Thursday, April 03, 2008

Poetry updates

I have had a lot of fun at work this week. The third grade teachers asked me to come in and teach a poetry lesson. I was all set with a little "lecture" about poetry on Monday morning, with my little clue cards and sample poems. It was time to test that poetry workshop idea that I've had in my head for so long, but have never had the chance to try.

So I did my little talk, read some sample poems, picked the kids' brains a bit, and then we started our own poem as a group (an aside: it was so cool talking and writing on the white board--LOL). We picked a topic (baseball), brainstormed for a couple minutes, and wrote the first stanza (in which there is a high fly ball). Then I gave them an assignment: continue the poem by writing at least one more stanza showing what happens next. I talked a little too long, so we didn't have as much time as I had hoped for the actual poem writing. But it went pretty well. And I wasn't nervous at all!

Tuesday morning I went to a different third grade class, so I had the chance to tweak my "workshop" a bit. The topic this class chose was "summer vacation" and we started writing a list poem about things we love about summer. That topic went over really well, and the list poem format is something that I think most kids can handle well.

We did more poetry today. I went in and helped the kids get started writing a shape poem. Their teacher gave them a general topic--rain, because it was a rainy day today--and they could focus on a cloud, lightning, rain, or wind. This time they had to write all on their own. And of course, they will eventually have to arrange the words so they form the shape of a cloud, raindrop, etc. I can't wait to read them!

I will go to the other third grade class again tomorrow. This time I'll have free reign, so I can do just about whatever I want. I still haven't decided for sure what we will do. Maybe try a free verse poem from the perspective of an animal or inanimate object? That could be interesting.

I've always thought that it would be so much fun to be able to do author visits and/or poetry workshops as a published author. This experience has proved to me how much fun it really can be!

And now one of the fifth grade teachers wants me to come in to read and talk about some of my poems. How cool is that? I'm so excited (and I just can't hide it).

Oh, in case you're wondering which poems I picked for the bulletin board...I brought several in to have the media specialist (aka librarian) choose for me. She picked "Dinosaur at the Door" and "At the Lake." One silly, one about nature.

3 comments:

  1. This is great Becky! I am sure that the kids had a great time with you. If you were even half as excited as you sound in this post then a good time was had by all, guaranteed. Keep it up friend! :-)

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  2. That is so awesome! I'm sure you did a fantastic job. You should consider offering a homeschooling class next year?? Just a thought. Usually a resource list goes out during the summer for upcoming classes; also there's a resource 'fair' in August I think??

    I look forward to hearing how the next class goes :)

    In Christ,
    Joanne

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  3. Sounds like you might be sitting on a really cool way to make money! You should put together a packet of what you can offer to school. Include a list of your publications, how you can help kids appreciate poetry, etc. and of course a fee schedule... I know someone who does something similar and she is so busy.

    By the way, TAG YOU'RE IT! I was book meme tagged and so I tagged you! Go to my blog to check it out.

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