2021 Post #18 -- Deserving Praise

by Joel Garza

In difficult times, it can be valuable to remember who deserves our praise.  Invite your students into a poem that illuminates this a bit more, and then invite them to write their own poetry in response. 

Watch Gómez's reading of the poem "Praise" on the Button Poetry YouTube channel. 

 As you listen, have a pencil out to write down your responses to a couple of questions: What are two things (individual lines, individual images, individual word choices) that really pop for you on the ear? What are two things (body language, hand gesture) that really caught your eye?

As you reread & annotate Gómez’s “Praise”, keep your literary antennae up for some of his poetic choices.

Repetition: This poem is driven by a lengthy list of “Because” clauses. What was it like to wait for the “Because” clauses to resolve, to process each one on its own? Perhaps there was a single “Because” that stood out to you--which one, and why?

Relationships: This is a poem about the fullness of loves--romantic love, parental love, friendship, etc. Do you see any kind of order to the relationships the speaker mentions? If so, what kind of order? If not, what do you make of that lack of order or hierarchy?

Structure: This poem moves in waves. What’s the impact of that shape for you as a reader?

Few of us think of ourselves as poets. But we all have a perspective that is worthwhile—and not just worthwhile to ourselves. We all can make meaning in our lives, even if that meaning is not always joyful or clear. Consider which of these writing prompts is the easiest gateway to knowing yourself & loving yourself, to knowing others & understanding—if not loving—others, and then respond to it.

Repetition & relationships: Who are, say, seven people in your life that deserve praise? Write them down--any order you wish. What’s each one’s “Because” for you? Write it down--no matter how small, how unique to you, how much it mean lean on a language (like Gómez’s Spanish) that some readers might not understand.

 
Structure: Mindful of these people and the “because” of each, what’s the shape that might best honor them & you are because of them? This poem moves in waves. Maybe you surf those waves in your writing. Or maybe your people are all around the world--consider then a draft that looks like a map with a continent for each person. Or something else entirely!

Further Reading:

The lesson was written by Joel Garza, Upper School English chair at Greenhill School and cofounder of #THEBOOKCHAT.

2021 Post #15 -- Moving Advice

by Ken Bui

Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” is an uplifting poem centered around a mother imparting wisdom and advice to her son. It’s about adversity. It’s about grit. It’s about courage. When I share this short poem with students, I always admire how much conversation can stem from its mere 20 lines.

Fittingly – seeing as the poem features the image of a staircase – invite students to think about all the ways the speaker “moves” and “shifts” through the advice to her son. To do so, consider the following questions or quick activities to frame the conversation your students could have:

• What is the mother’s advice to her son?
• What imagery or figurative language drives that message?
• Alternatively, can students complete a quick doodle of any of the images that catch their attention?
• How do verbs capture not only the mother’s movement, but the movement of the poem’s lines?
• How do punctuation and line breaks contribute to the pace of the mother’s story/advice?
• Or alternatively, where does the poem pause? Slow down? Quicken or build?
• Consider if and where the speaker shifts the language. If you had to break up the poem into three parts or stanzas, where would you do so and why?
• Have students draw lines to divide up the poem!

While students appreciate and discover how the speaker “moves” through the poem, they may also be “moved” by its tender yet frank sentiment on perseverance. 

Further Reading:

Ken Bui is an English teacher at Central Bucks High School South in Warrington, Pennsylvania. He enjoys teaching a variety of courses such as English 11, AP English Language & Composition, Creative Writing, and Debate. He is also a contributing writer for Moving Writers. You can find him on Twitter @kenbuiCBSD.

2021 Post #13 -- Diving Into Gratitude

 by Rebekah O'Dell

During "Pandemic School" -- a term my colleague coined to encapsulate the general chaos and turmoil we are all experiencing this school year -- I have been trying to model specific, concrete gratitude for my students.

“I’m so thankful I get to see your entire faces today,” I said in our first class meeting during a sudden virtual pivot.

“I’m so glad we’re all back together again, even if it’s behind plexiglass and masks,” I said our first day back at school.

“I’m excited we get to figure out together how to make our language field guides digital this year!” I feigned.

