we know enough about how a poem is made, we are free to put our own stamp on things.” How true I found this to be for myself. I write and journal often but cringe at the thought of poetry. However while researching and “marinating” in poetry I found myself understanding and pulling others poems apart to compose my own. Once I began I couldn’t stop! I paused after my first poem, an I poem and asked myself have I done this correctly? But then I realized it doesn’t matter…I am the author. I want my children to take part in this endeavor as well. I plan on first “trying” I poetry with several of my reading groups. After reading a story I plan to ask my students to put their selves in a character’s shoes and compose an I poetry. Of course I will introduce the concept first and we will compose one together and then ask them to compose one themselves. Although I often ask my students questions such as, “How do you think ______ felt in this story? What makes you think that? What would you have done, etc writing “I” poetry allows students to look deeper at identifying with characters in stories or in history.
So Much Depends Upon… February 4, 2009
So much depends
upon
a brown chair
it’s soft warm cushions
sitting in my living room.
So Much Depends Upon…. February 4, 2009
So much depends
upon
a pair of glasses
brown frame luminious lenses
helping my eyes to behold
clearly what normally is a blur.
This is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness January 31, 2009
Words can not express how this book made me feel. As a teacher I know and see some of these same situations with the children that I teach. The children in this book allow you to look deep within their hearts as they express their hurts and feelings. The Poem It Was Quiet reminded me of the book Love That Dog. In this poem the child feels guilty for having to put his dog to sleep. I like how he poses a question to readers…”Is death ever right?” So many children experience death of a pet or a person and what a great way he expresses his feelings.
Little Brother is also a favorite of mine. I love how he says…”hold it, little brother, hear? You gonna need all that stuff. Maybe not the smile– get rid of that or you’ll end up on the street under somebody’s wheel.” Wow! How real and sad. He also sends us the message that their mother is gone or passed away from the line..”You got that curly hair of momma’s. You don’t remember, but I do.” This poem reminds me of so many of the chidlren that I teach. They live in “bad” neighborhoods often have to defend themselves like Lamar. They are forced to grow up way too fast in order to survive mentally.
Roses are Red made me laugh. I thought of two sisters and their relationship with each other. This is truly what a sister who had this happen to her might say to her younger sister…short and not so sweet.
SO many of the parents in our classrooms are like Jose’s. School scares them because they didn’t do well for whatever reason. They feel intimidated by the teacher or by conferences. They don’t have self-confidence. This poem reminded me of a child that I have that lives with his grandparents. His grandmother cares so much for him but can’t read. I know that she is so proud of her grandson and I know that he reads his little baggy book to her everynight. She doesn’t know that I know she can’t read……the teacher in me wants to help her so much but I don’t dare go there. Pride is a powerful thing.
Flicker Flash by Joan Bransfield Graham and Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer January 31, 2009
Flicker Flash is great! I love how the words are in the shape of the object that the particular poem is referring to. I like how the entire focus of the book is on light. Once introduced, this would be an idea for a class book. I could allow each child to select an animal or particular area of a central topic that we are learning about and create poems and illustrations like these to be compiled into a class book. I can’t wait to share this one with my students. The poem Match is a great way to teach “sparkle” words and introduce children to listing adjectives and getting them to think of many ways to describe something…quick, flick, stick, spark, dark, glow, too-low, blow! All of these describe a match. The Campfire poem is awesome as well…painting a picture of an actual campfire with descriptive words listed.
Silver Seeds is such as great children’s book as well. This is another great book that shares poetry. My class would love to create poems like these about their name or a favorite animal. I love how simple these poems are but very appropriate for first graders.
Brown Angels by Walter Dean Myers January 31, 2009
After reading this book I thought of so many ways to share this with my children as we approach African American History month. My favorite poem was Summer. He paints such a vivid picture for us. You can actually see the sweat, bugs, juices, birds, old men. That is what we have to teach our children to do. We as writers have to make our writing seem so real to readers.
Cold plums and the old men in the water: “Let children read and write “great” poetry January 31, 2009
Poetry is a way to challenge students and a way to see into their minds while improving their writing and honing into how they perceive things.
I remember in middle school and high school reading poetry in english class. I enjoyed hearing the teacher explain how she intrepreted the poems or how other classmates interpreted them. As a student I always struggled with poetry. I always felt that I never thought deep enough to “get” what the author was trying to say. Poetry was not my favorite as a student. I always thought things had to rhyme.
I enjoyed reading the article it helped me as a teacher understand how that I can teach my students poetry. The article said that by examining models of different poems students can make their own connections. They learn through discovery. I enjoyed reading the book Love that Dog and want to share some of this poetry with my children. It was amazing to see how the boy became a great poet throughout the book. His teacher clearly exposed him to great examples and from those examples he created his own great poems and brought to those poems himself, his hurts, his feelings and created a vivid picture for us as readers. I truly believe that any form of writing whether it is poetry or journals it allows us as humans to release our hurts, feelings, wants or needs. This child was letting go of his hurts about his dog. His teacher didn’t discourage his creativity and respected him by allowing him to take his time with his writing. As a writer I do the same thing. I have kept a journal since I was in middle school. I recently looked back at a journal I kept throughout my pregnancy it was interesting to see my hopes, fears and dreams for my birth experience. I also remember writing and keeping a journal when my father died at the age of fourteen. I remember writing him a letter to “let go”. It was an extremely hard thing to do when I was in middle school but also a healing experience. I remember placing the letter in his coffin.
This article helped me better understand how to teach poetry for students. I like the fact that she provided us with great poetry books as well as a map or guide to help us when teaching poetry. The thing that scares me the most is understanding rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. I have a hard time understanding these things myself. However, this article provoked me to search the read write think website and found a book I want to use to teach my children about cinquians (amazing grace). The lesson was appropriate for first graders. I also want to read more poetry for my students and help them understand it better.
This class has inspired me so much to think about the way that I teach writing and now poetry. I am so empowered with each article I read and each class that I attend. I truly want to help my students be motivated to learn to write. I feel that they are beginning to see my motivation as their teacher. I still struggle with time constrants and so much testing that takes up so much teaching time.
