I’ve had a busy end of the semester and I want to take a few minutes to share some of the projects I’ve completed. First I want to share a book trailer I created for the novel in verse of Love that Dog. If you teach elementary students and don’t know this book, run and get it! It’s perfect for a 3rd-5th grade classroom introduction to poetry. Just be prepared to shed some tears.
I also created a Narrative Writing Unit with my colleague Kayla Pitman who writes the blog Mrs. Pitman’s Classroom. Please clink on the provided link and check it out. Comment on what you think and feel free to use these resources in your classroom! Watch for a Poetry Writing Unit coming your way soon!
I’ve also just completed a Multi-Modal Self-Portrait Anthology that contains original pieces by me and pieces written by authors that are special to me. This was a project I worked on all semester in my graduate level Teaching Language Arts class. I’ve really enjoyed putting this together and believe it has helped me to grow as a writer. I can’t wait to incorporate a project like this with students where they can create a portfolio of their work in order to see how their writing shapes and grows!
More book reviews to come! I’ve got a stack waiting to be read. Hope you all are enjoying a lovely and refreshing spring!
This week I took the advice Georgia Heard gives in her book Awakening the Heart (1999, pp. 95-108) and went outside with my writer’s notebook to sketch. I wanted to explore how I might you observational poetry in my own classroom to encourage my students to write poetry that moves them. Heard notes several reasons why observational drawing might help students in the process of learning to write poetry. She notes that when we draw we have to slow down and really take notice of what we are looking at. We notice specific details that we might not notice with a quick glance. Isn’t this what great poets do? They use words to create images in the readers mind to help the reader see what they are seeing and feeling in the moment. Heard also notes that drawing will help to build our young writers’ “visual sense, which will help them write more concretely and with images.” Lastly, she notes that drawing can help students see that poetry is everywhere, including in the small and insignificant things that surround us. If you don’t believe it, read all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth (1994). These are great mentor poems that can be used in the classroom to show students that poetry is inside the ordinary objects that surround us everyday! Read these examples with your students and create shared poems using these mentor poems. Check out Worth’s poem below that I used to gain inspiration for my own observation poem:
Grass by Valerie Worth
Grass on the lawn says nothing: Clipped, empty, Quiet. Grass in the fields whistles, slides, casts up a foam of seeds, Tangles itself With leaves: hides Whole rustling schools Of mice.
When completing my observation sketch, I was thinking about different supports that some of my students may need. I work with students who sometime benefit from a little structure when completing a loose activity like creating observational sketches. Some of my students may need a time limit of how long they have to find something to sketch. I might explain that when we get outside they should take 5 to 10 minutes looking to find something that interests them and then the next 10 minutes sketching and making notes. If I don’t do this, I think of a couple of students who might spend the entire time outside looking for something to sketch instead of actually getting down and dirty in the activity. My reading professor, Dr. Frye also gave a suggestion during class of giving students picture frames to look through to help them focus on a small area. I actually did this when I went outside to sketch my tree limb, because I am easily distracted and this is support that I could definitely see working in my classroom. Students could even create little viewing frames out of paper or scrap cardboard.
After letting students make their sketches, I would give them time to share in groups what they found. After I made my sketch, I sat and talked with my mom and my husband about the process. Throughout our conversation I started seeing even more interesting details that I had not even notices while sketching. For example, while sketching outside I didn’t notice how much this tree branch looked like a hand. This observation really inspired my entire poem. I know I said this in my last post, but conversations about what we are going to write REALLY helps in the planning process and can bring out great ideas students might not get otherwise.
For the student who says they don’t draw, explain to them that the process isn’t to create an amazing work of art. We are doing this to become observers or scientists. We are putting the world under an invisible magnifying glass so that we can find little details, like the carefully folded buds on a tree, that you might not notice during an everyday walk in the woods. Heard notes questions that teachers have used during this process to help get students in the mindset of a careful observer (pp. 101). These are:
What is the object like?
Is it like anything else in the world?
What does it remind me of?
What surprises me about it?
What’s beautiful or amazing about it?
Do I have any questions?
