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DigiLit Sunday: Poem Movies

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Animoto, autumn leaves, Nature poems, student writing on October 19, 2014| 8 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

Autumn is a wonderful season for writing poems. Donna Smith shared her Fall Poetry Zeno on her blog, Mainly Write, for Poetry Friday. Holly Mueller shared an autumn poem by Bliss Carmen along with her original poem and students’ poems.

On Thursday, I presented the poem Autumn Grasses by Margaret Gibson. My students paraphrased it and talked about the imagery and metaphor. Then they wrote their own poems about autumn. Tyler went back to a picture postcard of Georgia O’Keefe’s Autumn Leaves that he had written about before. I love that he knew where the picture was and felt comfortable enough to grab it again for inspiration.

Autumn Leaves by Georgia O’Keefe

On Friday, I showed my students how I had made a poem movie with my poem This Peace. I suggested they might want to try to make their own poem movie using Animoto. I think this was Tyler’s first time to use Animoto. He found the perfect background, and after he finished putting in his images and words and the movie was produced, I overheard a gasp. He was totally enthralled and impressed with his own creation. This is what creativity in the classroom is all about, that Wow feeling.

I encourage you to teach an autumn poem and make poem movies in Animoto. You may use Tyler’s as a model. Please let me know if you do. I love to know when I have inspired creativity in others.

Add in your own Digital Literacy links here:

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Celebrating the Blog Community

Posted in Blogging, Celebration Saturday, Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, Hedwig, Kitlitoshpere on October 18, 2014| 6 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Today I am glowing a little brighter. My students and I enjoyed a few blog shout-outs this week.

My Spider zeno poem, along with a link to my Zeno Emaze was featured on Today’s Little Ditty.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater featured my student Emily’s Cloud Acrostic on The Poem Farm.
Donna Smith was inspired by my Emaze presentation to create her own fall poetry Emaze.

Hedwig’s story: A few years ago one of my students, who was a huge Harry Potter reader, was struggling with writing. He just wouldn’t. I was shopping at Barnes and Noble and decided on a whim to buy a stuffed owl, Hedwig from the Harry Potter series. Matthew became totally attached to the owl. Hedwig stood on his shoulder whenever he was writing.

This year, after Emily’s mother died, I decided to take Hedwig to my second school. Hedwig has been a comforter to Emily and has become a part of our classroom family. So much so that Emily made him a bed out of an empty tissue box. (Emily finished off the box after crying over her dog’s death this week. How much can one little girl take?) I celebrate today that this small little impulse purchase has brought comfort and meaning to my students.

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Murmuration Mysteries

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged starling murmurations, student poetry, zeno poems on October 17, 2014| 11 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Today’s Little Ditty with Michelle H Barnes.

Migrating starlings, over the southern Israeli village of Tidhar, on February 12, 2014. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

My students were mesmerized this week by the Wonder of the Week, Starling Murmurations. As I often do with these Wonder lessons, I asked them to choose 4 of the Wonder Words. Then we watched the video, looked at The Atlantic site, and selected a picture to write to. The above image was selected by Erin. Erin is a third grader. She has a confidence about her that I wish I had. She sat writing her poem and told me, “I am writing a staircase poem.”

“What is a staircase poem?”

“Look at the lines. They look like the steps on a staircase.”

I think Erin just created her own form.

Ready, set, fly,
One bird takes flight,
another one and another one
until there’s a million in the sky
making an illusion of love as one goes by
washing over me.
Come along and see.
To believe is the key.
The key is to believe.
So graceful and startling,
a routine with meaning. Just
believe and you will see that anything
can be beautiful if you just put love into it.

–Erin, 3rd grade

I showed my students my poem movie from Spiritual Thursday. (You can see the post here.) I made the suggestion that they make a poem movie with their starling zenos. Some of my students are loving J. Patrick Lewis’s new form. A zeno is a great form for writing nonfiction poems. Enjoy these poem movies made using Animoto.

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Zeno-mania

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged Emaze, J. Patrick Lewis, zeno poems on October 10, 2014| 16 Comments »

Find more Poetry Friday at Miss Rumphius Effect.

As one of my students called out,”You love to connect us with authors.” They know me well, and they know that when I tell them we are going to learn a new poetry form, writing will happen, they will be supported, and it will be challenging. Last Friday, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes featured J. Patrick Lewis on her site. Pat put forth a challenge with a new form that he created called a zeno. The zeno is based on the hailstone sequence. This is the kind of math I enjoy. Math poetry: repeated syllable counts. My students were fascinated. They couldn’t wait to share with their math teachers. Matthew said, “I think I can use this in a magic trick.”

