Color Poems Word Choice & Fun!

Hailstones and Halibut Bones & Color Poems by Karen Grunder
That old Hailstones and Halibut Bones book motivated me to develop a lesson for color poems! We brainstormed ideas for one color (red) as a class, sense by sense. The students would do it individually first on their own paper, then we would share and record all ideas on chart paper. The next day we picked the ideas for each sense we thought were the strongest, and worked on putting a poem together and making each image even more powerful. We balanced the amount of sense images (didn't want to overload on the visual). Hearing and feeling (emotion) were frequently the challenging ones for 10 year olds, but sometimes ended up being very effective parts of their poems when they later wrote their own. "Showing, not telling" was a big part of this lesson. Finally, the children got the chance to choose their own color, and brainstormed their own ideas. Lots of excitement! Yellow is.... the smile in my mom's eyes whenever she looks at me the first notes of the ice cream song - "Run! Find the truck!" huge fields of daffodils rippling like waves as each gust hits… These poems were little treasures. The majority of children in the class got their poems published in a poetry book through a contest I entered. (Not a thing I regularly do, but someone handed me the poetry contest sheet just as we were doing the activity). This is an easy and effective way to get children to play with words to paint pictures and evoke emotions. A lot of talk went into the most effective way of sequencing ideas. Mood, balance, dynamics, and the importance of leaving the reader with a strong, final image/thought also came up. Such fun! So much covered in one much enjoyed writing activity! This year I'd like to get them to take digital pictures or use the web, and create a collage of any images or emotions from their poems that could be caught with a camera. I would tell them this after they finished their poems, though. I wouldn't want their inspirations to be restricted by practicality. Karen Grunder (Summer 2008: Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits) Lesson Extension from Read Write Think: Color Poems—Using the Five Senses to Guide Prewriting

South Aftrican Poetry Slam

This just in from Jayne in Jo-berg!

We had a poetry slam last Friday. It was awesome.

My class and I had invited parents, the librarian, the elementary
principal, and the school counselor. There were about 30 people for this
event. I moved all the tables and desks out of my classroom, and we put
the chairs, the couch, and a few pillows in a big circle. I called it
"Poetry in the Round." In the middle of our circle I setup a small table
with candles, flowers, and a big hat for names. In our invitation we
encouraged our guests to bring poems they would like to share.

Round One: Memorized Poems

Anyone who had memorized a poem could put their name in the hat.
I had all of my students and one parent participate in round one. To
start I picked the first name out of the hat. When I read the name out
loud, everyone had to say "YES" enthusiastically. The reader would
stand up and say their poem. Instead of applause, one girl had suggested
we snap our fingers a bunch of times. It worked great. Then person who
had just said their poem would pick the next name out of a hat, and we'd
all say "YES" enthusiastically and so on till all the names were picked
and poems said. I would make a big deal out of finishing each round and
we'd have a minute or two break and then dive into the next round.

Round Two: Poems You Wrote

Anyone who had written a poem they wanted to share could put
their name in the hat. My students had recently put all their poems
into a book so they had lots to choose from. It was fun to have a few
parents join in this round too as well as all of my students and my
student teacher.

Round Three: Anything Goes

Besides all the students, I had lots of parents and
administrators participate in round three. The kids loved it when their
parent's name was chosen. Many of the parents put their heart and soul
into reading their poems. A highlight for my class was my student
teacher's contributions. He not only shared a number of his creations,
but as a farewell to the class, he shared a beautiful poem he wrote
called "Recipe for a Great Class." The piece included every student's
name and a bit of their personality. It was beautiful. This was his
last day with our class and so the poetry slam was also his farewell
party. After beginning teaching the poetry unit 6 weeks before, I had
asked him if he wanted to teach some of the poetry classes. He said
writing was not his thing especially poetry. I decided that every poem
the kids worked on, he would do as well. After a hesitant start, he
really got into it. He began sharing more and more of his work with the
class every day and it gave them confidence to share too. His honesty
about his feeling that he wasn't a good writer made the students
encourage him and each other more and more. It was one of those magical units that everyone can't help but grow, learn and feel good about their writing and themselves.

Jayne from Jo-burg