Reflections on the Teche

NPM16 #23 Celebrating Celebrations

April 23, 2016 by margaretsmn

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

At the beginning of the week, someone noticed that we had filled the reading rocket chart. I put this on the bulletin board way back in August. The goal seemed so high then, 175 books! Each square on the rocket counted for 5 books. Every time a student had read 5 books, he/she could cut out a square and place it on the chart. And here we are with 20 days left of the school year, and the chart is full! This called for a celebration, so I bought Halos and powdered donuts and we had a feast.

My oldest student, Kielan, decided we should have a poetry slam to end our month of poetry. (Next week is testing week.) We watched two videos with appropriate poetry performances. I told them that usually performance poets tackle a social issue. Then I let them go. They formed groups, collaborated, practiced, and performed their poems on Friday. I even got into the act by collaborating with Emily and performing with her. I videoed their performances and plan to make each a DVD to keep. The only person invited to watch was the janitor, and she was so honored to be there.

This is Tobie and Kaiden’s poem. Everyone was so impressed with these boys that we are encouraging them to enter the talent show.

Eracism

Get up out your chair
you have the power to
do something in this
society

You have the power to
Eracism
Stop the racism start
Eracism
Lower society’s bar try to
Eracism
Laws are changed just because you’re different, try
Eracism
You have the power to
Eracism

Stop
the
Racism
Just because you’re different
Doesn’t mean you should be treated differently
lets try to
ERACISM

Tobie and Kaiden

Friday was also Earth Day, so we grabbed our journals and chalk and wrote Earth Day poems on the sidewalk.

Today is Shakespeare’s 452nd birthday. In celebration, Michelle Barnes is hosting 5 for Friday on her blog here.

Here’s my Little Shakespearean 5 word ditty:

The Course of True Love

begins
when the eyes
see

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Chalk-a-bration, Poetry, Writing | Tagged chalk poetry, Earth Day, Poetry Slam, Reading Rocket, Shakespeare | 9 Comments »

NPM16 #22 Palindrome Poem

April 22, 2016 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up with Jama At Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

This week we brainstormed all the poetry forms we know. The list included reverso, zeno, haiku, concrete, abecedarian, and so on. But one form that we didn’t have on the list was the palindrome poem. That’s because Kielan made it up. This is what she wrote in her post:

The first, third, and fifth lines are free verse. The second and fourth sentences are palindromic sentences. You can have more than 5 lines, though. Below is an example.

Would you rather
Borrow or rob
My best friend, Bob?
Yo, banana boy!
Leave him alone.

–Kielan

Try to write your own Palindrome.

To write a palindrome poem, you first may need to look at a list of palindromes. We found this one.

I gave it a try.

The doggone day I slipped in
dumb mud,
I cursed the blooming
lid off a daffodil.
My mom washed my mouth out with soap.

–Margaret Simon

Jacob was writing this one beginning with the palindrome “Do Geese See God?” Then he told me that he is afraid of dogs. I replied “I wonder if God is afraid of dogs?” Warning: this poem contains a putrid word.

Sometimes I wonder
Do geese see God?
I always tell my dog
“Dog! no poop on God!”
Is God scared of dogs?

–Jacob

Now it’s your turn. Can you write a palindrome poem? My students and I want to know. Write it in the comments or send to me by email and I will add it to this post.

Robyn is adding a line to the Progressive Poem today. Click the image.

Posted in Poetry Friday | Tagged palindrome poem, student poetry | 8 Comments »

NPM16 #21 Rejuvenation

April 21, 2016 by margaretsmn

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

I love the surprises of spring. Every year some flower that I don’t expect appears and delights me. This year there is a clump of iris in my front flower bed. I don’t remember so many of them blooming at once. On the back deck, a shasta daisy has popped up out of a pot. Spring surprises.

Holly tweeted a call for Spiritual Journey topics. She chose the word “rejuvenation.” We were suggesting words like renew and rebirth. All of these words speak to these new surprises in my yard. A synonym poem seemed in order. I also wanted to play with a repeated word, “there,” because I feel like I am pointing to these sweet surprises of new life. Look, over there, see what I see.

There the renewal of light in trees
illuminates tones of green.
Outside the store, a sign
“Spring colors are in”

There a refreshing scent
Rain hangs heavy on
jasmine, sweet olive

There renovating time–early rising–
that expectant darkness
when prayers are silent.

There restoring my soul
from under the heavy blankets
listening to the music
spill in from the window.

–Margaret Simon

Jan is adding a line to the Progressive Poem today. Click the image.

Posted in Poetry, Spiritual Growth | Tagged spiritual journey, spring poems | 5 Comments »

NPM16: #20 A Tree Grows…

April 20, 2016 by margaretsmn

Yesterday, my student Lani was featured on Today’s Little Ditty with a reverso poem inspired by the book Water Rolls, Water Rises by Pat Mora.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater is writing a poem a day about daily Wonders on Wonderopolis. I love how her website speaks directly to students about the writing process. On Monday, Amy wrote, “I began thinking about the value of sharing our stories, the sad ones as well as the happy ones.” Her poem was a before/after poem that held universal truths about the sadness of broken marriages.