I would talk about these questions with students before going outside. Encourage them to take notes as they draw. I found I couldn’t keep up with jotting down all the thoughts I was having as I drew. I’ve included my observation, rough drafts, and final poem below. With spring in the air, why not take your students outside to make some observations? Maybe they will be as inspired as I found myself!
Observation Sketch
I See Your Secrets by Tonya Moore
Worn, wrinkled, peeling
grey
skin.
Bent joints.
Tired-
from Winter’s
2nd Draft
grasp.
Thin.
Delicate.
Sliver of an arm
sways
gently with
a chilly kiss
of Spring.
1st Draft
Desperate fingers stretch.
Drinking in
the warm,
bright sun
holding closely
guarded secrets
impatiently waiting
to unfold.
References:
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Worth, V., & Babbitt, N. (2012). All the small poems and fourteen more. New York: Square Fish.
Now that I have completed my reading assignments for the week I’d like to post some updated thoughts I have about poetry. First, if you are a teacher of writing and feel unsure about how to create a thriving poetry environment in your classroom, run and buy Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School (1999). This book really nails it on the head how the traditional way poetry is taught in schools can scare students away. Heard states that traditionally we are asked to interpret and analyze poems “dissecting its meaning and structure-which is meant to give insights into the heart of the poem.” (1999, pp. 21). She goes onto to say that this is never a successful way to explore poetry and instead causes alienation. I truly think that is why I never tend to purposefully pick up books of poetry to read on my own! This is a shame because my current experience of reading Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014) has been so powerful. Heard talks in her book about how reading poetry helps us to understand experiences that we all share and Woodson’s book has absolutely done this for me. It’s the first time I have ever found myself craving to read more poetry. Woodson’s poetic memoir has brought me so much joy and inspiration for my own writing. It has made me realize that by exploring poetry, I will find poems that I connect to and I need to do this for my students as well!
Heard goes on to give wise advise of using the following three layers in our classrooms when reading poetry: choose poems that are accessible and relevant to our students lives (such as Woodson’s book), help kids connect to the poems personally by guiding them to find themselves in poetry, and guide them in opportunities of exploring the craft of poetry (pp. 21). An idea that I have fallen in love with from Heard is creating a Living Anthology Project in the school. This is where students can place their favorite poems around the school. This offers opportunities for staff and students to be exposed to and interact with poetry. Last year, students of mine painted the girl’s bathroom walls and doors with inspirational messages. As I read I thought how cool would it be to add some of their favorite poems to the bathroom walls and to other areas in the school. I love the idea of poems hiding in unexpected places, such as the bottom of a lunch tray! Heard points out that not only are your students creating a poetry rich environment for others to enjoy, but the traditional way of reading poetry is being broken by creating an opportunity for students to read a diverse assortment of poems and critique/explore them on their own terms without worrying about what the teacher wants them to say about it’s meaning. Heard also mentions the idea of giving students poems as gifts. I LOVE this idea. What a great way to personally connect with students and let them know that you are thinking about them. How cool would it be to see this gift possibly grow into a habit where your students begin giving poems to their peers as gifts?
Heard also talks about the importance of listening to students conversations to “find the seeds of poems in their natural, everyday voices.” (pp. 3). This made me think of my three year old and some the phrases he says to me when he discovers something new or notices something deeply for the first time and how it can make me have a whole new appreciation for somethings. We need to point these moments out with our students by collecting these seeds in a notebook and sharing them with students. I could see creating a section in the classroom to display these “seeds” for everyone to enjoy!
Heard goes on to describe poetry study centers where students can get hands on experience working with 10 different aspects of poetry: exploring meaning and sound of words, listening to poems, observing objects to discover poetry, observing nature to discover poetry, illustrating poetry, performing poetry, creating music with poetry, experimenting with revising poems, creating poems from what’s world events, and reading poetry for pleasure (pp.7-17). As I read about these centers, I kept thinking how much more comfortable I’d feel about reading and writing poetry if I had gotten this kind of experience! Heard later talks about the importance of giving students opportunities to decipher the meaning of poems and discuss what the poem means to them. We need to model how we explore the meaning of poetry in front of our students and share with students that finding the meaning is not a black and white process. It can be complex and it can change the more we interact with poetry.