I do this because I need it. Because, this year, gratitude is not always my first language. Because I want it to become a language students start to practice when they need help, too.

Gratitude is a fake-it-’til-you-make it sport. We become more grateful and experience the myriad mental and physical health benefits that gratitude affords not because we are always feeling it but because it’s a discipline.

And, like any discipline, we sometimes do it through gritted teeth.

One particularly bleak winter morning, I came across the poem “Winter Thanks” by Marcus Jackson.

What struck me was the specificity. Unlike some other gratitude poems, this poem isn’t sweeping in its scope. Instead, it gets highly specific about one thing the poet is grateful for in the winter: heat. Jackson drills down, stretching and pulling his thankfulness apart to examine what it’s made of.

This poem provides a great lesson on zooming in and getting specific.

Here’s how I used it with my students:

First, we read the poem, and I asked students the question I always ask students about everything we read: What do you notice?

Students immediately noticed that all of the items discussed in the poem have to do with heat, which is something you would naturally be thankful for in winter. They smartly said it’s like Jackson “zooms in” on all the things that make heat, that give him heat in the cold winter months, and he describes each one very specifically.

They noticed the formal tone that “sounds like church” and the repetition of the word “praise”.

Then, I asked students to try their own, using these instructions:

• Think of something you’re thankful for right now.
• Now, zoom in. Break that down into 8-10 smaller aspects or elements.
• Describe each of those elements in a phrase that: describes its appearance, describes its function, describes its behavior, describes its feeling, describes its sound
• Now, string them together -- adding line breaks + repeating “praise” at the beginning of each new element you describe.

Jackson’s easily-recognizable frame provides a template into which students can fit their own thinking and quickly end up with a successful poem of their own in about 10-15 minutes.

Further Reading: 

 

Rebekah O’Dell teaches middle school English in Richmond, Virginia. She is the co-founder of MovingWriters.org and the author of a number of professional books. You can find her on Twitter @RebekahODell1 and at movingwriters.org.

2021 Post #10 -- A Miniature Autobiography

by Don Kemball

"Autobiography in Five Short Chapters" by Portia Nelson is one of my favourite poems for discussing the topic of hope.  

What captures me most is that it begins in despair -- but an ignorant sort. A place where you do not realize you are the problem. It builds slowly, finding the solution through struggle. Yet the poem ends with this incredibly powerful message -- that you can take any problem in your life and turn it on its end. You CAN find a way through and be successful.

Once my class has read the poem and broken it down using the SWIFT technique, I give them a short period to jot down a problem they are having -- one they truly feel is insurmountable. Then they look at it through the lens of the poem and look for a solution they haven’t thought of before. Do they keep walking down that same street? Can they find another?

Some years we extend the activity by sitting in a circle and sharing our problems in a general nature. We listen and reflect. Sometimes we give advice. But usually we just sit silently and appreciate each other and the courage it takes to share. Needless to say, this is not a September activity. I usually save this for the darkest part of the year when many people feel the lack of sunlight.

Further Reading: 

Don Kemball works as a teacher for the York Region District School Board just North of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been using a poem-a-day strategy for almost 10 years with his class and is not sure how he could live without it. Find him on Twitter @dkemball

2020 Post #25 -- A Poetic To-Do List

by Brett Vogelsinger

This week, two inspiring, creative educators -- Austin Kleon and Katherine Schulten -- brought a poem back to the surface of my attention that I had forgotten about for some time.  "Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale" by  Dan Albergotti is a bittersweet look at what we can do with a period of confinement, ennui, boredom.  In times like these, the poem feels both realistic and empowering; it is a poem that wears a wry grin. 

I brought this poem to my students during a live class meeting via video conference this week and asked a quick question after our first read. "Why do you think I chose this poem to read with you now?" Of course, that was an easy pitch, and students had no problem identifying links between the idea of being stuck "in the belly of the whale" and being confined during this period of stay-at-home orders and mass quarantine.  Fewer of them, though, were aware of the biblical allusion in the title, to the book of Jonah. 

