How to Teach Poetry Workshop

By Tiffany WordenFriday, October 28, 2005

About Me:I graduated from the TCNJ in May 2004

I am a second year teacher at Montgomery Middle School in Skillman, NJ.

I teach four 60-minute sixth grade language arts classes.

Our school is 5/6 “lower” middle school.

K - W - LK: What do you know about poetry or teaching how to write poetry?

W: What do you want to know about poetry or teaching how to write poetry?

My Objectives This Afternoon:To share my journey through constructing a unit of poetry.

To share methods of teaching poetry that worked well for me (and that I hope you add to your teaching tool box).

To become enthusiastic readers and writers of poetry ourselves.

Overview of PresentationAnswer the “why’s” of writing workshop and poetry workshop

Bring you through my poetry unit of study— a study of writing non-rhyming, contemporary poetry—introduction through assessment and reflection.

Discuss additional ways to incorporate poetry into your classroom.

Identify strategies we will use in our own classroom.

Why Writer’s Workshop?To become better writers, students need a consistent chunk of time to practice writing. In order for students to live like writers, and view themselves as writers, our class time needs to mirror what writers do in the ‘real world’.Skills based--students learn a strategies writers use and apply it to their own writing—meaningful experience.

Why Genre-Based Workshop?

Students need a lens through which they learn strategies for writing; genre provides this lens.

With different genres comes opportunity different writing strategies and skills

Why Poetry Workshop?Modern and contemporary poetry is written in our vernacular and is easily accessibleEconomy of language: Being specificPlaying with language and using it in new and interesting waysStriking word choice Loaded with crafting techniques (similes, imagery, rhetorical structures)Poetry lends itself to critical discussion about the choices writers make.

Why Poetry Workshop?In her book, In the Middle, Nancy Atwell writes:

“teachers I knew avoided teaching poetry because they felt intimidated by it. They perceived poetry as difficult to read, difficult to understand, and, especially, difficult to talk about. They stopped reading it the moment it stopped being required. Seventy years ago half the literature taught to fourth grades in the United States was poetry. Today, it’s 97 percent prose and just 3 percent poetry. Either we love it, as I did, but can’t imagine how to begin to help students experience it…or we don’t read it and don’t love it … Poetry deserves better and kids deserve better.” (416).

We need to put poetry back in our instruction!

Introduction to Poetry ~ Billy CollinsI ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the

shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

Poetry Workshop Unit: Step OneImmerse Students in the Genre

Before students can begin creating poetry, they must have a clear vision of what poetry looks like.

“We (students and teachers) spend time reading and getting to know the texts we’ll study. We make notes of things we notice about how these texts are written” ~Katie Wood Ray

Poetry Stations

Students are surrounded by poetry.

Differentiation at every level: interest, choice, ability, multiple intelligences.

Creates a knowledge base for your students to draw from and to refer to.

A sense of inquiry, curiosity and noticing pervades the room.

Last two-three days.

Poetry StationsCreate stations based on what you would like your students to know about poetry.

For me, it was important that students:Find poems they loved reading,

Develop a connection with poetry by responding creatively to it

Poetry is about creating new and surprising images.

Poetry is meant to be read aloud.

Poetry Stations

Treasure HuntRead AloudSurprising Poetry ScrambleResponding to Poems

Please get up and check out some of the stations!

Student Examples

Student Examples

Poetry Stations

Read Aloud can also become a technology station!Academy of American Poets Website

www.poets.org

Poetry Stations

At the end of each class, we share what we have done during the day at the stations.

Kids share their illustrations, favorite poems, magnetic poetry they created, act out poems, and read poems aloud.

Poetry Workshop: Step Two“Writing Under the Influence”

Now kids have a vision of what non-rhyming, contemporary (and modern) poetry looks like.

Yet students are not ready to go off and write poems on their own.

We must find poems that can act as model/mentor texts to help guide them through the writing process.