There’s a sadness weighing on my mind. It’s not my loss, but even when others suffer a loss, we grieve. It’s the way of the world.

My writing friend, Catherine Flynn wrote a poem about Crystal Rapids in the Grand Canyon, but the poem was about so much more. This stanza speaks to that deep grief that comes back over and over.

“The path is altered,
a chasm opens.
Never fully healed,
full of fissures that can crack
without warning,
bringing us to our knees.” (Catherine Flynn)

Sometimes writing poetry is about diving into the sadness, entering in, and letting it all go. Inspired by Amy’s and Catherine’s poetic honesty, I wrote this poem for B. She’s probably not ready to read it. But I needed to write it.

A Tree Grows near the Pier

Before
when the sun rose,
so did he,
fishing pole in hand,
tackle in a box.
His heart full of hope.
His mind full of lures.

After
the boat lost him,
so did we,
as a tree grows
near his tackle box;
Its branches open wide
for resurrection fern.

–Margaret Simon

Ruth has the Progressive Poem today.

Posted in Poetry | Tagged #imagepoems, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater, Catherine Flynn, National Poetry Month, Poem a Day | 4 Comments »

NPM16: #19 The Trouble with Poetry

April 19, 2016 by margaretsmn

During this monthlong survey of poetry, there is trouble.

So many decisions to make.

What should I teach today?
Line breaks,
literary elements,
limericks?

I want to say stop to
sing-song rhymes
and simple forms.

Then one turns to another and says,
“Let’s write a rap abecedarian.”

Like the messiness of art class,
the instructor must allow
for paint splatters and stains,
for stalled-out cinquains
and skip-to-my-loos.

Poetry is hard.
Poetry is easy.
There are rules in poetry.
There are no rules:
Let the poem find its way.
This is the trouble with poetry.
This is the joy of poetry.

–Margaret Simon

Follow the Progressive Poem to Charles Waters.

Posted in Poetry, Slice of Life, Teaching, Writing | Tagged teaching poetry | 8 Comments »

NPM16: #18 Flowering Fibs

April 18, 2016 by margaretsmn

One thing that helps me during this month of poetry discipline is forms. When I have something to say, words to use, form can help me with a placement that sometimes leads to wisdom or a nice image. Amy Rudd linked up to DigiLit Sunday yesterday reminding me of the Fib poem. This form is based on the mathematical Fibonacci sequence which begins with 1,1,2,3,5,8.

I came home from a quick weekend trip to find African iris blooming in the courtyard. I did not plant these. The prior owners did, so they delight and surprise me each year. I gathered words from a Google search and wrote two fibs.

African Iris Fibs

Sword
Leaves
Flowers
Delicate
Open only a day
Walk across the garden to you.

New
blooms
daily
butterfly
wings, African grace
welcome me to this rainforest.

Follow the Progressive Poem to Irene’s site Live your Poem.

Posted in Poetry, Writing | Tagged African iris, fibonacci poem, nature poetry | 5 Comments »

DigiLit Sunday: Revision

April 17, 2016 by margaretsmn

Please use this button on your site for DigiLit Sunday posts

In my world of teaching and writing, revision is a constant companion. I look at my teaching and revise. Rarely am I following the lesson plan I wrote. I revise based on the direction my students need to take. And last week revision was something we needed to talk about.

I believe that revision is a mature behavior. Revision is having the confidence in a piece of writing to take the risk of changing it. Without even realizing it, I write in constant revision. As I write this post, I backspace. I save and read. Go back. Rephrase.

My students do this, too, as they type their pieces into the blog. Many of them are resistant to the two steps of rough draft in their notebooks, then typing into a final draft. But as I watch them, I see that revision becomes organic to this process.

Sometimes, revision comes from talk. We read the piece together. Discuss what we like. And look at where the words can be stronger.

I sat down with Kaiden to revise his abecedarian about wonder posted here. For the most part, this was an excellent piece of writing. The repeated word, wonder, was intentional and served a purpose. Yet there were a few words that weren’t quite working. So we looked at a list of Shakespeare words. This elevated Kaiden’s poem. There we found kindle. What a great word for K and for wonder! Engaging in this work with him was fun for both of us.

Ralph Fletcher tweeted:

Let’s relax about revision. If a piece of writing is a stepping stone to another piece, let it be. Use revision strategies on those gems, the ones you want to embrace and hug a little longer.

Posted in Digital Learning, Teaching, Writing | Tagged digital literacy, Ralph Fletcher, revision | 9 Comments »

NPM16 #16 Celebrating Reverso Poetry

April 16, 2016 by margaretsmn

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

Marilyn Singer is a master poet. At NCTE in the fall, I had the pleasure of meeting her. I was also a lucky participant who won a copy of Follow, Follow. Marilyn invented the reverso poem and has published 3 books of them, two based on fairy tales and her latest Echo, Echo based on mythology.