A Favorite from Firefly July
When thinking about getting my students to read and write poetry, I am so excited to introduce them to two books I read this week. The first book, Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul. B. Janeczko and illustrated by Melissa Sweet (2014) is an extraordinary mentor text to show to our young poets that it only takes a few strong words to paint vivid images in the minds of readers. The poems in this book are separated into different seasons. As I was reading, I thought of many different potential ways to use this in the classroom. These are simple examples of poetry for students to explore the use of line breaks, the use of figurative language, the sound of a poem read aloud, the illustrations of the poems and the imagery poems can create. The poems in this collection are perfect for shared reading and writing experiences. I could see creating poems similar to these using sentence strips in front of the class. I also like the idea of using a book like this to encourage students to create their own anthology of poems related to a topic. They could even illustrate the anthology they create after exploring Sweet’s beautiful illustrations. Many of the poems could be used as a scaffold for creating their own short poems. For example, I could see reading Merriam’s “Uses for Fog and inviting students to create their own “Uses for ….” (pp. 37).
Another text I began reading this week was All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth with illustrations by Natalie Babbitt (1994. This is another mentor text to show students that poetry does not have to be intimidating and can be found in everyday familiar objects. This would be a great read aloud for my students. When reading this book, I would want to guide students in a discussion of how can we better observe the world around us like poets. Essential questions that come to my mind are: What words are used to create the images they see in their minds when listening to the poems? How can we be more present to discover the poetry that is hidden in everyday life? It is funny, because once you begin thinking about the process of being more observant for the sake of poetry little things around you REALLY jump out. I found myself scribbling down notes ALL DAY LONG yesterday of observations of things I look at everyday and I had fun doing it! However, I think I might have made my mom a little crazy while she was trying to have a conversation with me because I kept having to stop her to make one more little note. Worth’s book is a great excuse to take students outside to give them opportunities to explore the world around them as poets. I like the idea of putting digital cameras in their hands so they could capture images that they might want to come back to create poems. Students could sketch or jot notes during a nature walk. Students could be invited to bring in interesting objects to share that might inspire this type of poetry. You could create some kind of museum where they walk around and free write about the shared objects.
I don’t know if you can tell from this post, but I am PUMPED about teaching poetry. I remember listening to a colleague mine talking about how teaching poetry was always her favorite time of the year and I shuddered. Not because I hate poetry, but because I felt completely unprepared for how to make it accessible and engaging. I’m feeling much more confident and can’t wait to share more of what I learn!
References:
Heard, G. (1999) Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Janeczko, P. B. & Sweet, M. (2014). Firefly July: A year of very short poems. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
Worth, V. & Babbitt, N. (1994). All the small poems and fourteen more. New York, NY: MacMillan.
“And all the colors I am inside Have not been invented yet.”
-from “Colors” in Where the Sidewalk Ends, Shel Silverstein
This week I was asked to complete a sort of pre-assessment of my views on poetry before we start our poetry unit in my graduate Teaching the Language Arts class. Below you will find some of my thoughts. Later today, I will post any updated thoughts I have after reading our assigned texts for the week. I look forward to comparing how my thoughts change!
Personal feelings about reading Poetry
Honestly, I would say that I’m not an avid reader of poetry. I really want to be! I have read poems that I’ve really enjoyed. Lately, my husband and I have been reading Shel Silverstein with our son and it has been so much fun. He loves the silly rhymes and we love the uplifting messages hidden in the silly rhymes. I’ve also really enjoyed discovering Nikki Grimes who I knew nothing about until last semester. I’m also pretty much finding myself obsessed with Jacqueline Woodson. Her Brown Girl Dreaming memoir of poetry is like nothing I’ve ever read. I have found myself stopping and reading aloud pieces to my mom that spark my own memories of growing up. Maya Angelou is another poet I’ve always admired. I even got the honor to see her speak (it was incredible). I’d have to say that I’ve never really chosen to sit down and read some poems unless I had to for some purpose and I don’t really know why. Maybe it is because I don’t know where to start or maybe I feel a bit intimidated by poetry. I remember feeling this way when asked to write my interpretation of a poem in my classes in school.
