After all the teasing winter handed us, spring has finally sprung! I look forward to this break to enjoy the outdoors, clean up our gardens, and refresh my spirit for the sprint to the end of the school year. I wished students a wonderful vacation week with the hope that they, too, will get outdoors--to play, to chill, maybe even to read or write a poem or two!
This past week, students were inspired by a music video and poem, "A Listening Air", to write their own poems. They could choose one of two inspirations, either the mood of "A Listening Air" or a memory of summer. After doing some brainstorming (organizer attached), they began drafting in class today.
Their goal as poets is to turn inward to listen to the music of words in their hearts and minds, and to make the reader/listener see their subject matter in a whole new way. They're being encouraged to take the expected and make it unexpected; to turn an ordinary line on its head to recast its shape and meaning; to distill language to its most essential words that offer the reader/listener sensory images that plunge him/her into experiencing the poem. While it's fun to dispose of the rules of standard written English, they are making deliberate choices about vocabulary, punctuation, and format that help convey the meaning and subject of the poem.
Attached is a copy of "A Listening Air", the brainstorming organizer, and the criteria for every poem written (students have these in their binders).
Happy spring, happy vacation to all!
Homework due Monday 4/24:
Draft (hard copy) of poem for peer/teacher conferencing.
"A Listening Air"
Brainstorming Organizer
Poetry Criteria
