Poetry Friday is with Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
What a joy to join Georgia Heard on the Good to Great (#G2Great) chat Thursday night! Georgia sent me a copy of her latest book a few weeks ago. I was so excited to see that three of my students’ heart maps were included.
I questioned how Georgia could write a whole book about heart maps. But this book is a gem. In each section, not only do we get another idea for another type of heart map, twenty in all, but we also get a list of writing ideas and mentor texts. A side bar on each template asks questions to lead the student to his own heart.
I used the wish heart map this week with 6th graders. These students are embarking on a yearlong project. As we begin this journey, my colleagues and I wanted them to explore deeply a problem they see in the world. The heart maps were a way to visually get them to the “heart” of the matter. Some students went straight to writing. This student’s wish map became a list poem of wishes.
I usually write with my students, so why not make heart maps? The students rotated to me 4 times, so I have 4 hearts. Each one is different. Some are completely visual, but two of them became poems.
My wish heart maps
I Wish
I wish I could draw love
into the world.
Blow it freely
like a dandelion seed
to fertilize lives
with empathy.We wish on falling stars,
on rainbows,
pennies thrown in the fountain.
There’s the obligatory pull
of wishbone, a tug between my brother and me.
If I win this time,
can I send this wish to you?
Will it come true?–Margaret Simon
Thank you, Georgia Heard, for leading me, as well as countless children, to our hearts.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, this is a beautiful poem — even lovelier because of how it came to be. I want to know more about heart maps. And, I think I need this book in my middle school library! Thanks for this beautiful post. Have a great week.
So interesting to see how you are using heart maps with your students. I did not know what they were before attending a workshop at Highlights recently with Georgia and Rebecca Dotlitch. We did a bit of mapping of our childhood homes/neighborhoods, and it was a great tool for mining memories. Love your wish poem, Margaret.
I’m blowing dandelion wishes your way. I love how you’re never afraid to share your heart.
Lovely wish poem. Isn’t it funny how wishes lodge in our hearts like lumps in our throats?
This is so beautiful, Margaret! “I wish I could draw love/into the world.” That is my wish, too.
[…] sample of a “Wish Heart Map” is at Margaret Simon’s blog complete with a student example linked here. I began with a simple heart and then began adding topic […]