Pamela M. Fowler
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“Poetry presents the thing
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in order to convey the feeling
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It should be precise about the thing
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and reticent about the feeling, for
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as soon as the mind connects with the thing
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the feeling shows in the words;
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this is how poetry enters deeply into
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us. ”
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Author Unknown
“Poetry?!?” “I hate it” “It’s okay.” “I like it . . .” Those are only a few of the usual responses teachers receive when they mention the word ‘poetry’ to their class. Regardless of their age, many children don’t particularly care for it unless they have been exposed to and have had a positive experience with poetry. The reason is simple. I believe that they do no see poetry in relation to themselves or to their surroundings. To them it is another world.
My Class
I currently teach fifth and sixth grade special education students in a self-contained classroom. All of my students have been placed with me because of the difficulties they have experienced in the regular classroom. The reasons vary. They may be medical or emotional or have to do with the child’s past experiences which have interfered with their normal learning processes.
My students present the following characteristics in my classroom:
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-poor reading skills, word attack skills, word recognition, word identification
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-poor reading comprehension skills
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-no knowledge of correct punctuation or grammar usage
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-low self-esteem
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-high frustration levels
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-and in most cases these all yield to social problems.
As their teacher, I have the responsibility to attend to each characteristic separately and somehow redirect the child as a whole person so that they may be able to function properly and appropriately in a society setting as well as in the school environment.
School has proven itself to be difficult for my students, but they find the easy life on the streets and adapt well. There in the streets amongst all the drug dealings, prostitution and crime, the kids slowly, but effectively, lose sense of themselves. After day to day survival on the streets, they get lost so much that they don’t even know who the person inside of them is. They become so hostile and so apathetic.
A problem I face on a daily basis is regression. At any point in my lessons, I can touch so a sensitive spot in any child that they will withdraw and regress in a blink of an eye. In our writing workshop they begin to learn how to come in contact with those sensitive areas and also how to handle them effectively. They learn at their own pace and then slowly as a class we deal with all the problems they face openly and honestly and try our best to work through them by identifying avenues that work the best for them. I will admit, it scares them alot and at times it scares me also. I am willing to take the time necessary to bring my students to a higher level of thinking logically, and I work through this by teaching writing.
The Writing Workshop
At the present time my class and I are involved in a self developed writing workshop. At the opening of the school year, the students approached writing with a great deal of uncertainties. They were uncertain about me, for they had never met me before this day, uncertain about the school, and mostly uncertain about themselves.
They had imagined I’d ask them to write about themselves their lives, where and how they managed to survive and many personal thoughts. Yes. They were right on target. From day one I asked for it all. To make them a bit more at ease before I required the papers to be written, we shared our lives orally and I started by sharing a very intimate part of my life I knew they would relate to—the death of my father. Next it was their turn. The following day the time came to write it down on paper and learn the process of writing and the daily procedures of our writing workshop.
As the months passed, their fears diminished and their insecurities turned into self confidence. They trusted me and what’s more impotent is the evidence that the workshop is a valuable part of their education The pieces they have created are funny, enthusiastic and exciting. Their pieces are a very important part of themselves.
Through our writing workshop my students know and understand the six stages of writing.
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1. Prewriting—The first stage in which ideas are generated and written down in the form of a web, cluster or list. Commonly known as brainstorming, or mind-mapping.
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2. Drafting—The stage where the author writes his/her first draft without paying attention of showing concern for mechanics.
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3. Editing—The stage where the author rereads the draft and makes the necessary correction and adds any revisions where appropriate.
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4. Revisioning—The stage where the author rereads the draft and tries to see the work in a different light, changing ideas and re-working paragraphs so that the visions are clear to a reader.
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5. Publishing—The point in which the author has completed his/ her work and publishes in either a bound book or typed and submitted to a local magazine or newspaper.
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6. Performance—The point in the workshop where the author reads a completed work aloud to an audience.
During the workshop the teacher must be willing to commit five days a week for 42 to 44 minutes a day. The workshop requires a great deal of energy on the part of the teacher. The energy exhibited will be absorbed by the class and returned in their daily writing.
The class day’s breakdown is as follows:
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2 minutes—Workshop preparation: The teacher or student passes out each child’s folder and paper for the day.
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5 minutes—Mini-lesson: Five minutes spent before the writing to explain and/or demonstrated correct grammatical techniques, usage, etc. This time can also be spent to introduce a particular writing style. The two may also be combined so that you get the most of the time. In addition, questions will be entertained at this time.
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25 minutes—Quiet Uninterrupted Writing Time/Conferences: This is the time that each child is involved in writing for 25 minutes uninterrupted. The teacher spends this time conferencing with students on a one-on-one basis.
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10 minutes—Share Session: During the final ten minutes, the students share their pieces with each other. They read their work aloud to the class. The class in turn responds to their writing in a positive way by telling the author what they liked about the piece and why.