I have been playing with Emaze for presentations. I was so taken with the poems my students created in the morning group that I made an Emaze to teach my afternoon group. Later, I added some of their poems to the presentation. I encourage you to try this with your students. If you want to use the Emaze presentation, let me know.

Click the link below to go directly to the presentation.

http://app.emaze.com/882076/zeno-poetry

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Cloud Watching

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing, tagged acrostic poetry, cloud poems, Poetry Friday Anthologies on October 3, 2014| 16 Comments »

Join Jama for Poetry Friday at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

This week my students and I were wondering about Aerodynamics. I love framing my weeks with so many wonders at Wonderopolis. We learned about jet streams and lift. We watched some cool time-lapsed videos.

Since we were wondering and wandering around in the clouds, I found some cloud poems to share. From The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, I read Racing the Clouds by Jacqueline Jules (p. 45) and Biking Along White Rim Road by Irene Latham (p. 109). From The Poetry Friday Anthology For Science, I read Clouds by Kate Coombs (p. 85) and Tropical Rain Forest Sky Ponds by Margarita Engle. (On a side note, I am thrilled that my students are learning the names of wonderful Poetry Friday poets.)

My students noticed metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, rhyming, and more. The Poetry Friday anthologies suggested the website Clouds Appreciation Society. (Is there a website for everything?) I pulled up a cloud picture on the board to inspire writing. Even though some of my young students go back to the acrostic form, their writing was richer, emoting more sense of tone, and embedded with metaphor. Models, models, models, teachers. They work!

Coming together
Like a school
Of fish
Under the big blue sky
Disaster, waiting to strike

Couldn’t be better
Laying under the sun
Once it was peaceful, no clouds
Underneath, we are the unsuspecting victims, of the next
Deadly hurricane
–Tobie
(To leave comments for this poet, go to his post.)

In Vannisa’s poem, you will see words and phrases borrowed from the poems we read, mixed together with her words to create a new poem.

Over Afganistan
sunlight is hidden,
for it is somewhat forbidden.
Because this is the clouds,
the round, puffy, white clouds.
The cloud of wish,
the cloud that is as flat as a dish.
They are all lakes in the sky.
Whether it is a flat, small pond,
or a fat navy ocean,
there are no
empty spaces.
–Vannisa (To leave comments for this poet, go to this post.)

Dear Emily was moved to make her poem into an Animoto video. Prepare for tears. Her poem is dedicated to Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. Amy knows why.

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Celebrating Hi Sugar!

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Gratitude, Teaching, Writing, tagged Berry Queens, Donald Graves Award, Sugarcane Festival on September 27, 2014| 5 Comments »

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Sugarcane tractor on display at school.

It’s Sugarcane Festival, y’all! This is the annual celebration in New Iberia to open the harvest season. I love this season. The cane is getting tall. The air is getting cooler. And there are parades galore.

I am involved in The Berry Queens, so named because New Iberia is sometimes called “Da Berry.” Last night we inaugurated our very first Candy Toss Parade. About 30 golf carts were blinged up with lights, decorations, and shiny Berry Queens. What a fun time! Here are a few pictures.

I’m still basking in the glory of the NCTE Donald Graves Award. My local paper did a feature article that appeared on the front page on Friday. I’ve had so many wonderful congrats from our community– The local parks director grabbed me in the parade, a neighbor yelled from his car while I was walking Charlie, and a longtime teacher friend came to my front door this morning. I am impressed by the number of people who are taking the time to read my essay. I have pretty strong convictions about the teaching of writing. I am humbled that my own beliefs are touching so many.

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Art Heals

Posted in Gifted Education, Teaching, Writing, tagged art, NCTE, parent death, Picasso on September 23, 2014| 11 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

My little Emily is an artist. She is a fragile leaf fluttering in the wind. She blew through the classroom Monday quietly creating. I read aloud the book Emily’s Blue Period by Cathleen Daly. In this story, the character Emily is sad about her parents’ divorce. She uses art to express her feelings. That is how my Emily expressed her feelings. It was her first day back at school following the death of her mother.

I don’t want to become an expert at this, but Emily is helping me discover the best way to handle the death of a child’s parent. Be present. Be flexible. Let the child lead you to what she needs. Do not deny the death. Talk about it. Let the other students express their love. Be patient. Cry. Hope.

This is the collage project she created on her own. She gathered different papers from my box for journal decorating. She patiently used a ruler to make smaller and smaller crosses, nesting them together. The final cross is covered in black yarn glued in a swirl.

Emily needed space. She needed art. She needed freedom. I think I heard her singing.

I am posting my schedule for NCTE. Please join me if you are there.

NCTE Schedule:

Thursday, Nov. 20th from 4:30-6:00 PM: Elementary Section Get Together: I will receive the 2014 Donald Graves award for the teaching of writing, an amazing honor. Read about it here.

