As you look ahead to April and plans for National Poetry Month (which we hope includes #verselove2019, Ethical ELA’s poem-a-day celebration), consider a week of seasonal writing brought to you by the amazing Anna J. Small Roseboro. What a gift she is to teachers and an honor to have her write this guest post. Enjoy.
Ethical ELA Guest Blogger
Justin is an eleven year old fifth grader whom I tutor. This particular Tuesday in mid-March, his mom advised me that Justin was restless and a little tired of the short story we’d been working on for several weekly meetings. So, I switched to a lesson to draft a poem based on the changing weather using pictures to prompt thinking about the coming of Spring in Western Michigan. It’s an assignment that should be easily adapted for older students in classes anywhere in the country.
Come along with me to a tutoring session with Justin where, using prompts with the same language we had used to generate ideas for fleshing out our short stories, I asked him about his day and then about the four pictures I showed to him. To start generating ideas I posed the Five Ws and H questions (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How), as well as those related to the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell he associates with this time or season of the year. I usually ask the students to close their eyes to consider the last four senses.
In advance, I’d selected two photos of places outdoors and two photos of boys about Justin’s age. I’d recommend you have ten or twelve photos from which your students could choose: Two outdoor and two with people indoors or out of doors. Websites like DREAMSTIME and PIC4LEARNING have free photos.
Sample Lesson with Justin – Spring Is Near
We began very generally, then shifted into the specific prompts. I took notes as he viewed the pictures and responded. (Prompts in bold print to help you locate them, not because I yelled them loudly.)
I showed him the opening line that I’d crafted: “Spring is near, but not yet here.”
“What do you like to do when the weather is like it is today?” As expected, his answer was “Play outside. Play football with my cousin, Robbie. Robbie is 14 years old.”
When you think of this time of year, what do you see in your mind? His response, “Sun, clouds, bright, blue sky, trees with small green leaves.”
What do you hear? “I hear people playing and I hear birds.”
What do the bird sound like? He made some screechy, high pitched sounds, so I asked him how he would spell those sound. He said, “Tweeeeet”.
What do you like to eat this time of year? “Burgers”. Describe the way burgers smell and taste. “Good. Hot. Delicious.”
How does it feel when you go out to play this time of year? “Well, usually pretty cold.”
Why? “The snow is cold. There still is snow out there.” (He probably was thinking, “Dummy. What do you think!”)
Then I showed him the two outdoors pictures and asked him to describe what he saw. It was a pleasant surprise to see how the pictures drew him in; he perused them much longer than anticipated.
In an attempt to get him to think “metaphorically”, I asked, “What could these pictures illustrate about people trying do to new things that are difficult for them?” We didn’t get very far with that one. Then I remembered, this young man is just eleven years old! It took a couple more prodding questions for him to say, “They try hard?”
Having primed the pump with the general questions and showing him the final two photos, Justin was ready to write.
Here are the slides with photos and lines next to them that came primarily from Justin. Then we listened to the rap beats. That’s when he recognized some of the lines we’d written did not work within the rhythm pattern, so in our next session we planned to revise some of the lines to better fit the music. For now, you get the idea.
I encourage you to do the writing yourself to sense how much time may be needed, and to understand the kind of thinking is required to complete this approach to evoking poetry writing. Sharing what you have done and how you do it, is another way to model and inspire student to try the tasks themselves. Here is a Five Day plan with assignments to consider for use with your students.
Day One – Writing a Class Poem
Create a class poem together, before assigning students to write their own. In this case, you could select four photos, project them, invite students view the photos carefully then jot down their own lines, and offer them for the class poem. Or you could show them all ten or twelve preselected pictures and invite students to choose four photos for the class poem. (I suggest choice as often as possible.)
Show the pictures slowly, advancing only after a full minute to give time to experience each one. Viewing the photos will extend and expand students’ thinking and evoke more memories. Then, scroll through the pictures one more time. Take a vote. Which four pictures for the class poem? Two outdoors; two with one or more people.
For now, save the file with only the four chosen pictures on slides with pictures on left side and blank textbox on right side. Pre-format the textboxes to have size 24 font and no bullets. Now show these slides one at a time, inviting students jot down notes as you view the photos and respond to your prompts based on five Ws and H and invitations to consider the five senses.
Then, ask students to offer their lines for the class poem. Have one of your accurate keyboarding students insert the lines in the allotted space. (No need to stop now for editing. Keep going until all the pictures have been viewed and stanzas of 6-8 lines accompany each picture.)