A student read the poem a second time on our video conference, and I proposed this question: "What do you notice about the structure of this piece?  How is it built?" Your students may note the fact that is is a "to do list," it is made up of short sentences, and that each sentence begins with a verb, the grammatical structure of a command.  One student pointed out to my class that the first few items seem realistic, and the poem seems to become more whimsical, then more philosophical as the list progresses.  I thought this was a particularly astute observation.  

"Let's try writing one like this!" I said to my students.  "Call it something like 'Things to Do While Stuck at Home' or 'Things to Do During COVID-19.'  There is one catch.   Let's take the first three things that come to your mind and exclude them from our list.  We want to avoid stating the obvious in poetry."  All classes chose the same three things to exclude:  sleeping, watching TV, and playing video games.  

After a few minutes of drafting, I gave them an assignment to complete after our video conference class time ended.  Students could revise their first drafts and post the revised version on a collaborative writing space on OneNote.  I would provide feedback for everyone's revised drafts before next week.  

Here are some memorable excerpts, written by my students: 

Paint the walls. Sing in the shower. Pull weeds from the dirt. Buy a blanket to cuddle up in. Go for a run. Laugh with joy when you're with your family. -- Brielle G. 

Make your bed
Wash your clothes
Dust everything in your room
Because apparently
Your room is disgusting
Although you don't see it
Anyway
Build something with wood and nails
Doesn't matter what it is, just build
And finally
Make your family LAUGH -- Christian P. 

Pace the concrete sidewalk. Walk among the trees. Get out and live a little.
Try something new. Change your surroundings.
Look up and open your eyes. See the world around you. Move outside your bubble. -- Shayne S.

I am grateful for how this poem helped me to see my students' present situations and perspectives while also allowing us to talk about poetic structure, theme, and grammar.  It brought us back to a Writer's Notebook style of response that I have missed since our last day of school, which was refreshing and necessary and lively.  

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.  You can find him on Twitter @theVogelman.  

2020 Post #22 -- Poetry in a Time of Coronavirus

by Tricia Evans

For forty years, my spring break pilgrimage has been the same. But just like many other timeworn traditions, my spring break isn’t following the normal trajectory this year. Instead of hikes up craggy Baldy mountain, the soothing music of the Frio River, flame wrapped marshmallows, and family communion, we have chosen social distancing. This is a spring break none of us envisioned. With schools closing, sporting and entertainment venues shuttered, and a constantly shifting newsfeed, life has been disrupted and we find ourselves the subjects of a historic moment.

Recently, in his Twitter feed, Kelly Gallagher provided a reminder that each of us is a historian, and encouraged the chronicling of this unusual time.

Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s When the World as We Knew It Ended is a powerful mentor text for this purpose.

Read the poem aloud,. Ask students to identify the moment in history Harjo is describing. Why is it important for writers to preserve history for future generations?

Consider why Harjo chose a poem as the vehicle for this historic accounting.

After reading the poem a second time, ask students to annotate the poem for structure and then do this collectively under the document camera.

Allow students to take a line, an idea, or borrow Harjo’s structure and craft a poem with the intent of capturing this historic moment for future generations. Some students might benefit from the scaffolded structure below.

Stanza 1
We were (Recount a moment before you heard of the coronavirus.) 

Stanza 2
Big picture showing this moment as it is witnessed on a large scale. Wow your audience with FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE & IMAGERY! 

Stanza 3
We had been watching (a noticing before this moment)

Stanzas 4 and 5
We saw it from (Zoom in. What do you notice? How is life around you different? The same? What are people around you doing?)

Stanza 6
We heard it. (What are you hearing from your family? Your friends? The news? Social media?)

Stanza 7
But then (Conclude with a shift that serves as a reminder of the good that continues to exist in the world today and in the future.)



Allow opportunity for student historians to publish on platforms like Padlet, Flipgrid, or in your personal classroom collection. Celebrate student voice!


Further reading:

Coronavirus Lesson Plan  compiled by Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle

Tricia Evans works with curriculum and instruction at Palo Duro High School in Amarillo, TX. She believes in the power of words, classrooms, and positivity to change the world.

