2020 Post #9 -- Adjusting to a Quiet World

Brett Vogelsinger retweeted this tweet from Jose Olivarez, and I was struck dumb for a moment:

I had never read this lovely poem, but it so played the right cultural and thematic chord (a government restriction on words, apparent social isolation, simplicity in community and love and humanity) that I instantly knew I was  using Jeffrey McDaniel's “The Quiet World” as the first poem in my distance learning plan.

Taking a page from Carol Jago, I wanted my students to simply experience the poem, and I wanted to give them two very simple directions. First, I invited students to tell me the line that struck them the most, something we always do in class when we first read a poem. The poem’s power is in its emotional use of language, which plays on the fact that conversation is limited to one hundred and sixty-seven words a day, so students’ choice of lines would be a wonderful entry point into thinking about the poem’s large themes of connection, love, and humanity. Once they’d chosen their line, I simply wanted them to tell me how this poem and its themes felt resonant during this pandemic where we are social distancing and distance learning.

The trick of this lesson was in how they shared their responses. I posted my own response to our class Flipgrid (click here to see my video) so the students could see and hear my own words, which felt important for the poem’s themes and for our current social isolation. I then encouraged them to record their own videos based on my two directives.

Seeing students’ faces and hearing their voices while they talked about isolation, humanity, and community—this was a win. And having a virtual discussion about the power of words and the importance of making real connections especially in the face of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic was a terrific reminder of how powerful poetry can be in shaping how we see the world around us.

Here are some student Flipgrid response excerpts about the poem’s connection to the pandemic:

“I think this [personal connection] relates to what is going on right now because we’re all so lonely in our houses so if we call our friends on the phone and we’re not even talking—we’re just doing our homework or something—like you still feel someone is there with you and you’re less alone.”

“…making sure we say, ‘I love you’ and talking to people that we love is in important. And I think that goes along with what is happening now just because we can’t really see people that we want to see, so making sure we stay connected to them through things like [Flipgrid] and on our phone is how we can stay connected.”

“Because of the coronavirus, we’re all so distanced from each other and people are always saying on social media...that we need to stick together and that’s where I feel the connection [to this poem] is.”

Further Reading:

Will Melvin teaches tenth and eleventh-grade English at CB South High School in Warrington, PA.  Follow him on Twitter (@WillMelvinCBSD).

2020 Post #5 -- Say My Name

by Brett Vogelsinger

The poem "Say My Name" by Idris Goodwin requires no real introduction, as the poem is so engaging, students will jump right in.  It is a poem about the many stories behind a name,  stories of both how that comes to be ours and what others try to do with it. I was pleased to find this on the #teachlivingpoets Black History Month list alongside many other phenomenal spoken word poems to build into our routine.

After sharing the video, I share a series of questions as my students open their Writer's Notebooks:

How did you get your name? Is there a story behind it you could tell poetically?
Do you know your "almost" name . . . the name your parents were thinking about but did not choose?
Do people mispronounce your name?  If so, how?
Are there common mispronunciations that you hear people use in everyday speech that bug you?
Are there any words you intentionally mispronounce?  Why do you make this choice?

We freewrite for about three minutes to one of these questions, then share in small groups whatever writers are willing to share from their work.  Several of my students gave me permission to share their drafts with Idris Goodwin via Twitter, and were thrilled to see him respond.

This whole activity only takes about ten minutes at the beginning of class, but it plants seeds that we can return to later for personal narrative writing or a more polished poem.  Moreover, students opened up an shared bits of their personal history after hearing Goodwin's poem; this activity built community among my writers.

A Related Post on Go Poems

Further Reading:






Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth grade English teacher and NBCT at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA. He is the founding editor of Go Poems, facilitates his school's literary magazine, Sevenatenine, and contributes monthly posts at Moving Writers. Follow him on Twitter @theVogelman.

2019 Post #13 -- A Poetry Sampler

by Zach Sibel

Last year on Go Poems, I wrote about teaching poetry like an appetizer, giving students a number of poems to choose from to discover which taste best to them. With the success of last year’s “rappers as poets” sampler, I thought that this year I could tackle some more classic poetry, the Romantics.

