Poetry Friday round-up is with Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
Students proudly read their poems to Amy VanDerwater.
My students and I spent the month of April glued to The Poem Farm. What would Orion’s adventure be today? What technique was Ms. Amy VanDerwater teaching us?
After a month of writing poems, we couldn’t wait to meet Amy in person, virtually. Before any question was asked, Amy asked my students to share poems that they had written. The pride! The joy! And her amazing responses!
Amy talked about her writing process, showed us her messy notebook pages, and gave us wonderful advice for writing.
Mason asked her how to write rhyming poems. She gave us all a wonderful lesson on rhyming. You can use rhymezone or a rhyming dictionary, she explained. Then she showed us a notebook page where she had written the alphabet. She works through the alphabet to try to find a rhyming word with the meaning she wants to convey. She emphasized that the meaning is most important, so if you can’t find a word to rhyme, try a synonym. After our Skype visit, Mason immediately wrote a poem using the techniques she had taught.
I am holding onto Amy’s advice for my own writing as well. She talked about how she wrote a sonnet, a form that I have yet to try. But now I think I will. Somehow, Amy makes me feel more brave about writing poetry.
One of her last pieces of wisdom came from a poem she read aloud to us. Her reading was as if she were cavemom and we were here cavechildren whom she was telling to write so our writing will live on.
Reflections on the Teche 