2020 Post #13 -- Shel Silverstein and Poetic Nostalgia

by Matthew Johnson

Three years ago, in an attempt to get students excited about an upcoming poetry unit, I asked them to bring in their favorite poems. I expected that most would bring in favorite songs or little poems that had grabbed them along the way, but instead nearly 30 of my 60 ninth graders independently brought in a poem by Shel Silverstein. Volumes of Where the Sidewalk Ends populated my desks, and while I have my own fondness for Shel Silverstein, I was at first deeply annoyed by this. Bringing him in felt like a mockery of the class and the assignment. Obviously, “Peanut Butter Sandwich” has no place in a high school–or so it seemed to me at the time.

I was stuck though, so I begrudgingly let each student talk about his/her/their favorite poet, and as I listened to them, it quickly became clear that the vast majority of students who brought in Shel Silverstein weren’t trying to be funny or to make a snarky statement about the class. They brought in his poems because reading them was the last time that they truly connected with poetry or felt that it wasn’t over their heads.

This day was a revelation for me. Up until that point I’d been the sole selector of poems in my classroom, and while the poems I selected undoubtedly worked for some students, I’m sure others didn’t connect with them as much as I’d like. But by asking students to help me supply poems, I could broaden the reach of the class and form interesting and novel bridges between what the students already love and the curriculum.

Take for example the Shel Silverstein poem “Whatif,” which several students identified as their favorite. I decided to use this poem to discuss how poets use rhyme and repetition in the next class, and I have never seen so many students so quickly identify nuanced craft moves around rhyme and rhythm, moves like the purposeful capitalization of Whatifs to emphasizing their bigness or that Silverstein uses an AABB rhyme scheme in the vein of a nursery rhyme until the line “Whatif they start a war?/Whatif my parents get divorce?”–potentially showing the narrator’s fear of her family falling apart. Further, and even more amazing was that every single student–even those who’d told me they didn’t like poetry–leaned forward, amazed to see me taking this suggestion from one of their childhoods so seriously on the board in a high school class.

So this National Poetry Month, definitely share your favorite poems with students, but when trying to plan poems that will excite and engage students, don’t forget about the best co-conspirators possible: the students themselves!

Further Reading: 

Matthew Johnson is an English teacher from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He is also a husband and father, and over the last decade he has read, thought, and written about how teachers can balance teaching with all of the other important roles they play in their lives. His work has been published by Principal Leadership, Edutopia, ASCD, The National Writing Project, and the National Council of Teachers of English, and his weekly thoughts on how to be a better teacher of writing in less time can be found on his website www.matthewmjohnson.com. When not teaching, reading, or writing, he can often be found in the kitchen, his garden, or out on a run through the gently rolling hills of Southeast Michigan.

2019 Post #11-- A Stack of Similes

by Michael Salinger and Sara Holbrook


EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve been a longtime fan of Michael and Sara’s work, and I am thrilled to present a poem they have written (based on an experience in Ghana!) and a lesson plan from their latest professional book, From Striving to Thriving: Strategies to Jump-start Writing, which I highly recommend. Enjoy! -- Brett

© 2019 Scott Pickering, Dreaming BIG and Small, Steamline Press.

Bats!

Nocturnal
as a lightning bug.
Hanging like a tree fruit.
Beeping like a
smoke detector
Fuzzy as a hamster.
Face like a freeze-dried dog.
Tracking like a sonar.
Flapping like a novice in the deep end.
Megabat is me.

© 2019 Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger, Dreaming BIG and Small, Streamline Press. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

First, read poem "Bats!" and note it’s made up of a stack of similes, plus a last line that identifies the theme of the poem. Together, co-construct a list of action verbs to describe your classroom. Ask: What do you do (seventh) graders? Answers may include: read, text, chat, watch, dribble, run, laze, eat, etc.

Begin your co-construct by stating a theme: something like Room 206 is us, or eighth grader is me. Turn your action verbs into similes, adhering to the theme.

Label this Version 1. Remind writers that poets tell the truth; however, we also want to be a bit surprising. If a cliché turns up in the Version 1, indicate that we will want to revise that in Version 2.
Next, ask students to come up with a theme for their own writing: Creative is me, an athlete is me, funny is me, etc.