Simply saying the word “romance” in a middle school can send a class into a frenzy of “Ewwww!" This, like many dislikes, is usually rooted in miseducation or misunderstanding. I decided to accept the challenge of “making old poetry cool again” and get students to realize that they can relate to these “old guy poets,” as one student so eloquently put it.

I start by asking students what they think “Romance” is and what it means. Here you get your standard “love” answers. I explain to students that romance in the Romantic era was more than that; it was a retreat to simpler means and the appreciation of nature. I ask students to think about the last time they took a walk -- just to take a walk -- or went outside with no rhyme or reason. After that, I pass out their Romantic packet, which features poems from Wordsworth, Blake, and Whitman; I ask students to read through them, picking one to annotate.

Giving student choice allows them to get more into what they are reading. By creating a sense of context with the explanation of the Romantic period, students are able to understand the poetry a little bit better. While analysis is nice and at times impressive, the best part of this is the opportunity for readers response. By giving choice, students do not feel forced to connect with a text; they feel that they can be more honest in the connections that they have, moving past what they think the “right” answer is and closer to what resonates with them.

Some questions you might want to ask are, “What do all these poems have in common?” or even “What seems ‘romantic’ about them?” I have come to realize in the past few years that these types of conversations about poetry spike greater interest than simply talking about figurative language or form.

The Fly

William Blake

Little Fly

Thy summer's play,

My thoughtless hand

Has brush'd away.

Am not I

A fly like thee?

Or art not thou

A man like me?

For I dance

And drink & sing;

Till some blind hand

Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life

And strength & breath;

And the want

Of thought is death;

Then am I

A happy fly,

If I live,

Or if I die.

My Pretty Rose Tree
William Blake

A flower was offered to me,

Such a flower as May never bore;

But I said 'I've a pretty rose tree,'

And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my pretty rose tree,

To tend her by day and by night;

But my rose turned away with jealousy,

And her thorns were my only delight.

Other poems included in my sampler this year:


A Slumber did my Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth

O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman

O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman

Further Reading:

Zach Sibel is an 8th grade English teacher at Tohickon Middle School and a lover of poetry, hip-hop, and all things writing. For more about my class you can find me on Twitter @MrSibelENG . Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

2018 Poem #19 -- Student-Led Observation and Conversation

by Rose Birkhead

Hanging Fire by Audre Lorde is a perfect fit for a fourteen-year-old adolescent student!

On the day I shared this poem with my students, I rearranged the desks to form a circle. The students knew from the beginning of class that today was going to be different, and it brought a new energy to the classroom. I highly recommend rearranging the furniture to promote conversation!

I used the text rendering experience to work through this poem, and also had students write a short comment to connect with the poem, an idea in their head, or an emotion on their heart, the Book-Head-Heart from Kylene Beers & Robert Probst.

First, I read the poem aloud to the students and had the students close their eyes, or put their heads down so they could take in the poem. On second read, I passed around copies of the poem for each student, and displayed it on the board. During the second read, I asked students to underline a sentence that stuck out to them. I read the poem aloud again, and asked them to box a phrase. Finally, I had the students read the poem to themselves, and asked them to circle one word that stood out to them. We shared our sentences, phrases, and words in the traditional text rendering protocol; then I had the students have a full class discussion about the poem for five minutes. After the discussion, students wrote down a new learning from the whole class discussion.

This activity probably takes 15 minutes. The poem has so many layers of meaning, and I was impressed with how the text rendering helped students naturally make connections with the poem. During our whole-group conversation, I held back my thoughts and let the students run the conversation. Their discussion was rich and powerful. The short write after the conversation allowed students to go back and see how/if their thinking changed, and their writing was expressive and personal. Enjoy this age-appropriate poem about being an adolescent.

Further Reading:

Rose Birkhead is a Reading Specialist in Holland, PA. She teaches 7th and 8th grade literacy classes and strives to create a positive learning environment where her students feel successful on a daily basis.

2018 Poem #18 -- Through New Eyes

by Jason Stephenson

I read Cynthia Rylant’s picture book When I Was Young in the Mountains to my creative writing students during our memoir unit. I smile at the fact that the book was published in 1982, the same year I was born. As I teach high school, I am fairly unfamiliar with children’s book authors, so I was surprised to find another Rylant book on vacation in Houston one recent summer. The slim poetry collection, published in 2003, was titled God Went to Beauty School. In 23 poems over 56 pages, Rylant portrays God as a regular human with titles such as “God Got a Dog,” “God Made Spaghetti,” and “God Went to India.”