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2 minutes—Clean Up
The Poetry Workshop
The daily format for the poetry workshop follows the same format as the narrative writing workshop, with a few minor changes.
A. 10 minutes: Reading selected poems Mini-lessons and discussions
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B. 15 minutes: Explanation of formula class model
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C. 10 minutes: Quiet uninterrupted Writing Time
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D. 7 minutes : Share time
The best way to introduce poetry to children is to involve them in it. The best way to involve them in it is to read to them and allow them to read to you and to each other. They need to be exposed to all forms of poetry daily. The poetry should be from all walks of life. Explore poems of heritage, love and despair, poems written by adults, children, Afro-Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics and Asians. They should not be tied to one poet or style because the poet or works depict the child’s lifestyle. They need full exposure to the art form in order for them to understand and hopefully enjoy it.
Mini-lessons are based on what aspect of the poem the class is to focus on. For organizational purposes I assume that no student in my class knows about poetry. So, I begin at the beginning. My beginning is to focus on “You Can Write Good Poetry” no matter what your topic is. As the class becomes more comfortable with poetry, basics and a few characteristics are taught depending on the level of the class and what they are capable of handling.
The mini-lesson lasts no longer than two to five minutes. The object is to get to the point of the lesson and get that point across to the students before you lose their attention. To get your point across use modeling as a concrete learning device. Once the time has lapsed move on to the next order of business. Nine out of ten students in the classroom, regular and special education, have attention spans of approximately five minutes, and that is five minutes of continuous attention. Continuous means that the child is focused on you and listening to you, the teacher for five minutes. After that five minutes is over they “space-out” for one or two minutes, then refocus on the lesson being taught. As the teacher I want to capture the student during those two to five minutes that I have their attention and teach the facts, the information which is most vital to their education at that time. A mini-lesson is structured to accomplish that goal.
Discussions are an important part of this unit. They are implemented so that both teacher and student participate fully and so that each has a clear understanding of what the other is talking about and the topic at hand. Discussions clarify misunderstandings and expections.
The worst possible way to write poetry is to sit down end ‘search’ for something to write about. It is not only time consuming, but also frustrating, and a frustrated writer is not a good writer. The first thing you approach is to teach the class to ignore the entire question of “What do I write about?” The next step is to teach them that they have plenty to write about in the form of poems, and that their job is to keep from mucking it up by paying too much attention to it. It must emerge by itself.
Think of the writing of poems as the playing of a game. As in any game you must have some set rules to play by. You also need strategies and formulas if you are going to win the game. These rules set the boundaries so that you are not teaching a clutter of things at the same time and then expecting the class to decipher them by themselves, after all you are there to make things easier to work with rather than more difficult. One basic rule is that there must be some sort of a beat or a rhythm of some kind. Nine out of ten time the beat comes naturally.
In the first sessions I try to impress upon the class not to worry so much about trying to write ‘good’ lines, but to just keep on writing whatever is in their mind, to go with the flow and let their thoughts and feelings take over. For many new writers this is the most difficult task.
This brings me to the second basic rule I use. You must write a string of lines without stopping. Even if the words are or seem to be repetitive, boring or stupid at the time, the finished product can surprised even the most ‘accomplished’ writer.
Most of the unit is spent introducing and working with assorted styles of poetry. The first style is entitled parallelism (using the same word to begin every line). The objective is to focus and better organize the students’ thoughts. I begin the year with one line formulas.
The introduction of parallelism is simple. Say to your students, “You are going to think of everything you ever wished for and write it down on paper the exact same way that I write it on the board.” Go to the black board, chose a student and ask him/her to make a wish and tell you. Then write it in the same form as follows:
I WISH . . .
Ask the same question of another student and write it under the first wish and continue until you have nine lines. The tenth line is the wish which completes the poem. Change the final line to read:
AND I REALLY WISH . . .
My class created the following poem on their first day of their poetry workshop:
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I wish for every poor person to be fed.
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I wish for children to go to school to learn.
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I wish for this city to be clean.
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I wish for the healthiest pet.
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I wish for the wealthiest yet.
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I wish for pencils.
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I wish for stencils.
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I wish for January.
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I wish for JULY!
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And I really wish for everybody to be happy.
Now step back away from the board and read or have a student read the poem aloud, Congratulate them for creating their very first group poem. Give them a moment to take it all in and reread the poem to themselves. The direct the class to individually imitate the group poem. Allow ten minutes for quiet uninterrupted writing time. I find that the less amount of time that you give them to write the more they will produce. Let the class know that they “Only have ten minutes to come up with ten lines of wishes.” I find that this put just enough pressure on them that the adrenaline starts pumping and their brains start working.
While the class is writing, copy the group poem from the board for the class anthology and then imitate the poem yourself. Children learn from what they see more than from what they are told. That is why it is important for the teacher to write with the class and share his/her poems as well. If the teacher takes this unit seriously then so will the entire class.
