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2019 Post #24 -- Reading and Writing Outdoors

by Sarah Mulhern Gross

Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” is one of my favorite poems to share with students. It’s one of Oliver’s best-known and most-quoted poems and has been included in a few of her anthologies. It strikes a chord with many high school students as they are beginning to think about their lives beyond high school. It’s also a great way to get students to slow down and observe nature for a few minutes.

Begin by giving students a copy of the poem and let them read along as they listen to Mary Oliver read it. I like to take my students outside for this activity, so I use my cell phone to share the audio. Ask your students to mark the phrases or lines that strike them in any way while they read the poem. After students have read the poem and listened to Oliver read it, have a brief discussion. I always point out to students that “The Summer Day” sounds like a prayer to me, and this makes sense because Oliver frequently talked about how the forest was her church. Ask students what their “church” might be. Where do they feel spiritual? Where do they feel safe and at peace?

After a brief discussion, give students a few minutes to write. Ask them to let the sights and sounds of the outdoors guide their writing as they try to answer the question “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I don’t give my students too many guidelines here as I just want them to write. Their response can be in prose or poetry form, and if they really get stuck I encourage them to sketch.

You could easily extend this activity into a full lesson by having students choose something outside (a tree, a blade of grass, a bird, a bug, etc) and center their response around it like Oliver centers her poem around the grasshopper. They could spend 10-15 minutes making observations about what they see, hear, smell, feel and (maybe?) taste while observing their species of choice. Oliver’s poem can serve as a mentor for their response to the question in her final line.

For more on Mary Oliver, check out this excellent New Yorker piece: Mary Oliver Helped Us Stay Amazed

For a brief Go Poems idea for Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" click here.

Further reading:

Sarah Gross is one of the co-organizers of NerdCampNJ. She teaches in central New Jersey and loves spending time outdoors.

2019 Post #6 -- A Poem in a Picture Book

by Brett Vogelsinger

Former Poet Laureate of the United States, Juan Filipe Herrera, shares his memoir in the poem-as-a-picture-book entitled "Imagine."

The book is beautifully written and illustrated, weaving some Spanish words into the English poem as it follows Herrara's trajectory as a child of migrant workers to his first experiences learning English to his post as Poet Laureate. It concludes with the words "Imagine what you could do."

I tell my ninth-grade students that for today's Poem of the Day we are going to have an elementary school library class experience, and I ask them to gather around. Some of them choose to sit on the floor just like they did for "carpet time" back in elementary school. Nostalgia for this kind of reading runs deep and strong.

I make sure every student gets to ponder each page, reading it slower than most poems, for the format breaks it up into illustrated pieces we want to savor.

The last line, "Imagine what you could do," has landscape illustration paired with it that hearkens back to Herrera's youth.

In their Writer's Notebooks, students might take that same line and illustrate it in a way that inspires them and relates to either their early life or to their future goals and what they would like to accomplish.

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 six years and is the creator of the Go Poems blog to share poetry reading and writing ideas with teachers around the world. Find him on Twitter @theVogelman.

2019 Post #5 -- Snow Day Revolution

by Brett Vogelsinger

If you live in a region that gets the occasional snow day, you know how exciting they can be for students and teachers alike. Snow days offer an unexpected period of found time, the opportunity to slow down, push back a deadline, and catch your breath.

Billy Collins' poem "Snow Day" captures how it feels to be a "willing prisoner" to the snow. I love to share this poem with my students when we return from a snow day. After our first reading, I ask students to keep an eye on something during our second read.

Collins mentions "a revolution of snow" in his poem. Where do we see the language of revolution threaded through this poem? How does he subtly build on this idea elsewhere with his imagery and diction? Like tracking animal footprints into the woods, students enjoy the challenge of following the words that suggest revolution: white flag, government buildings smothered, anarchic cause, a riot afoot, a queen about to fall.

I should mention here that Billy Collins' exceptional Poetry 180 project advocates sharing poetry without much commentary or analysis at all, and this poem is ideal to share in that way as well. It is the perfect invitation back to school after the welcome but unexpected interruption of a snowstorm. And everyone loves that list of nursery school names at the end!

Further Reading:

2019 Post #4 -- An Ode to Food

by Joel Garza

I’m something of a romantic--that is, when it comes to poetry. I am drawn most quickly, most deeply to those poems that seem to be a recollection of a spontaneous and powerful experience, an overflow of emotions recorded artfully for a reader to taste. A poem, in these cases, happens to the poet and happens to the reader.

