ELLEN
BERG
Diary #34
Helping
My Students Make Meaning
Out of What They Read and Write
"I could not taste the rain for the windows were closed."
I have been doing things all wrong.
Every year I save poetry for the end of the school year. It is probably the unit my students enjoy most since there are few "rules" to writing it and the shorter texts are less threatening. However, after spending the past two weeks reading and writing poetry with my students, observing their reactions and thinking, I have decided the poetry unit ought to be the first big unit I teach. Figurative language is a killer for us on our state tests. Our students consistently score low on these types of questions, and so we have been looking for ways to help our students access figurative language. Given that goal, I completely threw out my former poetry unit because it lacked the type of strong guidance I think my students need from me and because it was probably not the best vehicle for helping my students make meaning out of what they read and write.I first threw out any lesson or lesson idea that was not expressly directed at helping my students make meaning. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), ripping those lessons out of my unit left huge holes I now had to fill. In my searches for new lessons, I found little that would address my needs, so I spent some time thinking of the goals and challenges present as my students struggle to make meaning.
The tools to "make meaning"
My students tend to think they are "done" reading a poem after the last word is read. If the meaning is not instantly clear, it is a "stupid" poem, and no further attempts to understand what they have read are made. The challenge here is, how do I get my students to read and reread a poem to try to make meaning of it? What tools do they need to have to do this? A second challenge comes from having my students write poetry worth reading. Over the years I have read many, many poems that rhymed but said nothing. They were disparate sentences that held no connection other than the fact that the last word in each line rhymed. Another problem was poems that used the same tired language over and over again, telling rather than showing. My challenge with this is how do I help my students focus on writing meaningful, imaginative poems? How do I teach them how to show and not tell us everything?A final issue has been helping my students figure out what to write. The freeness of poetry seems to panic many of my students, causing them to state loudly and often, "I have nothing to write about. I can't write poetry."
One measure that has worked in the past has been to supply them with a format‹cinquains, diamantes, bio poems‹but the problem with that has been very cookie cutter, trite poems that say nothing and play out the usual images until I am ready to scream. The challenge is blending the use of structures with my goal of teaching students how to use language effectively.
They see words as adversaries
These are pretty huge tasks. My students do not delight in language, in the play of words. I think they see words as adversaries to be avoided as often as possible. I set out to change that.
To address my students' reluctance to reread poetry, I employed some pretty tricky tactics. One activity I used was to put them in groups of two or three, hand them an envelope filled with the cut-up lines of a poem, and tell them to put the poem back together again -- an impossible task at best. It was possible, however, to assemble the lines in a way that would make sense.
My students enjoyed the task immensely, doing an excellent job of focusing on meanings of lines to connect them and create a cohesive whole. They eagerly listened at the end of class as I read the "real" version of "Foul Shot" by Edwin Hoey.
The next day we returned to the poem to investigate how Hoey used imagery to explode a moment in time. Students picked out lines that moved them, and we talked about how he showed the boy taking the shot rather than telling us about it. Students then did a quick freewrite about a moment of their lives that seemed to go in slow motion. Finally, they used their freewrites to try to write their own slow motion poems.A dramatic reading
Another task I used to push my students to reenter the text was a dramatic reading assignment. Alone or in pairs, students had to prepare a dramatic reading of "The Shark" by John Ciardi.
I presented a mini-lesson about how to do this, instructing them to pay attention to punctuation and to mark sections with the feelings each part evoked. I watched as my students read the poem aloud again and again, asking me questions about the appropriateness of their tone of voice and debating what facial expressions to use with their partners.
I even heard the poem in the cafeteria the day of their presentations. I am planning on doing two more activities of this type, one on a poem of their choice and one of my own.
After several reading activities and mini-lessons on imagery and word choice, I was ready to bring out the formats for my students to work from. Having a format helped them concentrate on what to say and how to say it. We have written sensory detail poems to personify an emotion, found poems using words from a story we read earlier in the year, and "Six Reasons Why" poems.
They are quick to write them, but more than ever they are willing to revise them as I question how they can replace a telling line with an image. The quality of the poetry reflects their understandings and experiences from reading.
I have used a final technique each day we write -- a five to ten minute sharing time at the end of each class period. I usually have to turn students away for lack of time as I have many, many volunteers
Why the beginning of the year?
So, why do I think my poetry unit should be moved to the beginning of the school year? As I have been working with my students, I have seen the absolute delight of finding the right word or image to use, something that has been lacking in their essays and other writing.
Writing good poetry is a difficult task, but it teaches students how to create images and focus on conveying meaning in a condensed space, something that would vastly improve all other writing they have to do.
Next year I am going to try the poetry unit first and see how that affects the rest of their writing year. I have a hunch I will see a huge improvement. I would like to share some of the writing my students have done over the past two weeks. Some of them are still in draft form, but I think it is a pretty good start in most cases. "A Storm of Memories" by Alex Y. (slow motion poem) It was second grade.As I was waiting for the TV to come
I looked out the window.
The sky's happy blue face turned many deadly colors
From a light green to a dark blue to a purple and then
A strikingly deadly dark green.
A tornado could strike at any time.
The air smelling like a very toxic and deadly smell.
I could not taste the rain for the windows were closed.
Worried faces surrounded me in amazement.
A big red spot in the sky and a loud thunder clap
Ended the raging storm.
It felt like the end of the world. I shall
Never forget that day.
When a storm comes that bad Wednesday shall
Strike me badly.
It shall have another fateful memory added to
My changing life. "The People I Cry For" by Jasmine H. (slow motion) One day I cried forever and ever
Well that's what it seemed like
To me. Someone who I never really
Knew seemed so close to me.
My eyes got red and puffy
Soon as I heard the news.
Then something so wet
Came dropping,
Dripping
Down my face.
It seemed I was all out my taste.
All I could think about is the fact
I could not breathe.
Nothing seemed to matter
Except they were gone
Not there anymore.
My eyes got dry
More puffy
Than before.
My nose dried
And no taste in my mouth and you want to know what
Hurt me more
No one seemed to have a care in
The world
But now I seem not to
Know who I'm talking about
I guess I'm
Talking about every
Body
My grandmom
My granddad
My dog
Aaliyah
For those people
I care
The most
I cry for these people
Hours
And
Hours. "My Ugly Jacket" by Brittiani B. (Found Poem) I was
Embarrassed
Hurt
Laughed at
I looked ugly in that jacket.
