Writer's Corner Wednesday, Vol. 7

Happy Wednesday!

For today's Writer's Corner Wednesday, I thought I'd give you an update on how poetry has gone in my classroom, along with a poem that one of my students wrote that just really impressed me.

So, this has been week 2 of poetry, and one of my big pushes has just been for them to practice writing poems. They can rhyme, or not. They can be shape poems, or written in stanzas, or couplets, or whatever they want. My big theme with poetry has been than anyone can create a poem, because the poem is what the poet makes it. Remember last week how I stressed the power of a poet's words?

We finished Love That Dog, and I was worried about how they would handle Jack's big moment when he finally writes a poem about losing his dog. That was a majorly cathartic moment for Jack, and I wanted my kids to be able to appreciate that without fixating too much on how "sad" the poem is. I think it was successful. We talked about how Jack was able to really express how he felt, and that he probably felt better after getting that out, just like we do after we talk things out with a friend.

What I loved about reading this book was that it let my kids watch someone play around with other poets' words and create their own poems. It's so cool to me that some of my kids are doing the same kind of thing that Jack did, and I wanted to demonstrate with an example by one of my students, Kyle.

Now, we read a couple of well-known poems together as a class because they were poems that Jack's teacher had read and that he responded to in the book. A couple that my kids really loved were "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams, and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. I'll share them with you in case you aren't familiar.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

-----------------------------

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

So, both of those are fairly well-known poems, and even though I work with third graders, they became a couple of their favorites. Crazy, right?

Well, here's Kyle's poem, and then I'll tell you why it made me so excited.

The Lighthouse

Everyone depends on a lighthouse

To guide ships safely

Away from the rocky shore

Away from the rocky shore

I mean, can we talk about the proud momma moment I had when I read this? He borrows the structure of his first line from "The Red Wheelbarrow," and the repetition at the end from Frost. And we talked about it and he could explain that to me! It was so cool.

We're working on creating final copies of a few of our favorite poems that we've written, and my intention is that by the end of the week, we'll have an explosion of poetry on our wall in the hallway.

Maybe I'll try to get a picture of the finished display to share with you guys next week.

I guess that wraps it up for today--hope everyone in my neck of the woods is enjoying the warmer weather. I know I am!

I'll see you kids tomorrow for some Thoughts on Thursday. Feel free (as always) to suggest topics. Have a great evening!

♥ Marlee