The titular poem, “God Went to Beauty School” opens the book. It is one long stanza with short line breaks, a dash of humor, and one simile. I read the poem aloud to my students and give them time to discuss it with an elbow partner. My Creative Writing 2 students rarely need prompting, but possible questions include:

• What is so powerful about a human hand? 
• How do you respond to God being described as a human? 
• Was this poem blasphemous?

As a class, we discuss how the poem begins with short sentences but ends with one long, complicated sentence. The discussion of hands might lead us to the Michelangelo painting of the Creation of Adam, with God’s and Adam’s hands stretched out to one another. Even in the Bible Belt, most of my students are entertained and not offended by this poem.

My students write their own God-as-human poems in response: “God Got a Speeding Ticket,” “God Plays Golf,” and “God Bought a Gun,” just to name a few. We focus on emulating Rylant’s straightforward style, crisp line breaks, and deep insight.

Further Reading:

Jason Stephenson teaches creative writing at Deer Creek High School in Edmond, Oklahoma. He blogs infrequently at dcjason.wordpress.com.

2018 Poem #4 -- The Sport of Writing Small

by Lauren Heimlich Foley

As my students preview the title of the poem "Baseball" written on the board, their murmuring echoes throughout our classroom, and curiosity lingers in the air. One student remarks, “A poem about baseball?" Disbelief paints his voice.

In preparation for the first reading, I invite my seventh-graders to notice the author's craft.  They mark up their pages as I recite “Baseball” by Bill Zavatsky.  Sharing their favorite lines, they highlight a variety of techniques including descriptive details, dialogue, figurative language, tone, and theme.  One recurring observation is mentioned in every class: the poem shows a single moment -- Bill catching the ball.  

After their initial reactions, I ask students to consider how they might use the poem as a mentor text: what words, phrases, sentences, or ideas will help them use precise details to reveal their own stories.  Once I reread the poem, students refer back to a list of personal memories they collected during a previous class period, select their best ideas, and write their own pieces. 

Roughly five minutes later, partners share their creations and reveal how "Baseball" has influenced them.  When student volunteers read their work to the class, they showcase an array of topics: competing at a swim meet, winning a soccer game, painting a canvas, honoring a beloved pet, and saying goodbye to a grandparent. 

I appreciate Bill Zavatsky’s poem because it immerses students in a relatable situation, challenges them to write about a specific moment, and encourages them to employ writing skills that convey their experiences. Whether their work remains an exercise or fuels a future writing piece, we can always return to “Baseball” for inspiration on how to write small.

Further Reading:

Lauren Heimlich Foley teaches seventh-grade English Language Arts at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA.

2018 Poem # 3 -- But There Is This

by Jeff Anderson

Poetry has the capacity to help us see what is common through new eyes.  Before reading the poem "You Can't Have It All" by Barbara Ras, I ask students, “Have you ever heard the expression, 'You Can’t Have It All'?" After gauging students' familiarity with this expression, I say, “Some say we’ve heard it often enough that it's a cliche, but I’m in love with the way Barbara Ras uses the well-worn expression in a fresh way, making it the opposite of cliche. Let me read it aloud to you, so you can observe how Barbara Ras uses the expression." (When reading this poem aloud, I generally remove the line about the skin between a man's legs without fanfare, though this is at the discretion of the teacher of course.)

“How does Barbara Ras make the cliche do work?” I ask the students after reading this poem.  In our discussion, I highlight that concrete, everyday experiences become worthy of our focus, our appreciation, our gratitude. 

“To me, poetry is meant to help us pay attention,” I say, " to focus on all the wonderful world and all it gives us. Writers pay attention to things that might note be noted or recorded on first glance. We look again at the simplest things, like the way Ras sees a clown hand in a fig leaf." 

We read the poem a second time, for poems are meant to be read at least twice. This time our goal is to note what Ras feels she can have and start letting thoughts of what you can have in life begin to come to the surface “like the white foam that bubbles up at the top of the bean pot."