On Today’s Little Ditty, Michelle Heindenrich Barnes interviewed Marilyn Singer and offered a ditty challenge to use the word echo in relation to a poem. I was determined to try the reverso form.

With my students as cheerleaders, I worked hard and produced something worthy of being called a reverso poem. The process began when we watched this video together.

I asked my students to select an insect to be in a mask (or persona) poem. I selected this image to inspire my writing.

screenshot from the film Microcosmos by Jacque Perrin.

Then I did some caterpillar research. I wrote “zig zag stitch” and then discovered that caterpillars excrete a silk line as they crawl in addition to using the silk to create a chrysalis.

Creepy crawly caterpillar
munch munch
munching milkweed
at tremendous speed.

Life changes
slowly
creeping, crawling
leaf to leaf.

Sunlight glimmers
on fuzzy bristles.
I zig-zag stitch
a silkthread path
leaf to leaf.

Leaf to leaf
a silkthread path
I zig-zag stitch
on fuzzy bristles.

Sunlight glimmers
leaf to leaf.
Creeping crawling
slowly.

Life changes
at tremendous speed.
Munching milkweed
Munch, munch
creepy, crawly caterpillar.

This is a tough form to get just right. I don’t think mine successfully creates a different meaning in reverse. But my students liked it, so I am celebrating it none the less.

Posted in Celebration Saturday, Photography, Poetry, Teaching | Tagged Marilyn Singer, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, Reverso poem, Today's Little Ditty | 13 Comments »

NPM16 #15 Poetry Friday

April 15, 2016 by margaretsmn

Poetry Friday round-up with Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

This month as I go through poetry every day with my students, inevitably favorite forms emerge. From her blog, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater introduced my students (and me) to the abecedarian form. One by one my students are trying this out. I have said it’s a very challenging form. Some rise to a challenge.

Kaiden has risen to this challenge not only using the form, but also repeating the word wonder. When he got stuck on a letter, he searched a list of Shakespeare words.

All the time wondering
Batty in the night for wonder
Can’t get any sleep from wondering
Dying to quench my thirst for wonder
Enclosing myself in books of wonder
Fascinated by wonder
Going insane from wonder
How did it become this way
I have no idea
Judged because of my wild hair from wondering too much
Kindling the fire of wonder
Loving every drop of wonder
Mourning without wonder
Not having any time for doing work because of wonder
Oblivious of all my dirty and messy ways
Prowling the library for wonder
Quivering without wonder
Rest is impossible with all this wonder
Sleep I can’t
Tearing up books
Unfortunately, I am addicted to wonder
Vigorously turning pages
Withering with out wonder
Xhaling because my wonder is filled
Zzz’s I can finally catch

–Kaiden, 5th grade

Earlier in the week we danced with paintbrushes, making watercolor abstract paintings while listening to music. One selection led some of us artist/poets to think of water (rain). It’s been raining every morning for the last few days. I wrote a more playful poem while my 5th grader, Tobie, is thinking deeply and writing serious poems.

Tobie’s painting of water

As I sit intently
listening to the music that played
I thought of how there were many others
much more
than you could even imagine

Before you think
of planets in space
imagine drops of water in a sea
grains of sand on a beach
every blade of grass in a lawn
every second before dawn

–Tobie, 5th grade

Rainy Day

Rainy Day by Margaret Simon

Popping in puddles
painting balloons.
Sprinkles bubble.
Wet air
Wet hair.
I don’t care.
Let’s play anyway.

–Margaret Simon

Follow the Progressive Poem to Matt Forrest’s Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

Posted in Poetry Friday, Teaching, Writing | Tagged abecedarian, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater | 12 Comments »

NPM16 #14 Students Dig Deeper

April 14, 2016 by margaretsmn

Join the Spiritual Thursday round up at Reading, Teaching, Learning.

On Wednesday, I was out of the classroom at an enrichment day for 6th graders. While I was away, my students were still writing poems. At the beginning of this National Poetry Month, I told them that they would write a poem each day. I have provided some kind of prompt activity (video, music, other poems), but this day they just chose to write. I checked our Kidblog site and found new poems. These poems were not sing-songy rhyme poems. They were serious poems about real life.

Poetry can be serious. Poetry can be spiritual, but I’ve not told my students about this aspect. However, writing in poems can bring out deep feelings even in the youngest of poets. In an effort to capture this move to deep thinking, I have found a poem in the poetry of my students.

Secrets are hidden,
the rain doesn’t care;
It’s still pouring down.

Life
shining like a precious jewel
is waiting for us.

Many don’t
know the comfort
of last words and hopes.

Rest is impossible
with all this wonder.

A found poem by Margaret Simon from poems by Lani, Tobie, Kaiden, and Erin

Follow the Progressive Poem to Deo Writer with Jone.

Posted in Gifted Education, Poetry, Spiritual Growth, Writing | Tagged found poem, serious poems, student writing | 3 Comments »

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