Personal Feelings About Writing Poetry
Writing poetry terrifies me. That being said, I really enjoyed writing a golden shovel poem last semester! I also had fun using persona poetry to explore a character in a book I was reading. Both of these activities I would use in my classroom and would feel comfortable teaching them. But writing poetry just to write is not something I feel comfortable with. I love writing stories and I love writing about factual things that I’m passionate about. I’m excited to see where my journey of exploring writing poetry takes me because I know in order to teach it well I need to get lots of experience writing it!
Personal Feelings About Teaching Poetry
Right now I do not feel comfortable teaching poetry. This is something that I have wanted to improve on. When co-teaching in English classes, I’ve always let the English teacher take the lead in this area because I was so nervous! I’d like to be able to more confidently bring in ideas of what we can do to appropriately scaffold poetry writing lessons for my students. I’d also like to be more knowledgeable about mentor texts that my students will find engaging and will want to learn from.
My Criteria for Knowing I’ve Read a Really Good Poem
I think my criteria would be the same as when I’ve read a really good book. I make a connection to what I’m reading or the poem appeals to my senses. I’ve noticed that sometimes I don’t realize how good a poem is until I hear it read aloud. I guess this is what makes reading poetry different from reading a good book. I sometimes almost need to hear it to appreciate the appeal it has to me. An example of this was when my professor played Sarah Kay reciting her poem “Hands” for us during class. I remember having chill bumps all over my arms and found myself writing lots of reactions in my writer’s notebook afterwards.
How Could I Create a “Poetry Environment” in My Classroom?
I first need to become more knowledgeable about poetry (the types and poets out there). I feel that I would do the same thing that I would do with writing personal narratives which is first expose my students to tons of poetry! We’d read lots of mentor texts and explore/discuss what good poets do to be effective. We’d create anchor charts of different elements found and used in poems. I’d do lots of modeling and think alouds. I’d invite students to try out different techniques we’ve learned about. Then we’d have LOTS of time to write, share, and talk about our poems. We’d celebrate each other’s creations.
I shared my small moment story last week that I began writing from a picture. However during class last week while we were sharing our small moments with our writing groups, I realized that my heart was just not in this story. A while later we discussed strategies to show our students how to find writing topics they can grow into a narrative. We were invited to think of times where we got in trouble or felt like something bad might happen. I made a list and we talked with our writing group about our story ideas. The experience of being able to share my first draft with the writing group and then being able to talk about my trouble story was eye opening for me. It really made me realize the power of letting our young writers discuss their ideas with each other. It is so helpful for the writers in our classrooms to be able to tell their stories before putting them down on paper. It can help bring attention to the way we show events through details and elaboration when we talk instead of just listing off everything that happened to us. Plus, it helps tremendously to get feedback from those listening what else we might want to include in our stories or what didn’t make sense. After class I felt like I needed to keep writing because I was so excited about my trouble story.
So instead of sharing my continued draft from last week, I’ve created several drafts of a new story I want to share. I’m hoping this is a narrative that I can use in the classroom to model for my students how to grow a small moment story into a narrative. This week I read Dorfman and Cappelli’s (2017) advice on how to grow your small moment story into a narrative from beginning to end and tried to incorporate some of their strategies into my own writing as I wrote my revised version. When choosing a lead, I decided to go with their suggestion of dialogue and I threw in some foreshadowing. When I transitioned to the middle, I tried to keep in mind their advice of not giving away too soon the main events. I tried to create what they call a “bridge paragraph” to relate to the final actions of the story. I did this by describing the setting of my story where the big action would take place. Finally, with my ending, I used their advice of making sure it connects to the story and leaves the reader satisfied. In my story, my mom warns me that my new dress shoes are not the best choice for recess. I have feelings of insecurity because I’m friends with a girl who comes from a family with much more money than me. I want to impress her with my new shoes, so I wear them anyway. In my ending I wanted to convey my realization that my friend didn’t care if I had fancy clothes, but that she just liked me for me. I also wanted to throw in some humor about how I now always wear sensible shoes which is pretty true! I’ve posted my drafts below. Please read and enjoy. I’d appreciate any feedback and suggestions!