This opening can be extended into a full writer's workshop, wherein students write their own “You Can’t Have it All” poems, focusing on making the simple sublime. You can’t have it all. But there is this and this and this. Each poet has the unique capacity to see those things. I invite students to call out to others by giving them voice, by making poetry, stringing together words and experiences you—only you—care about. 

Further Reading: 

Jeff Anderson is a writer of middle grade fiction and a professional developer for teachers who has been sharing writing strategies with students and teachers for 25 years.  His books for teachers include Mechanically Inclined and Patterns of Power.  Learn more about his work at www.writeguy.net or on Twitter @writeguyjeff. 

2018 Poem #1- What's It All About?

by Brett Vogelsinger

Some poems are so simple and beautiful that overthinking them, as English teachers are prone to do, can risk losing the potent, raw effect of the words.

I first discovered Nikki Giovanni's poem "Quilts" in her illustrated children's book I Am Loved.  I was next to my sons, reading them the book at bedtime, when the poem suddenly seized me, choked me up, sent chills down my spine.

To allow students to have this experience with poetry, it is sometimes necessary to minimize our intervention and discussion of the poems.  We must also unabashedly share our own unexpected emotional responses to a poem.  For me, it was the closing lines that move me the most:

        When I am frayed and strained and drizzled at the end
         Please someone cut a square and put me in a quilt
         That I might keep some child warm

        And some old person with no one else to talk to
        Will hear my whispers

        And cuddle
        near.

So when I share this poem with students, I tell them it is new to me, and the first time I read it, it almost made me cry in front of my sons.  I do not try to explain why this happened, just share that it happened, and that I hope they find a poem like this in their lives at some point, maybe even in the course of our class.

After hearing the poem twice, read aloud the first time by me and the second time by one of my students, I asked the class only one question: "What's this poem about?"

This simple but excellent question about poetry invites divergent thinking early in the class period.  In this case, students brought up that the poem is about aging, usefulness, love, timelessness, change, and comfort.  The question avoids killing the poem with over-analysis, and the student observations are varied.

Try this with "Quilts," or with a poem of your own choosing that speaks to your heart.

And welcome to our second year of Go Poems.  I hope you find some intriguing ideas for reading daily poetry in your classroom.

Further Reading:

Brett Vogelsinger is a ninth-grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School in Bucks County, PA.  He has been starting class with a poem each day for the past ten years. He is the creator of the Go Poems blog and the author of Poetry Pauses: Teaching With Poems to Elevate Writing in All Genres.   Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

Go Poem #24 -- Sketch This Poem

by Brett Vogelsinger

We read the poem "Little Citizen, Little Survivor" by Hayden Carruth about a rat living in a woodpile, observed by a man starved of the natural environment he knew well as a boy.  The only direction I give is "You now have three minutes to sketch this poem in your Writer's Notebooks.  I will do the same in mine.  Your time begins now."

Part of the fun of this challenge is its impossibility. There is too much to possibly sketch in three minutes, so each reader must decide where to focus, what images are at the crux of this poem.  Moreover, they assume a certain perspective from which to view the poem.  Sometimes I see a long view of the house with the woodpile; the rat is too small to be seen.  Others sketch the rat's tiny nose from bird's-eye view as it peeks out from the woodpile.  Some ignore the woodpile altogether.  I once had a student sketch a bird feeder, zooming in on the detail that this speaker craves interaction with nature.

Sharing these sketches give us a natural entry point to identify what stands out to us in the poem and why, how we visualize as readers, and what matters most in this piece.  I encourage you to enter this activity without too many scripted questions, but rather watch as the kids interpret visually and then explain their thinking.  Questions and ideas emerge organically from these drawings. 

Brett Vogelsinger teaches freshman English students at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA where he starts class with a poem each day. Follow his work on Twitter @theVogelman.

Further Reading:

Go Poem #22 -- Mood Music

by Lisa Levin

Musician Jeff Tweedy recently turned Carl Sandburg’s poem “Theme In Yellow” into “an airy, idyllic folk song” that appears on Brooklyn musician David Nagler's tribute album, Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems.

The poem describes a midwestern October and is filled with images of "prairie cornfields / Orange and tawny gold clusters" and children "singing ghost songs / And love to the harvest moon" while gathered around a pumpkin (or someone pretending to be a pumpkin), who serves as the poem's speaker.