Friday, Nov. 21st from 12:30-1:45, I am presenting with colleagues from the National Writing Project: From Poetry To Picture Books To Polemics: We Write and We Teach Writing: A Story of Cross-curricular, Cross grade-level Collaboration Among National Writing Project Teachers.

Saturday, Nov. 22nd Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life dinner. I can’t wait to meet my virtual friends face to face.

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Colors of the Wind

Posted in Books, Teaching, tagged Colors of the Wind, George Mendoza, J.L.Powers, nonfiction, Peter Reynolds, picture books, The Dot on September 17, 2014| 5 Comments »

Join in the fun of nonfiction picture books at Kid Lit Frenzy.

I am determined this year to get more nonfiction and more reading aloud into my daily class time. This new book about the life of George Mendoza by J.L.Powers helped me inspire my students for their dot painting on Dot Day. (See Tuesday’s post.)

By the time George Mendoza was 15, he was legally blind. But George’s blindness was unique. He didn’t totally lose his sight. His condition caused him to see colors in an unusual way, like a kaleidoscope. This true story is inspirational on many counts. George became an Olympic athlete, setting world records as a blind runner. Later, he took up painting. A priest once told him to paint what he sees. The book is full of George Mendoza’s amazing, colorful paintings.

I paired this book with Peter Reynold’s book The Dot which tells the story of Vashti becoming an artist. Through both of these books, my students could see that anyone can be an artist. All you have to do is try. Both George and Vashti’s stories waved a creative magic wand over my students. They were primed and ready to make their own mark.

Colors of the Wind is written for an early reader. The sentence structure and word choice are easy to read. Some sentences are repeated throughout. An early reader would enjoy being able to read the words as well as look at the colorful images. As a read aloud for older students, I included the back matter, the last two pages that tell the whole story. Whichever part you read, this book will fascinate the inner artist.

“Sometimes, George uses paintbrushes. But most days, he fingerpaints, using heavy work gloves with gobs and gobs of paint.”

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International Dot Day

Posted in Slice of Life, Teaching, tagged Creativity, International Dot Day, Peter Reynolds, The Dot Day Song on September 16, 2014| 12 Comments »

Join the Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Challenge.

Oh, how my students love Dot Day! Do you celebrate? Peter Reynolds is the brilliant creator of this amazing, phenomenal day. This year 1.7 million have registered to participate. That’s a lot of dots!

I wore my Dot Day skirt. We read The Dot (again) and watched The Dot video. This year a new song was released by Emily Dale. What a catchy tune! We sang along and kept singing as we made our dots. There is nothing more fun than painting on a Monday. My students experimented with mixing colors. They tried out new designs. Not one of them said they didn’t know what to draw. I love that about Dot Day. Vashti shows us that even a jab of a pencil is worthy.

You can still celebrate Dot Day. The official day is Sept. 15th but Peter tells us that it is Sept. 15th-ish. I say any day could be Dot Day. Make your mark. Make it matter.

Many resources are available on FableVision.

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Using Piktochart

Posted in Digital Learning, Gifted Education, Teaching, tagged hurricanes, Piktograph, student motivation, Wonder on September 14, 2014| 6 Comments »

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

I enjoy trying out new apps online but not as much as my students do. On Friday morning I had meetings, and my students had French class and hearing testing, so we were running behind in whole class time. Not the best atmosphere for teaching a new skill. (Did I mention it was Friday?) I was determined to have something new to write about today for DigiLit Sunday, so with only half an hour left for our class time, I showed them Piktochart.

Last week’s Wonder theme was Hurricanes, so for this first try at an infographic, I suggested they work on hurricanes. We brainstormed information we could find: categories, safety tips, cost of hurricane damage, and location. I paired off my kids, but with an odd number, I told Vannisa I would work with her. I sat next to her at the computer and watched her go to work.

First she chose a template that she liked. The template had a circle graph. We discussed what kind of information would fit in a circle graph. We found a web site showing the number of hurricanes that occurred within each month of the 6 months of hurricane season from 1988-present. Together we worked on the data chart. Here we quickly had to figure out what data went where. Vannisa was more skilled than me.

The short time that Vannisa and I were working together I was fascinated by how quickly and easily she jumped right in to the app. She was motivated to find more information. She kept saying, “Look at this,” and “I love this,” and “Let’s find more information.”

Matthew stayed late in class because he decided to make an infographic on Houdini. He is a bit obsessed with magic and just finished a biography of Houdini. When I told him he could use the Piktochart to make his reader response on the book, he hugged me.

I can’t promise hugs, but I know your students will be motivated by Piktograph. I plan to introduce it to another group of students this week. I look forward to seeing what they will do and how much fun learning can be.

If you have a digital literacy post, link up!