My List of Troubles
Draft of Story I Will Complete Later
Rough Draft of Shoe Story
Cleaned up version below:
My Shiny New Shoes
“I don’t think those shoes are the best choice for playing on the playground. Are you sure you should wear them before Sunday?” she wisely advised me while flipping pancakes in our sunflower adorned kitchen.
“Oh mom, they will be fine. I’ll make sure not to do any running today and I really want to show them to Maggie!” I quipped back while shoving sweet maple syrup pancakes in my mouth.
I stared down with admiration at my shiny black patent leather shoes with black bows. They really snazzed up my faded Jordache jeans and my favorite My Little Pony sweatshirt that was now a dirty pink color from so many washes. I wondered what Maggie, my new best friend, would say about my beautiful shoes. She was always wearing brand new name brand clothes and I was puzzled why she wanted to hang out with me. I was the girl who was always wearing stretched, worn out hand-me-downs from the older girls at church. . It wasn’t that often that I got a new pair of shoes from the store. I couldn’t wait to strut my stuff on the playground in shoes no one else had ever worn.
As I walked down the noisey kid littered hall to Mrs. Swader’s class that morning, I listened to the click-click-click of my shoes hitting the slick linoleum hallway. I felt like a tap dancer walking onto the stage to give one of my greatest performances. I’m pretty sure everyone was staring at my feet in awe. The fluorescent lighting really gave them a shine that was absent in our cozy lighting we used at home. I turned and slid into Mrs. Swader’s class with a little swagger. The slide of my shoes on the slick floor was unexpected, but I somehow pulled it off like I meant to give a grand entrance.
“Ewww, Tonya! I LOVE your shoes!”, Maggie squealed with glee. I stood a little taller and told her thanks.
“I got them to wear next Sunday with the new Easter dress mom made me”, I proudly stated as I lifted one foot up and turned it back and forth so Maggie could get a better look. I put my foot down and wiggled it around. They were a little tight on my feet and I could feel the hint of a blister forming on the back of my right heel. I didn’t care though. I was thrilled to have a pair of shoes that hadn’t already been stretched out by someone else’s feet.
During math class I stared longingly outside at the cracked and crumbled blacktop concrete we used as our playground. It was an empty lot set up between the elementary school and the high school. Two basketball hoops looked like they were placed accidently across each other on the uneven paved lot. Behind the basketball hoops was the large sloped paved hill that butted up against the walkway to the high school. Scattered on the outside of the lot was rusted swings that looked like a good wind could blow them over and some old worn out monkey bars. Recess was definitely the best time of the day and my favorite thing to do was walk around the edge of the uneven lot holding hands with my friends and gossip about the boys we had crushes on. Sometimes we would join in on a game of four-square, but mostly we just walked, talked, and giggled.
When the recess bell rang at the end of our seemingly long math lesson on multiplication, I jumped from my chair and followed the sea of students out to the lot. I ran over to Maggie and our gaggle of girlfriends and interlocked my fingers so we could start our cruise around the lot.
As we walked, I found myself slipping on the uneven pavement with every other pace.
Maggie gripped my hand firmly and said with concern, “Your shoes are like ice skates on this pavement! Don’t worry though, we’ve got you.” I held on tightly as we trudged on and began sliding my feet like I was actually wearing skates across the hard uneven ground.
As we came to the big hill, I pointed at the top and said excitedly, “Look who it is!”
Darren Burns stood at the top running his fingers through his sweaty blond hair. He was playing a game of chase with his best friends.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go to the top today since your shoes are so slick,” Maggie advised.
“I’ll be fine”, I said. Plus, I thought hopefully to myself, maybe Darren will talk to me or at least glance my way.
We began making the long journey up the treacherous asphalt hill. I looked Darren’s way and we locked eyes. I gave an awkward wave and a smile trying to look nonchalant. Then to my surprise, I felt both of my feet slide fast back behind me and I fell forward. BAM! I landed on the hard concrete flat on my face.