I project the text of this poem on the screen while my students listen to the song. I tell the students very little beforehand, except that they should try and ascertain whether the poem develops a story from the images the poet creates. After the song, I ask a student to volunteer to read the poem to the class. Next we discuss the literary element of mood. Students define the mood of the poem and then provide lines from the poem as supporting evidence. It was interesting that half of the students found the mood to be peaceful and half found the mood to be sinister!

Lisa Levin teaches ninth-grade English at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA.

Further Reading:

Go Poem #13-- Poster Poem

by Rose Birkhead

Through the school year, I use the Three Big Questions found in Reading Nonfiction - Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. (What surprised me?  What did the author think I know that I do not know? What challenged, or confirmed my thinking?

I use the "Poster" strategy that Kylene Beers mentions in her book, Nonfiction Notice and Note as we read "1975: Year of the Cat" an excerpt from the book Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.  I focus on using the question "What does the author think I know that I do not know?"

First, I read aloud the poem to the students. At table groups, I have a copy of the poem in the center of large chart paper. Each student is given a different color marker. Without speaking, students underline and write notes about the poem, noting what the author thinks we know that we don’t know. All notes are written directly on the chart paper. Students are allowed to draw, write, and underline. I also walk around the room with my own color marker. I also do not talk, but try to push the paper conversation along by using words, pictures and phrases on each groups’ posters. Beers suggests giving ten minutes to students, but my students tend to only be able to focus on the activity for about five. I find this activity to be beneficial for my quieter students. Taking away voice allows all students to have more of a voice.

Once the five-minute vow of silence is over, I encourage each group of students to converse about the notes written about the poem. Together, students create questions about what they wonder. I post the charts around the room, to remind us about the powerful use of our written words. I also use this activity to begin our read aloud of the book, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai.

Rose Birkhead is a Reading Specialist at Holland Middle School in Warminster, PA. She teaches 7th and 8th grade literacy classes and  strives to create a positive learning environment where her students feel successful on a daily basis.

Further Reading:

                         

Go Poem #11 -- Experiencing a Poem

by Pernille Ripp

My classes read the poem “Hugging Jose” by Jason Reynolds because they love the work of Jason Reynolds, and also because it shows poetry from a different standpoint.  Not the traditionally viewed version of poetry, but instead one that is written to evoke emotion and help students connect to the form of poetry.

I read it aloud while the students follow along and then in small groups I have them discuss the following questions:

Who is the person writing it?

Who is he writing it for and why?

How can you relate to this poem?

How do you feel after reading this poem?

A big part of our focus whenever we discuss poetry is looking at how language is used to evoke emotions and so we do not analyze poetry in the traditional sense, but instead reflect on what mood we are in as readers after experiencing a poem.  Which words are powerful to us and why?  The answers vary from group to group, and I think this is so important to emphasize with the kids; there is no right answer but instead answers based on our experience.  

I wrap the lesson up by asking about the end message -- the final two lines of the poem -- what does Jason Reynolds want us to walk away with?  This poem speaks to many of my kids, not all, but I think it offers a way to show them that poetry might be more raw than they assume.

Pernille Ripp is a seventh-grade language arts teacher from Madison, WI. Follow her work on Twitter: @pernilleripp

Further Reading:

Go Poem #3 -- Listening For Context

by Brett Vogelsinger

The poem "In Two Seconds" is longer than most poems we use in a poem a day activity, but it is also relevant, provocative, and deep.  Mark Doty wrote this poem in response to the killing of Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer.

Try giving the class a copy of the poem turned face down on their desk, requiring them to listen to the poem before they look at it.  You may provide a little context, explaining that this poem is protest poem about an injustice, but let them listen to pick out the other pieces.

After hearing the poem, have them turn over the handout and read it the second time with the goal of answering this question:  What can you tell me about the injustice Mark Doty is writing about?  What happened?  What does the poet condemn about this incident?

Have students share the specific lines that answer these questions.  Be sure to include at the end of your discussion:  Which lines would you most like to discuss with the poet? What new questions does this poem provoke in your mind? This is not a poem for easy answers, so it is important to me to end a discussion of a poem like this in a state of inquiry.

Brett Vogelsinger teaches freshman English students at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA where he starts class with a poem each day. Follow his work on Twitter @theVogelman.

Further Reading