Students can divide their papers like so for a pre-write: 

Ask students to first make a list of actions that pertain to their theme. Invite writers to make a stack of similes from their action verbs. Remind students to try and be surprising. "Fast as a cheetah," may be okay for Version 1, but we will want to be more original in our next version!

Ask students to transition to an electronic device or their writer’s notebooks to rearrange their simile stack into a poem.

© 2018 Sara Holbrook and Michael Salinger, From Striving to Thriving Writers, Strategies to Jump-start Writing, Scholastic.

Further Reading:

Learn more about Sara and Michael's work at www.saraholbrook.com and www.outspokenlit.com. 

2018 Poem #30 -- Mythology Goes To the Hairdresser

by Kate Baker

Jehanne Dubrow’s “Penelope Considers a New Do,” published in her compilation Stateside, is one of my favorite poems to read with students who are studying Homer’s Odyssey as it puts a modern and alternative perspective on the mythology of circumspect Penelope, Odysseus’ long enduring wife. Dubrow’s poem is rich in symbolism and allusion as she channels Penelope’s tale, weaving it into her own story of being a military wife who is home while the husband is deployed overseas. There is even an audio version available, read by the poet.

Students can begin by close reading the poem, identifying the modern and mythical allusions, enjambed and end-stopped lines, and examples of alliteration as they discuss the implications of trying to change one’s hairstyle in attempt to better one’s life: how does one’s appearances dictate one’s mindset and perspective on life? Can cutting one’s hair really result in an improved outlook? Will magazines and hairstylists realistically offer solutions to one’s plights in life? Students can consider how Penelope has coped with Odysseus’ absence and compare/contrast her coping strategies to their own understandings of waiting and identity.

But the beauty of Dubrow’s poem is found in the structure: four stanzas of four lines each with each line indented so as to give the poem its shape -- anyone who has cut his/her bangs will recognize that the stanzas look like sections of hair that have been snipped on an angle. To extend the lesson, students can work in groups or individually to write or find other poems that are written in basic block format and rearrange the text so as to give it a symbolic shape or visual design. The rearranged and original poems can be presented to the class and students can discuss the artistic choices made in the arrangement. 

Further Reading:

English teacher, coach, and author Kate Baker is on the executive boards of the Flipped Learning Network and the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English. Adept at integrating technology in her classes using flipped-blended learning strategies, Kate has been recognized as a CEL’s TEacher Leader of Excellence for 2017, a PBS LearningMedia Digital Innovator, and an Edmodo Certified Trainer. Twitter: @KtBkr4 Blog: Baker's BYOD

2018 Post #24 -- Line by Line

by Allison Marchetti

There are poems that resonate deeply, and then there are poems that literally take the breath inside of us away. One such poem is “The Portrait” by Stanley Kunitz, about a mother who cannot bring herself to talk to her son about his dead father.

One thing that gives this poem its emotional power is the line breaks. Take, first instance, the first line:

My mother never forgave my father

The enjambed line begs the question, for what? For leaving her? Infidelity? Money problems?

The first time I ever read this poem (in high school) I could almost feel my heart stop when I came to the second line:

for killing himself.


When I first introduce my students to this poem, I let them know that it explores very emotionally sensitive material, and I give them the option to leave the room during our examination of it. Then I turn off the lights and let the poem “play,” -- that is, I run a PowerPoint into which I’ve typed up the poem, one line per slide. I put a timer on so each slide advances after 2 to 3 seconds. The poem unfolds slowly and painfully, and the surprise that originally registers on my students’ faces turns to horror.

The students are eager and shy to discuss this poem. We start with something technical -- the line breaks -- to ease our way in. What is the effect of breaking the first line after the word “father”? What is the significance of ending lines on words like “spring” and “born”? How do the line breaks in lines three through six affect the story? What else do you notice about the line breaks?

To expand this idea into a writer's workshop lesson, invite students to work in their notebooks. We write new lines or borrow old ones and play around with enjambment to create lines that shock or surprise.

Students love to type up their lines, print them, cut them up and arrange them in different ways on their desks. They use their phones to snap photos of the different stanzas and read them aloud to each other for feedback.

I love watching their faces light up and shift and change as they listen to the different versions of one another’s poems.