Stunned I sat up and heard Maggie’s anxious voice, “Tonya, are you okay? You fell reall…..” her voice trailed off and she clapped her hand over her mouth. The other girls with us let out screams. Maggie shook off her shock and yelled, “Mrs. Swader! Help! Tonya’s hurt really bad!”
I could see all the kids running to circle around me and I could feel the heat on my cheeks as I turned red. “Get back and give her some room!” Maggie said in her most bossy voice. “Can you stand up?” she asked me. I nodded yes and tried to talk, but realized my mouth was full of something warm. I looked down to see that my beloved shirt was now stained crimson. My mouth and my chin stun and I could feel the water building up in my eyes. I tried to choke back the tears, but they wiggled out and ran slowly down my cheeks. Mrs. Swader came running with a towel and had me place it carefully over my mouth and chin. Maggie put my arm around her shoulder and helped me off the ground. On the other side of me, Mrs. Swader put her arm around my waist on and the three of us straddled across the lot towards the school with the whole playground staring at my wrecked face.
I sat sulking in the office with ice on my chin waiting for my mom to come pick me up. The nurse had pulled a piece of my front tooth out of my lower lip and I needed stitches in my chin. Mrs. Swader let Maggie stay with me because I was so upset. I looked down at my scuffed up new shoes and wished I had listened to my mom’s advice that morning.
I smiled at Maggie even though it hurt and gave her hand a squeeze. Maggie was a good friend. She didn’t seem to care that I wore hand-me-down clothes or that my mom made my dresses from free cloth she got from her job at the fabric store. She didn’t care that I got free lunch because I my family qualified for the free lunch plan. She didn’t care that I couldn’t take ballet lessons with her even though I begged and begged. My mom was already working two jobs just to pay our bills.
I realized that I didn’t need new shoes for Maggie to be my friend. She just liked me. From that day on, I took my mom’s advice and always wore sensible shoes when I needed to.
Last week in my post I mentioned that as teachers of writing we need to model techniques in front of our students to show how we return again and again to our writing to make our small moments bigger by zooming in on the details. This week I’ve created a 1st draft of a lesson based on Dorfman & Cappelli’s Your Turn Lesson for showing, not telling (pp.104-105, 2017). This strategy helps students to “explode a moment” by brainstorming actions and cues to use in their writing that they can use to reveal emotions by showing and not telling. I’d appreciate any feedback/suggestions of my lesson plan in the comment section below.
Building Content Through Showing Not Telling
Hook: Find a mentor text students are familiar with that shows characters’ emotions instead of telling them. A good example for this would be Happy Like Soccer by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Lauren Castillo. Read aloud page 21 where Sierra calls Coach Marco to tell him her idea. Ask students what this part tells us about how Sierra is feeling. Ask students to listen as you reread again and for them to jot down evidence or words Boelts uses to show how Sierra feels during this phone call. Have students share out the evidence they’ve collected and create a chart on wall of the words that show her feelings such as, “My heart is thumping the way it does when my teacher calls on me even though I haven’t raised my hand.”
Purpose: Boelts shows us through careful word choice instead of telling us how Sierra feels when she goes to call Coach Marco. If she just told us how Sierra felt, would it have been as effective?
Let’s pretend Boelts wrote a version where she does just tell us how Sierra is feeling. Listen and we will discuss if you think it is just as effective. (rewrite a portion of the mentor text you are using to tell instead of show):
I am nervous. I dial Coach Marco’s phone number and hang up because I am afraid he won’t like my idea.
What makes this less interesting? Good authors can easily reveal emotions through showing not telling just like Boelts did and it makes for a much more interesting read for the audience. Today we are going to practice how to show and not tell in our own writing.
Brainstorm: Have students brainstorm a list of emotions they could show and not tell in their writing. Some ideas could be surprised, happy, homesick, lonely, guilty, afraid, angry, disappointed, anxious, frustrated, jealous, excited, embarrassed, insecure, and bored. Have students turn and talk to their partner about different nonverbal cues or actions that could show these emotions in writing. Ask the to open their writers notebooks and write Showing Not Telling at the top of the page. Encourage them to jot a list down of cues/ actions along with the emotion it conveys. Come back together after a few minutes and share the cues/actions students came up with in their groups. Encourage students to add anything they like to their individual notebooks that their peers have shared. Explain they can come back and refer to this list when trying to think of cues/actions that show a certain emotion when they are engaged in independent writing.