While the class is writing many children will become hooked on the proper way to spell certain words. You don’t want to limit their vocabulary by ignoring the problem, but at the same time you don’t want to limit their creativity by having them stop in the middle of a sentence to become preoccupied with the correct spelling and usage of a particular word. More than often the word they are concerned about is going to be the same word everytime they write.
To eliminate this problem and to encourage the use of creative vocabulary I use the ‘Spelling Box’ in my writing workshop. The Spelling Box is a process I introduce to my class the first day of class and use it in all subjects, no just writing.
When a child is writing and he/she does not know how to spell a word they are told to spell it just as they hear it pronounced. For example you are a student and you are writing a short poem and want to use the use the word phenomenon, but don’t know how to spell it. Sound out the word or say the word over and over in your mind and ask yourself ‘What is the first sound I hear?’ Your answer may be /f/. Then ask yourself, ‘What letter(s) make that sound?’ You may come up with the answer PH because somewhere you remember seeing that word and know it does not start with the letter F even though it begins with the /f/ sound.
So the first letters you write down are PH. You go through this process until you think you have spelled the word the best you could.
Using this process you may have spelled the word as follows:
PHINAMINAM
You know that this is not the proper way to spell it, but it is spelled phonetically and to the best of your ability. As long as you can read that word and know that that word is phenomenon that is all that matters, and you have reached your goal. Now you can go on to writing your poem and get your ideas out on paper without stifling creativity. This process is called Invented Spelling. You actually make-up the spelling of words that you do not know or unsure of.
After the poem is written you then go through an editing process.
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1. Meet with the teacher to discuss the poem and any problems that you may be experiencing.
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2. Reread the poem and circle all the words YOU feel are misspelled.
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3. Look in the spelling box for the words that you circled and correct the spelling.
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4. Rewrite the poem with all the necessary corrections.
HOW TO MAKE A SPELLING BOX
Materials:
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1. Shoe Box
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2. 300-400 3x5 index cards (I prefer to use unlined)
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3. 3x5 alphabet divider
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4. Black marker
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5. Reading Word List
The spelling box is created day by day throughout the school year. The first words that you may want to start off with are words from a basic reading series, simple nouns and verbs or just words off the top of your head. I start with the names of the children in my class that year, the names of the streets around the neighborhood, and the city, state, teachers and principal of the school. The box builds slowly as the days go on. The students are actually developing a ‘dictionary’ that is appropriate for their use. As the students come up with words that are not found in the box already, ask them to bring to you a marker and a blank index card. Write the word on the card correctly and have the child return it to the box and place it under the appropriate letter, so that the words are in alphabetical order. By the end of the year you will have a wide variety of vocabulary to start the next year with.
This entire process eliminates interruptions and promotes the uninterrupted writing time.
After the ten minutes are up stop the class for a seven to ten minute share time. If they moan and groan that is simply prove that they are beginning to enjoy what they are doing and will more than likely internalize what they are writing.
During share sessions each student is required to stand in front of the class and read their poems. When the author is done the class reflects on what was read and points out one or two specific ideas or lines which they particularly like and tell the author why. The objective is twofold: 1. To develop positive critiquing styles and 2. To develop listening skills and improve them.
The technique of pointing gives encouragement to the writer who thinks his/her piece stinks. When another student says, “I like it when you said . . . ,” it gives such a boost to the ego. For a student to be encouraged by his/her fourteen peers develops self-esteem quicker than words of praise from any adult. The adult supervises and assists in monitoring the share session, but the most important effect is from their peers.
Revising the poem is very simple. Reread the poem and cut away the excess, the words that make the poem awkward and clumsy, but leave those words that make the poem work. Leave the “juice”.
As far as titles go, they come after the poem is written. Sometimes they have helped formulate the poet’s ideas even before the poem is written. Other poets have found the title to be a hindrance. In short it all really depends on the author and how he/ she feels at that time.
Just keep in mind that this unit is meant to be fun and make the writing of poetry more of a game rather than a chore that students have to complete in exchange for a grade.
The following pages are lessons with specific information regarding poems to use, mini-lessons that can make the poems easier to comprehend and to write, formulas that have proven to be successful in my classroom and some questions that the students have asked about their assignments. Use them in order as I have written them or mix and match the lessons as you find it appropriate for your particular class.
You will find supplemental readings for the children from Kenneth Koch’s “Wishes, Lies and Dreams”. There are fifteen paperback copies located at the Teacher’s Institute Office at 53 Wall Street for the teacher to use.
There are also copies of the poems listed in the lessons that I have chosen to use at the Teacher’s Institute Office. Feel free to make a set for yourself and keep them for your classes.
Before beginning the unit, it is advisable that the teacher take the time to read the following section from Koch’s book:
Teaching Children to Write Poetry
pages 7-55.