Further Reading:

Allison Marchetti is coauthor—with Rebekah O'Dell—of Writing with Mentors and Beyond Literary Analysis. Their popular blog Moving Writers focuses on writing instruction in middle and high school classrooms with an emphasis on voice and authenticity.

2018 Poem #13 -- Wait, Rappers Are Poets?

by Zachary Sibel

This year I wanted to try something new when it came to teaching poetry, so I made a strange connection. I thought about what I like to eat when I go out. I realized that most the time my favorite items to order are appetizers; they are smaller portions, you get a variety of choices, and when you put the right combination together, you are rewarded with an experience that is filling. 

I decided to present poetry from various classes and movements to my students in the same way. I used three to five poems from the Romantic, Victorian, Modern, Postmodern, and Contemporary eras of poetry. I found that my students were more engaged when they got to read through and pick the one that stood out to them, rather than sit down and talk about them all.

One poem that really topped them all when it came to student engagement was Tupac’s "A Rose That Grew From Concrete." I present this poem with no context of who Tupac was (or still is, that is up for debate) and just focus on language and the use of metaphor. After reading the poem aloud twice, I ask students to dig into the imagery and symbolism of this poem. The beauty of this poem is it impacts students of all backgrounds and upbringings. 

This year I had a number of students connect with it, one of whom discussed the idea that, “the only person who needs to believe in you is you, " a rather sophisticated reflection for a middle school student to have. I let the students carry the discussion, and when I see it fit, I end with providing a little background as to who Tupac was, the idea of West Coast rap, and how language can be used to examine various social issues.

Additional fun: I focus a lot on the questions, “Is all music poetry? Is all poetry musical?" With Bob Dylan winning a Nobel Prize for literature, the question begs to be answered or at least discussed. After showing students "A Rose That Grew From Concrete," we play a little Kahoot game that requires students to read a line of verse/lyric and determine if it is poetry or hip-hop. Students find themselves recognizing some of the lyrics but not all. They realize that the distinction between hip-hop and poetry is more complex than we may originally think.

Further Reading:

Zachary Sibel is a hip-hop fan, English teacher, and department chair at Central Bucks West High School in Bucks County, PA. 

Go Poem #30 -- Song Lyrics Mash-up

by Penny Kittle

Some students resist writing poetry because they struggle to find words to contain their ideas. Poetry feels Important, Serious, and Literary. It is. But it is also simple, playful, and found in the everyday. In fact, that is its Superpower.

To help my students learn to play, I spend days on found poetry.  We use words we find in an editorial, news article, school hallway, book, or in this case, songs to compose our own poems. The rules are simple: you can't add your own words; you use what you find.  This takes pressure off and opens possibility.

My writer's notebook was open and under the document camera at the start of class one day.  I had strips of lyrics to three songs from the Lumineers piled on two empty pages.  I placed one line, then another, searched for phrases to repeat, and then added those between emerging stanzas. The beauty was in the clean, efficient revising: I lifted lines from my emerging draft and returned them to the word pile or cut a phrase into smaller parts and played with the power of line breaks to slow down my reading.  I searched for consonants to repeat and unlikely combinations that led my poem to new ideas.

“Can we get started?” students asked.

Yes, please.

Penny Kittle is a high school English teacher and writer from North Conway, New Hampshire.  You can follow her work on Twitter @pennykittle.

Further Reading:

Go Poem #10 -- Rhythm That Runs Downhill

by Michelle Ambrosini

"Afternoon on a Hill"

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I will be the gladdest thing  
   Under the sun!  
I will touch a hundred flowers  
   And not pick one.  
 
I will look at cliffs and clouds
   With quiet eyes,  
Watch the wind bow down the grass,  
   And the grass rise.  
 
And when lights begin to show  
   Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,  
   And then start down!

I project the poem onto the board, and first each student reads the poem independently.  Next, I ask students to notice what word or phrase stands out to them as I read the poem aloud.  

Students turn and talk to their table partners and share their standout words or phrases and explain their reasoning:  “Why did that word or phrase stand out to you?” I ask.