Poetry Workshop: Step Two“Writing Under the Influence”

Think about how you learned to teach: Turn and talk with a partner

Poetry Workshop: Step Two“Writing Under the Influence”

Kids need to “apprentice” themselves to good poetry and imitate the model.

Need to borrow frameworks in which to express themselves—provides scaffolding

“Continual exposure to structure used often by professionals will produce attention to, understanding of, and with practice, normal use of such structures.” ~Don Killgallon

How do we go about picking mentor poems?

Read, read, read! Find some poems you love.

Try to identify the rhetorical structure in the poem and if any other poems also use that structure.

Name the type of poem yourself.

Poetry Types I Have Found Reading Poetry:

Narrative poemsApology poemsSound poemsComparison poemsPersona poemsQuestion poemsTake a look at your handout!

Structure of Poetry Mini-lessonDo Now/Anticipatory Set

Introduce model poem

Reading the poem like a reader

Students read poem like writers-noticing chart

Active Engagement (A “Try-it”)

Independent Workshop Time

Share

Closing

Let’s Try It: An Apology PoemFrom Kenneth Koch’s Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?

Apology poems have “a theme children find irresistible…apologizing for something you’re really secretly glad you did. They enjoyed asserting the importance of their secret pleasure against the world of adult regulations. They apologized, and were pleased about, breaking things, taking things, forgetting and neglecting things, eating things, hitting people, and looking at things” (101).

Do Now:

Have you ever had to apologize for something you were not truly sorry for?Turn and talk to your neighbor

Reading Like a Reader“This is Just to Say” William Carlos Williams

I have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe icebox

and which you were probablysavingfor breakfast

Forgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold

Reading Like a Writer: What Do We Notice?“This is Just to Say” ~ William Carlos Williams

I have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe icebox

and which you were probablysavingfor breakfast

Forgive methey were deliciousso sweetand so cold

Active Engagement:

Class would try one out together on board, in groups, pairs or individually on common topic/idea

Example: Sorry for being late, sorry for not doing our homework, etc.

Independent Workshop Time:

Please try your own apology poem as I come around to conference with you.

Share:

Whole group share: sit in circle and read favorite line or stanzaPartner shareSmall group shareStrategy highlight shareThen, teacher would close the lesson.

Students’ Examples

The ArmadilloPlease forgive me!!!I didn’t knowThere was a man eating ArmadilloIn a box that looked likeIt needed to be opened.If I had read the warnings on the boxI wouldn’t have opened it.Please forgive me when we get youOut from that Armadillos belly.

Students’ ExamplesEscape

Forgive meFor splashing mudOn my new gleaming white Adidas’With coral ocean blue stripesAnd footpads, soft and rubbery.

I was rushing away, a hurry to escapeAnd the all out sprint never felt better.

Other types of poems to teach with mentor texts:

Take a look at your handout and read over some mentor poems and student examples.

What are your thoughts so far?

Open Workshop

Once kids have become comfortable imitating a poem’s structure and craft, they can choose their own poems to use as mentor texts.

Revising: Thinking About Choices Poets Make

Lines and stanzasExperimenting with line meaning, length and stanzas

Word choiceInteresting combinations of nouns and verbsDeleting words we don’t need

Poem titles

Revising: Lines

Take a poem and put it into prose formSee how many different ways we can break poem into lines and stanzas and take a gallery walk

Give your lines a haircut—create uniform linesEncourages enjambing—not all ideas have to start and end on the same line!

Revising: Lines ~Let’s Try It!

Lemon Tree ~Jennifer ClementIf you climb a lemon tree feel the bark

under your knees and feet, smell the white flowers, rub the leave in your hands. Remember, the tree is older than you are and you might find stories in its branches.

Revising: Lines

Lemon Tree ~Jennifer ClementIf you climb a lemon tree feel the bark under your knees and feet, smell the white flowers, rub the leave in your hands. Remember, the tree is older than you are and you might find stories in its branches.

