See more posts at Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life .Without young kids or grandkids of my own, I’ve been known to borrow them. Last week I was planning to hold a workshop around Bayou Song, but no one registered (end of summer syndrome perhaps), but no worries. My neighbor sent over her almost 8 year old, Jack. We worked together on an I am poem. Rather typical boy in the summer, when I asked Jack what he wanted to write about, he said, “Well I really like soccer.” So soccer it is. We are going to write a poem from the point of view of the soccer ball using I statements. Jack caught on pretty quickly and started spouting lines.
When Jack got to the part where he wanted to write words like cool and awesome, I directed him to more specific language.
How do I know you’re a soccer ball?
I’m a sphere! And I am patterned with black and white!
Write that down!
I am a super stylish soccer ball.
I spin as fast as a jaguar.
I fly like an eagle.
I get kicked around.
I want you to stop kicking me!I am a super stylish soccer ball.
I am a sphere.
I am patterned with black and white
like a panda.
I roll to the goal.
I like to win.by Jack
Then we watched a video of Jen Vincent’s son making a zine with a single sheet of paper.
Jack with Bayou Song and his own zine.I made a zine with a snake “I am” poem alongside Jack. He helped me with some of the facts, like snakes sleep with their eyes open. We Googled what a ribbon snake eats to find an s-word. I made a video of my zine.
Thanks to Jack for being my guinea pig for this activity. I look forward to sharing it with more students. Working one on one, though, is a great way to try out a workshop.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, Jack was so fortunate to have you to write poetry with! It sounds as if the inspiration was mutual. XOXOXO
Excellent!
What a great day for you and this cool soccer boy.
Love this. I think zine-making will be on our list for the next rainy day (aka tomorrow). Thanks for sharing the videos: they make it much more accessible.
How lucky was Jack to spend the day with you writing poetry?! “Black and white like a panda” is a perfect comparison! I used to teach my 3rd graders how to make those little booklets, but I never heard them called zines. Everything old is new again is so true!
How much fun to spend time on a summer day with an enthusiastic young writer! Jack chose great similes and verbs to spice up his poem. I also love your illustration for your snake poem–though I never want to run into a snake that long!
[…] to create my zeno. Then I made a zine. Zine is a new term for a folded paper mini-book. (See this post that includes videos.) I will be giving a few workshops in September in which we make zines, so I […]
I especially like how you worked so well with Jack. He was quite proud of himself and that he should be. I found other zine videos but when working with children the one you shared of the young boy was appropriate. Thanks for sharing your creativity, Margaret.
[…] line rhyming. This is a playful form. We folded paper into a zine. To see how to make a zine, go to this post from last […]