Here’s such a poem: “Ode to Cheese Fries” by José Olivarez. I think it’s an accessible and relatable and beautiful poem on its own. But if you’re interested in a full intellectual meal inspired by Olivarez’s poem, follow these steps.

Appetizer:

Ask your readers & writers to think carefully about one of their favorite things to eat. Start with the senses that surround and complement taste: What does it look like? What does it sound & smell like? How does its texture heighten its flavor? It’s okay to respond in single words--full sentences might come later, or they might not.

Now ask your readers & writers to look at what surrounds that food--take a look at yourself enjoying the food as if you’re above the action of you eating it. What setting do you associate this food with? (Your grandmother’s house, a local baseball stadium, a food court in a mall) Who is seated near you as you eat this delectable thing? What languages or decor or music provides the best foundation for your tastebuds? Finally, what’s the aftereffect / afterglow like that compels you to remember & return to this food?

First course:

It’s time to read the Olivarez poem. Ask your readers & writers to listen carefully while you read. Ask them to underline their favorite single feature of the poem--a word, a line, a turn of phrase, whatever. Read it out loud a second time, and have them say the underlined thing out loud with you. It’s really fun to see which lines pop for most readers, which images excite only certain folk.

Main course:

Now it’s time for them to write their own ode. Congratulate them on all of the ingredients they’ve compiled in their prewriting: their reflections about senses and setting of their favorite food (the appetizer), their secret ingredient that excited them most about the first course (the Olivarez poem). The main course is their own dish cooked up their own way. ¡Buen provecho!

2018 Post #26 -- Take a Bite Out of Poetry

by Lauren Heimlich Foley

During a summer graduate class, I found myself re-inspired while participating in a poetry lesson modeled after Nancie Atwell’s writing-reading workshop. That afternoon, I dusted off Naming the World, making a promise to include more poetry the following school year.

Weeks later, I started a September class period with a poem by Ronald Wallace. To engage my students, I projected “You Can’t Write a Poem about McDonald’s” on the board and asked them what they thought.

Some groups, wanting to disprove the statement, created their own poems. Other tables believed McDonald’s was not an appropriate topic for a poem or would not make a strong writing piece. Still, others wondered if the clause was in fact a poem since quotation marks flanked both sides of it.

Once table groups shared their theories, I revealed that “You Can’t Write a Poem about McDonald’s” was indeed a poem. Students exclaimed phrases such as, “No way!” or “I told you so!” or “Really?” Intrigued by their enthusiasm, I wondered what their responses would be to the actual text.

After reading the poem and inviting students to share their highlighted lines, our room erupted with meaningful conversations. My nervous-unsure-second-week-of-school seventh graders transformed into investigators and analyzers. As I moved between groups, listening in on their discussions and asking questions to push their thoughts further, their commentary on diction, personification, imagery, similes, and symbolism led to dialogues on larger issues of consumerism, waste, world hunger, food accessibility, and the fast-food industry.

Additionally, we revisited “You Can’t Write a Poem about McDonald’s” during a later class period to discuss effective titles since my students’ initial reactions were so intense.

This poem’s ability to challenge my students’ beliefs of acceptable poetry topics while inviting them to take a platform through their own writing has made it one of my favorites.

Further Reading:

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

2018 Poem #20 -- Pairing Poems

by Michelle Ambrosini

When I have paired a poem with another poem or with an image, my seventh grade students have shared prolific responses. Pairing “Always” and “Hope is the thing with feathers” allows students to enter the discussion of a big idea using both modern and classic text. By inviting students to sketch Dickinson’s “thing with feathers,” I ask students to make meaning through drawing as well as discussion.

Always

There will always be the waves

rushing in, tumbling out;

the moon, the fog, the orange

of the morning sun.

Sadness is not forever.

But let hope be.

Let it sit by seaside towns,

drift among villages,

wander in cities. Let it linger

in schools and shipyards

and factories.

Let it call to you with the scent

of cinnamon, the taste of mint,

the faraway chant, the chime

of the clock.

There will always be the babble

of streams, birdsong,

the whisper of wind.

Sadness is not forever.

But let hope be.

Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Emily Dickinson

First, students read aloud “Always” by Rebecca Kai Dotlich in pairs -- alternating stanzas or one as the first reader. (I have not yet shared Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers”.) The first question I ask is “What do you notice?”