Revising: Word Choice

Poetry is all about surprising and new word combinations.

Idea from Image Grammar, Harry Noden

Have kids brainstorm a verbs having to do with occupations: For example: cookingLet’s try it!Put them in a can and have kids randomly grab verbs to see if they can make any new, surprising combinations

Revising: Word Choice: Let’s Try It!Lines of poetry that need some new noun/verb combinations:

-Dinosaurs roamed the earth-Violin music fills the air

(from Image Grammar)

Kids Examples:Before: Blue is the waves on the oceanAfter: Blue smoothes out the scribbled ocean

Revision: Poem TitlesMethod # 1: Surprising or interesting phrase from inside your poem

Method # 2: Use the title lead into your poem.

Method # 3: State the subject of your poem.

Method # 4: Crafty title

Revision: Homework

You can choose to revise throughout the writing process by assigning students to revise for these three things as homework.

Take a look in your packet for homework sheet.

Editing: Capitalization and Punctuation

Have kids look at a variety of poems with different capitalization and discuss affect of using capitalization.

Have students use noticing chart to help understand the uses of punctuation marks.

Editing: PunctuationSome answers kids come up with using punctuation noticing chart:Period: Stop! Semicolon: stop a little less than a period—like a yield sign.Colon: something important is coming Comma: slow down, take a breathPunctuation can happen in the middle and end of lines of poetry.

Final Assessment: Poetry Anthology

Take a look at example poetry anthologies!

Kids created original anthology title, artwork, dedication, and included five favorite poems.

Assessment: Process and Product Rubric

Process CriteriaIncorporate minilessons?Have a positive attitude in writer’s workshop?Take risks in their writing?Revise thoughtfully?Artifacts from the writing process (drafts, revisions, editing sheets, etc.)

Product CriteriaSpecific craft LineWord choicePunctuation and capitalizationDesign and layout of anthology

Celebration! Creating a Community of Writers.

Celebration should mimic a book release party.Different ways to celebrate:

Author’s share: students share their most favorite poem.Invite guests (parents, administrators and other faculty stop in to listen).Have food and music playing.Have students bring in favorite poem. After a student shares, classmates can jot down a note to him/her on the back of the poem.Put anthologies on display in your classroom library.

Other ways you can incorporate poetry into your classroom:

Let’s do a whip-around with other twenty ideas in your packet

Example of a poetry lesson in a theme-based curriculum:

Greek Myth Persona PoemsStudying Greek Mythology in HistoryWe read Greek Myths and got to know the characters.Created persona poems from the character’s perspective. Let’s take a look at some examples!

Final Reflections and Thoughts

Kids were willing to take risks in their writing—finally!Kids were empowered by the genre:

“Rhyming poems are harder to write then non rhyming”“There is no right format when you write a poem”“You can arrange your poems in any way.”

Final Reflections and ThoughtsMy struggling writers found their voice in poetry:

“I dedicate this book to google.com for supplying me with my pictures and my L.A. teacher for helping me discover what a great poet I am.”

RubyRuby is the center of a volcano.Feel rubies smooth surface.Bite in to ruby and taste its intence cinamon flavor.Ruby sounds like fire cracker on the 4th of JulyBring ruby to your noseAnd smell the Smokey ash if its volcano.

Resources

Books

Online: The Academy of American Poets Teaching Resource Center

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/83

An Invitation to Teach Poetry

K-W-L What Have

You learned about poetry or teaching poetry?

What is one way you will begin using poetry in your instruction?

Thank You So Much!

Thank you for taking some time to talk about poetry with me today!Thank you, Dr. Meixner, for all your guidance and arranging the space and refreshments!Thank you to the English Department and students who helped set up the seminar and made such lovely fliers!Thanks, also to John for all his help!

The Pen

Take a pen in your uncertain fingers.Trust, and be assuredThat the whole world is a sky-blue butterflyAnd words are the nets to capture it.

~Muhammad al-Ghuzzi