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Showing posts with label punctuation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label punctuation. Show all posts

2018 Poem #6 -- Our Many Worlds

by Rama Janamanchi

One of my favorite poems to teach is Joseph Legaspi’s “Amphibians.”It is a short poem which offers so many avenues for discussion and teaching that we often reference it as we go through our unit. The activity I am sharing below is one that I use when I introduce the poem.

We begin with reading the poem. Each student reads a line until punctuation indicates a significant stop (the period, the semi-colon, or colon). Then we read the poem again chorally. Once we are done with the choral reading, I ask them to list amphibians they know and picture those amphibians, their habitats, and whatever else they know about them.

The students then write down their own habitats: Where do you live? Then they list one activity they most closely identify with. Then we go into identity more broadly. Once they have listed about five or six words they use to identify themselves, we talk about similarities in the room. We begin with activity: all the basketball players stand together, all the gamers gather together and so on. Then they find them moving around the room and shifting groups based on race, hobbies, being the eldest, being adopted and so on. As they position themselves into different groups, they note the people with whom they share these groups.

Once the activity is done (about 7 minutes), we talk about Legaspi’s line: “Immigrants give birth to Americans.” Our many identities converge into the shared experience of the activity, of being students, of being learners. At the close of the activity, we read the poem again. I usually then ask them to reflect on the poem in their journals to give them more time with the poem.

Further Reading:




Rama Janamanchi teaches at a private high school for students with language-based learning differences. Twitter: @MsJanamanchi410

Go Poem #16 -- Imaginings Begin With "If"

by Jason Stephenson


Sometimes I like to ask one of my students to read our poem aloud, but I always make sure to read "If I Were A Dog" by Richard Shelton aloud to my class. It takes some practice to know how to deliver the lines because, as most students will notice, there are no commas or periods. The only form of punctuation is the apostrophe. We might discuss that -- the lack of punctuation and its effect of creating a doglike speaker whose thoughts run together.


Actually, according to the second stanza of the poem, the speaker is a human, only imagining if he or she were a dog. The speaker uses the subjunctive to imagine a different reality. As a class, we might discuss what is "doglike" about the poem. Possible answers include the master, the stick, the licking, the peeing, the fetching. Usually, though, I let students drive most of the discussion: What did they notice about the poem? What do they have questions about?


We don’t always respond to a poem by writing, but “If I Were a Dog” cries out for imitation. I ask students to take the title and replace Dog with something else: “If I Were a __________.” In the past, students have chosen to write about cabbages, teachers, and even the opposite gender. (Think “If I Were a Boy” by Beyoncé) Here’s a fine example from one of my students.



If I Were a Dollar
I would be lost from wallets
and pockets
left on the street
until I was found by a young man
looking to buy a pack of gum
or some Altoids
then I’d be given as change
to begin the adventure again
but since I’m not a dollar
I stay within the same
routine every day
never getting to see
the world
If I were a dollar
I’d be given as a gift
or a tip
or maybe made
into a crane
or maybe I’d be dropped
into a drainage hole
lost in the sewer forever
but even still
I’d be on an adventure
if I were a dollar.


--Jared C.



Jason Stephenson teaches creative writing at Deer Creek High School in Edmond, Oklahoma.


Further Reading:

Go Poem #10 -- Rhythm That Runs Downhill

by Michelle Ambrosini


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

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