Students turn and talk and then we share our observations as a whole group.

Students notice the poet’s use of repetition of words: the first and fourth stanzas end with “Sadness is not forever. But let hope be.” They notice the pattern the poet employs in various lines. “There will always be …” starts the first and fourth stanzas. “Let it …” is repeated in the second and third stanzas. Another pattern students notice is the listing of three words or phrases: “the moon, the fog, the orange”; “sit by seaside towns, drift among villages, wander in cities”; “schools and shipyards and factories”; "babble of streams, birdsong, the whisper of wind”. The rhythm the poet creates using repetition demonstrates how rhyming is not needed to create poetry’s mellifluous sounds.

Next, we discuss the poem’s message. If students need prompting, I ask them to consider the title and the repetition. Thanks to the repetition of the final lines of the first and fourth stanzas, students recognize that the poet is contrasting sadness from hope, urging readers to stay hopeful. When students consider the title, they connect this message to the poet’s imploring that remaining hopeful happen “always.” Moreover, as the second and third stanzas describe, staying hopeful happens everywhere and in everything--“by seaside towns... among villages...in cities...schools and shipyards and factories” and “with the scent of cinnamon, the taste of mint, the faraway chant, the chime of the clock.”

Now, I share Dickinson’s ““Hope is the thing with feathers.” Students read it aloud in pairs. Again, I ask students to point out what they notice. Given our recent discussion of Dotlich’s poem, students focus primarily on Dickinson’s metaphor for hope: “the thing with feathers.” They point out the lines that extend the metaphor: “perches,” “sings the tune,” “never stops,” “sweetest… That kept so many warm.” Then, I purposely ask students to sketch a bird in the margins of their paper, thinking about the parallels between a bird and hope as Dickinson describes.

The conversation grows to encompass Dickinson’s message about hope. Students notice the connections between Dotlich’s and Dickinson’s messages. Both promote the beauty of hope and highlight its ubiquity. I introduce the words ubiquity and ubiquitous because both poets show the sentiment that hope is ubiquitous. Dotlich shows this through repetition and pattern and Dickinson shows this through the extended metaphor. Students notice slight differences between the poets’ messages, too. While Dotlich urges readers to remain hopeful despite sadness as “advice” (according to one student), Dickinson “testifies” (again, a student’s observation) that hope is pervasive--in the “chillest land” and “strangest Sea.”

Since students have recently read Pandora’s Box during the Greek mythology unit, they draw connections to the ancient Greeks’ story and how hope remains in the box despite the release of all the world’s evils. We had discussed Greek myths as ancient people’s way of making sense of circumstances they did not understand. Both Dotlich and Dickinson share their understanding of hope in their poems. During a quick write session, I ask students to write about hope--a sketch, a poem, a memory. Students respond in a variety of ways--describing a time they felt hopeful or hopeless, drawing their own metaphor for hope, creating a character who brims with hope.

2018 Poem #16 -- Powers of Observation

by Molly Rickert

Part of what make's Ada Limon's poem "The Conditional" exceptional is its use of figurative language, and I would like my students to become more comfortable with figurative language as a writing skill.

When we discuss the beauty and unique style of writing with figurative language, I have students write observation poems. The first goal is to make literal observations three times in a row: 1. Look up and write 2. Look around and write. 3. Look down and write.

Below is an example of the first stanza of a literal observation poem based on 1) the details of the ceiling tiles 2) what was nearby on a desk and 3) what was on the floor.

Students can repeat this process up to 3 times if they’d like (look up, look around, look down).

Then, I have students go through the same process, but this time, making only figurative observations. Below is an example of the first stanza of a figurative observation poem based on the same observations above 1) the details of the ceiling tiles 2) what was nearby on a desk and 3) what was on the floor.

For as many literal observations as the students made, I have them make the same amount of figurative observations.

After students draft their literal and figurative observations poems, we focus on students’ figurative observations, taking note of the unique comparisons, imaginative descriptions, and humorous interpretations. This often leads to a discussion of the power of figurative language and the freedom and creativity that can be used to enhance a point. We compare the literal observation poem with the figurative observation poem and discuss impact figurative language can have in writing.

Further Reading:

Molly Rickert is a seventh grade English teacher at Holicong Middle School. This idea was inspired by a class she took through the West Chester Writing Institute (PAWLP). Follow her on Twitter (@itsklinemk).

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