Now, play the rap music and advance the slides as a student reads the lines. What words need to be changed to fit the words to the music? Have scribe make the changes. Invite a different student to read each revised stanza. Continue for a couple more minues or until the words fit both the pictures and the music. FINALLY, read the poem aloud together as a class. Save poem to start class the next day.
Day Two: Choose Pictures and Students Draft the Own Poems
Preplan by having students have open a blank file of a slide program. I use PowerPoint. Have them copy or download the file with all pictures, then save in a new file, the slides with the photos they want to use for their own poem. The slides will already be pre-formatted with picture on left and space to write lines on the right. (Some students may exchange photos later.)
If this is too complicated or time consuming for your students, consider having a printed page with all the pictures in color. Students can find, download and insert their photos another day. If students are hand writing their poems, they can cut out their chosen pictures and paste them to their final drafts.
For five to seven minutes, while they are selecting, copying and saving the slides with their photos, have the rap beats playing softly. This is to get the rhythm into their minds but not overpower their brains as they choose pictures.
Now guide the students through the pre-writing process.
- Confirm each has four pictures that include two of a place and two of person(s) outdoors.
- Have students arrange their photos in an order of their choice. Then, looking at photo one, take notes as they consider some 5 W’s and H questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
- Consider the five senses –as they relate or are inspired by that picture. Sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
- Do the same for subsequent pictures, but on their own. (Have questions projected or on a handout.)
- Now, using the ideas inspired by the pictures and drawn from the notes, craft 6-8 line stanzas to accompany each of their four chosen pictures. This should make for a tight 24 to 32 lines poem.
Day Three – Expansion and Revision
Today, have the rap track playing softfly as students arrive for class. Instruct them to open to drafts of their poem and review what they’ve written as they listen to the beats. What obviously needs to be revised?
This could be a time to intentionally add or sharpen their poems by incorporating traditional poetic devices. Could require that students include in the final poem three of five devices from list you provide. List may be simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, synethesia, symbol, and rhyme. (The rap, will provide the rhythm.) Include words, images, sounds that recreate sensory experiences of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
Day Four – Create Group Presentations – Electronic or Performance
Groups decide on order of poems in a single file with poems blended or sequential. Select a tech person in the group to insert the audio to the combined file. Practice reading aloud. It would be group choice to have authors read their own poems, another group member’s poem, or have a single read them all. Record the vocals as the slides advance and the rap music plays in the background.
Here’s the link to the rap beats from a free YouTube site that you can download and share. Most individual poems will be about 60-75 seconds. Some students in the class will know how to trim the audio file in PowerPoint. If not send them to the web to locate link like this to a tutorial video on how to trim audio files.
If technology is not available for this step, have student prepare to present a performance of their group poems and include hand gestures and step movements. The rap beat can be played from computer, tablet or phone. (Arrange with administrators for students to practice in the stairwell or quiet corner of the hallway or another open space. All the groups playing the raps may be distracting in a small classroom.)
Day Five – Share Group Slide Presentations or Performances
Students can be graded on completing the assignment on time with the required elements. Here are geneal grading guidelines:
C – Complete with required components
B – Complete and Correct with required components and minimal errors in mechanics, usage, grammar, punctuation
A – Complete, Correct, and Creative with required components, few distracting errors, and fresh, novel, unexpected features that make the poem(s) stand out from the others in positive ways.
Student written reflection on the process:
- What did I do to contribute to success of my group?
- What did I learn about writing poetry from completing this assignment?
- What letter grade did I earn based on the rubric. (If I match teacher’s grade my grade will be raised one half step. C+ becomes B-. B becomes B+, B+ becomes A-, etc.)
Take the Show on The Road
Choose two group presentations or performances to be shared
with one or more classes who meet during the same class period and take the poems “on the road”.
If technology is available, record the student performances and post to class/school website.
If electronic versions have been made, do the same!
Anna J. Small Roseboro, a National Board Certified Teacher is a published author and poet but is primarily an educator with over forty years’ experience teaching English and Speech to students in middle school, high school and college in public, private, and parochial schools in five states. A mentor for early career educators, Ms. Roseboro earned a B.A. in Speech Communications from Wayne State University and an M.A. in Curriculum Design from the University of California, San Diego. Her newest published work is a series of books published by Rowman and Littlefield designed for pre-service teachers and for those teaching middle school for the first time. See those three books GETTING STARTED (2018) MORE ABOUT WRITING (2019) and NOT INTIMIDATING (2019) on her website http://teachingenglishlanguagearts.com/.