Reflections on the Teche

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Join the Chalk-a-bration at Betsy Hubbard’s site Teaching Young Writers.

I have been using Laura Purdie Salas’s blog site in my classroom. Last week we joined in her weekly photo challenge “15 Words or Less.” She posts a new photo each Thursday and invites poets to quick-write a poem.

Yesterday, I used Laura’s new series, What’s Inside, to inspire short poems for Chalkabration. I even tried my own What’s Inside poem. I am not usually a rhyme writer. It’s hard. I wanted to rhyme like Laura, so with the help of RhymeZone, I found the word quill to rhyme with still. That made me think more deeply about the way sugarcane looks. Could it be a quill? Yes, in my imagination. Don’t you love it when words work out like that? It was a high-five moment. (Teachers need them, too.)

Following the lead of Betsy Hubbard and Stacey Shubitz, two of the six teachers who write for Two Writing Teachers, I used Emaze to show off some of our poems. I am encouraging my students to try this new format for their upcoming book talks, so I wanted to experiment myself. Click on the link below to watch our chalkabration celebration.

http://app.emaze.com/825079/september-chalkabration?autoplay

What’s inside sugarcane?