Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge
On Sunday I posted about using jeweler’s loupes with my students in science and writing poems. I felt a little guilty writing poems in science class, like that was somehow not allowed. But my friend and slicer Dani Burtsfield posted a link to a podcast in her comment. The podcast from Heinemann featured Amy Ludwig VanDerwater talking with authors Valerie Bang-Jensen and Mark Lubkowitz about science and poetry.
Amy asks, “Is a poem a system?”
She continues, “”Do you feel if a poem is a system … is the reader’s intent and background, when a reader comes to a poem, is that energy that flows through that system?”
Later, Amy brings up genre study. “one of the things I see that happens with writing is that … sometimes writing is divided up into these little genres, and we do this for a few weeks, we do this for a few weeks, and we do this for a few weeks. But what gets lost, and what can get lost, is the bigger idea of how to notice these patterns. How to see how interlocking pieces of words work together in a text beyond genre, like transcending, flying over genre.”
Amy’s ideas led me to my lesson today with my science kids. I wanted to use the patterns of poetry to notice the patterns in science, to fly over genre.
We were using jeweler’s loupes to look at plants, but today we were looking closely at mold. Last week we set up mold terrariums using ziplock bags and a slice of bread and apple. Following the weekend, guess what grew? Yucky mold!
Mold on an apple
“What does the mold remind you of?”
“An old man’s beard.”
“Whipped cream!”
“Let’s write a poem about it.”
Moldy Poem
Mold is growing on our food.
We know it’s made of spores.
Now it looks like
an old man’s beard,
white and green like sour cream.
Mold is creeping like a fox
preying on a squirrel.
Decomposing apples and bread
like bacteria in my mouth.
A marshmallow made of spores.
Writing this poem helped solidify some science concepts through discussion and creativity, observation and discovery. I think we’ll write poems in science more often. Thanks, Amy, Valerie, and Mark for permission.
Reflections on the Teche 
I love the last line, a marshmallow made of spores, but now I’ll never look at a marshmallow the same way.
Seriously your poem sparks some great thoughts about writing across genres and content areas. I may need to do some poetry writing at an upcoming PD session!
I love the poem and the application of poetry to science. The rhyming makes the poem fun and memorable. Wonderful similes, too.
There’s a science teacher in my building who has no respect for imaginative literature, but I see a long tradition of science in poetry, short stories, and novels.
What a great slice, Margaret! It reminds me of what Mary Lee Hahn said on Today’s Little Ditty “Ask yourself, ‘Can I accomplish this (task, standard, teaching point) with poetry?'” I need to be more mindful of opportunities to write across content areas. Thanks for the nudge. Also, I love the comparisons your students made in their poem.
Margaret,
Science is the art isn’t it? And Art can be expressed by writing. So wring poems in science class is one more way we engage our kids, ya?
Thanks for sharing the slice.
It is nice to see what kids come up with. Mold & Old man’s beard? I would never have thought of it.
Best wishes
Purviben
I’m so impressed that you brought poetry into science – and science into poetry. I am convinced that we can and should use writing to make sense of our worlds – and this is exactly what I mean when I say that. I’ve just never seen it done before. I love it!
You have shown us another great lesson! I think science and sensory writing naturally go together.
Love this. I used to incorporate writing into all the subjects. It fits everywhere! 🙂
I love how you and your students made such interesting connections from mold to everyday things. What an engaging way to solidify science concepts!