10 | April | 2016 | Reflections on the Teche

Archive for April 10th, 2016

NPM16 #10 Found Poem

Posted in Poetry, tagged Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, found poem, NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Month, wonder poems, Wonderopolis on April 10, 2016| 4 Comments »

Also inspired by Amy, quick watercolor in the sketchbook.

The kidlitoshpere is wildly growing with poems. Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is writing daily to wonders from Wonderopolis. I found a poem in her post, How Sweet is Honeysuckle?

The line “Words live on like echoes” came from Barry Lane’s song “Sammy Miller” from Force Field for Good.

I wrote two poems today,
one from an open window with honeysuckle
and rhyme, but this time the poem
felt not ready to be shared.

Words live on like echoes…

I need to let a poem sit
read words over and over
Trust the feeling,
Move on.

Words live on like echoes…

Poems make me happy.
Poems make me sing.
I pretend to be a mother hummingbird.
I like the sounds of words.

Words live on like echoes…

Poems make me fall in love
with hummingbirds. I want to
plant a garden of milkweed,
trumpet honeysuckle,
& love poems
for you.

Words live on like echoes.

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DigiLit Sunday: Line Breaks

Posted in Digital Learning, Poetry, Writing, tagged digital literacy, Don't Feed the Boy, line breaks in poetry on April 10, 2016| 6 Comments »

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For National Poetry Month, I am not only writing a poem a day myself, but I am also asking my students to do the same. Something I have noticed this week as they go from the written form to the typed form, my students are thinking about line breaks. They are making their poems look like poems on the page.

Attention to form is made easier by digital media. When they type into a blog post, they can press shift enter to make the lines fall directly below each other. To create stanzas, they simply press enter.

They haven’t all caught on to this easy solution. Kielan made a note in her post “Every stanza ends when the text color changes.”

We haven’t had explicit conversations about line breaks. I talked with Erin about her poetry style. She tells me she is using a list poem style. “Today I am going to stick with my list poem style. I like the way it looks on the page.”

Kaiden said he didn’t think his poem was a poem. “It’s more like a story.”

I said, “That’s OK. When you type it, think about line breaks.” His line breaks made the difference. He was proud of the result.

Every day I am providing some sort of prompt, but I am allowing freedom of form. I think, for now, that is working well. I like to see my students experimenting with form and sounds and styles in poetry. Poetry is like that. Freeing and fun!

Madison’s poem response to Don’t Feed the Boy by Irene Latham.

Do not feed
me. I’m like
a zoo animal.

Yes. That is true.
And I moo at you
like a cow.

And snap at
you like a
snake.

I care
like a
cat.

I’m fat
like a
pig.

I cluck
like a
chicken.

I spread
my tail feathers
like a peacock.

I stick to
things like a
snail.

I am
strong like
an elephant.

Madison, 2nd grade