Students volunteer their standout words or phrases, which I underline on the board.  Their responses typically include “hundred flowers,” “cliffs and clouds,” “quiet eyes,” “grass rise,” and “lights begin to show.” The reasoning most students share for these words or phrases is these simple images are ones that they can easily visualize.  

We discuss how the writer does NOT describe each image with an abundance of figurative language.  I ask students to think about how the poet creates the sensation of standing at the top of the hill without this abundance of imagery.  

Now I re-read the poem aloud, asking students to notice the sound of the poem. Students typically begin by noting the rhyme pattern (2nd and 4th lines of each stanza).  

Students notice the poet’s use of repetition of “I will.” Repetition or pattern is a style choice that we have discussed throughout the year, specifically how writers can create rhythm through repetition as well as rhyme.  Students comment on the poet’s pattern in each stanza (longer line of 7 or more syllables, shorter line of 4 syllables).  We discuss how this pattern, too, creates rhythm.  

I then read the poem aloud a final time, asking students to close their eyes and to visualize themselves at the top of a hill.  When I finish reading aloud, I ask the students to share what happened in their visualization when they “started down!” Most comment that they run or roll down the hill at a fast pace.  I note that the poet created a rhythm using rhyme, repetition, and punctuation (students notice the exclamation points too) that propels them forward down the hill.  

Michelle Ambrosini teaches seventh-grade English at Holicong Middle School in Doylestown, PA.  

Further Reading

Go Poem #8 -- A Poem in Two Languages

by Brett Vogelsinger

I must confess, I am a little partial to the poem "Revenge" by Taha Muhammad Ali because I was present for its English-language debut at the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2006.  To hear a poem spoken first in Arabic, meaningless to a primarily English-speaking audience, reminded me first of the marvels of language; what is without meaning to one person is deeply, profoundly impactful to another.  And when I heard this poem repeated, the second time in English, the power of Ali's words brought the entire audience to our feet, for here was a poem entitled "Revenge," crafted in one of the most conflict-striken regions of the world, that is actually about the power of choosing peace.

If you choose to share this entire video of the poem with your students, it will take a little more time than some of our Go Poem activities, but I think you will find it to be worth it.  I share photocopies of the poem with my students, turned face-down until after the video has finished playing.

Part of what makes this poem so impactful is its structure.  What we may refer to as a "plot twist" in a novel or a movie we refer to as a "turn" in a poem.  Where does this poem take a surprising turn?  What is the nature of that turn?  By surprising us with these unforeseen turns, what do you think the poet wants us to leave the poem thinking about, wondering about, or believing?  (That last question digs at the question of theme, but isn't it so much more interesting than asking "What is the theme of this poem?")


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 #7 -- Taking Poetry to the Court

by Tracy Enos

Whenever I bring a piece of writing to a class, I always ask the same two questions: What do you notice? What stands out to you?  With poetry, it’s helpful to read the poem twice.  The first time it sinks in.  The second, you read with your pen, circling, underlining, jotting notes, taking notice.

I teach 13-year-olds, so sometimes what stands out to them surprises me.  Their honesty and innocence helps me to see the unexpected detail.  With the poem “Fast Break”  by Edward Hirsch, in addition to our faithful and true, “What do you notice?”  I also ask them, “What is going on here?”  One of the first things they notice is that the poem is all one sentence.  One action-packed, detail-rich, glorious sentence.  Then we discuss what’s happening.

This poem is a beautiful example of showing action.  Poems about sports are usually goldmines to 8th graders, but it’s the visual action of this poem that makes it even more appealing and brings it to life.

“The shot that kisses the rim,” “the gangly starting center,” “orange leather,” and “the lay-up against the glass” -- these are images my kids know.  Hirsch has created snapshots of common territory in the world of a teenager with the power of language.  We talk about the action, maybe even acting out the descriptions, if your class is dramatic.

If there is time, we draw our own images to reflect the “camera” on the poem.  This leads to yet another wonderful conversation about the need for writers to paint pictures in their reader’s head.  Hirsch does that so well.

If we are in an imitation mood, having the kids try to write their own action filled event is always a good time.  Maybe a scene at a skate park, a football game, concert, lunchroom, or even a video game.  Trying to, “legally,”  keep the poem one sentence is both an exercise in creativity and grammatical power.

The poem is also fun to compare and contrast with Ernest Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat”.  Thayer’s poem is exploded into many stanzas and the action is slowed down to create suspense.  Thematically, it’s also fun to explore the difference between Casey’s one man show and Fast Break’s team effort.  

Ultimately, students enjoy the quick action and realize that poetry doesn’t have to describe ethereal  philosophical issues or feel like a guessing game.  It can be as comfortable as a basketball and as familiar as the sound of a swish through a net.  

Tracy Enos is in her 8th year of teaching English in West Warwick, Rhode Island, where she has the pleasure of learning with and from amazing 8th graders every day at Deering Middle School. 

Further Reading

Go Poem #6 -- Deconstructing a Classic

by Zachary Sibel

As an English teacher, I find myself asking, “How do I get students to appreciate the classics?”

Steven Lynn says in Texts and Contexts, “The human drive to find organization and meaningfulness is so powerful that human beings can find shapes in clouds or the scorch marks of a tortilla. If we can find structure where there really isn’t any, we can also fail to detect structures, as in hidden codes or unknown languages.” In other words, we can make a poem a treasure hunt for hidden meaning.

I ask students what stands out the most to them in the "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. We read the poem aloud as a class and discuss what the poem “does.” Most students will talk about the setting, a cold dark woods filling up with snow, or the speaker/ characters in the poem. I shift the focus of the discussion to the structure of the poem: “What does it look like? Why does it look like this?” Most students will note the four lines and four stanzas, to which I respond, “Why four?”

I demonstrate my knowledge of iambic tetrameter to the text (4 poetic feet/ 8 syllable line).  I let students discuss “WHY FOUR” amongst their table groups and poll answers. Most classes come up with theories about the four seasons, and some students even interpreted it as the four rhythmic beats in a horse’s trot. I end the discussion with the idea that we may never know Frost’s intent for the number 4, but does it really matter? As readers of poetry, it’s okay to create our own meaning and find our own messages in a given text. Frost, of all people, would want that.

Zachary Sibel is a middle school English teacher, poetry and hip-hop enthusiast from Bucks County PA. Follow him @MrSibelEng

Further Reading

Go Poem #4 -- Flash Images: Creating Movement Without Verbs

by Jeff Anderson

After reading aloud the poem "Flame" by C. D. Wright twice, students look at it’s structure with the poem displayed on the screen or on paper. “What do you see when you look at the words?”

Possible Responses:

• Lots of "the's"
• No verbs
• Feels like it’s moving with the white space
• It’s a list of things, random, but not

If any of these things are not mentioned, ask about them.

“Are there any verbs—actions? I see this poem as flashes. Anyone else? Just flashes of nouns and we make our own poem as readers."

A great reading theorist, Louise Rosenblatt, wrote it takes two things—the reader and the text -- to make the third thing—the poem, the beauty, the meaning, the image, the connection, the picture, the life. The reader, the text, and the poem.

“What poem is this text making with you?”

“Let’s reread.”

After the third reading, students can jot down what’s being created in them. “What’s the poem resulting from you and this text?” Or, if inspired, students my try their own imitation.

If you try an imitation, use the or try another article like a or an. Experiment with the meaninglessness of the article, which also gives rise to something. Here’s my imitation in response to C.D. Wright’s “Flame.” I jotted it in three minutes, all at once, revising as I went, trying to keep it nouny. This was the poem inspired in me.

The Forgetting

The darkness The voices The scent

The hand The hush The tingle

The stillness The movement The light

The door The opening The closing.

The dark The forgetting The

Invite students to share poems aloud. At the end, students lift their creations into the air to C.D. Wright so that wherever she is now, she knows her words live and breathe and inspire. Her words are a flame.

Discuss: “How can we move what we learned from C.D. Wright’s poem to any writing we do?”

Jeff Anderson is a celebrated author of the middle grade fiction with the Zack Delacruz series as well as his numerous books on teaching writing and grammar, including 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know and Mechanically Inclined. Follow him on Twitter: @writeguyjeff

Further Reading