Model: Ask students to think about other words that Boelts could have used to show nervousness when she goes to call Coach Marco in Happy Like Soccer. Some examples they might come up with could be sweaty palms, sickening feeling in her stomach, lump in her throat, and weak voice as she tries to talk.Choose an emotion to model how to show not tell and model how to write a scene around it. Ask students to come to the board and underline words or phrases that show the emotion you’ve chosen. Here is an example I would use to model from my own writers notebook of a time I felt insecure:.
I can feel the heat rising from my neck to my cheeks. Just two more kids,and then I’d be in the hot seat. I pray to myself that I will get an easy word. What if my voice cracks when I try to spell? What if I can’t remember any of the letters? Even worse, what if I throw up in front of my classmates? I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who barfed during my 4th grade spelling bee.
Mrs. Thorton barks, “Tonya, did you hear me? It’s your turn.”
Jolted from my disastrous daydream, I step forward with shaky knees and mutter, “Ugh…sorry…could you repeat the word”. My classmates try to stifle there giggles, but they cut through me like a knife. I can tell by the heat radiating from my cheeks that my face now matches the crimson red of my dress.
Mrs. Thorton shakes her head disapprovingly and calls out “Pioneer. He was the first pioneer to claim land beyond the Mississippi River. Pioneer.”
My mouth feels like it is full of cotton balls and my heart is racing. I take a deep breath and sputter out p-i-o-n-e-e-r as fast as I can. I have a sinking feeling in my stomach as soon as I’m through. What did I even say?
Shared/Guided Writing: Have students get with their writing partners and hand out chart paper. Ask each pair to choose an emotion off the list we’ve charted and to jot a quick list of actions or cues someone with that emotion may evoke. Take a moment to share the emotion they chose and the cues or actions students come up with. Next ask student pairs to create a scene centered around the emotion their group chose that is staged somewhere familiar to them. I would suggest using the school (such as the cafeteria, the principal’s office, during gym class, ect) or somewhere in the community that they are all familiar with. Make sure to circle the room and help student groups who may be struggling by prompting them to use some of the cues or actions they listed for their emotion before writing. Come back together and allow student pairs to share what they have written.
Independent Writing: Invite students to return to a piece of writing they have written previously and to add details that help to reveal the emotions by showing and not telling. Students may also decide to write a new piece to try out the strategy of showing and not telling. Take a pause in the middle of independent writing time to share some extraordinary examples of student writing with the whole class. You can even add student examples of showing not telling to the previously made class chart. Encourage students to keep adding to their own list of showing not telling in their writer’s notebooks as they read mentor texts and each other’s stories. Remind them that we learn how to write better from each other!
Reflection: Continue to encourage students to study mentor texts to see how writers show emotion by including details that help the reader to make inferences. Ask students to reflect on how using this strategy helps to improve their own writing.
How does this strategy help make your writing better?
What are some examples of words that you can use to show an emotion?
When should you use this strategy and do we sometimes need to just tell the emotion?
References:
Boelts, M. & Castillo, (2012). Happy Like Soccer. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, K-6 (pp. 104-105). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
This week I accepted a challenge to create a six word memoir that connected to where I am in life. I’m currently a full time graduate student and the mother of a three year old and three month old. I feel like I’m constantly juggling spending time playing with my kids while also trying to thoughtfully complete my school assignments and research. I LOVE my kids and I LOVE school so it can be hard for me to figure out how to divide this time. For example, as I am writing this post my son is tying my legs up with a slinky telling me that I am in jail for being a bad guy.
My amazing kiddos
The past couple of weeks have been a bit tough because both my wonderful helpers (my mom and mother-in-law) have been sick, which means I’ve really had my hands full. This weekend I found myself dressed up in a mask while trying to write bits of an assignment (when my son would let me) and I took a snapshot of us without the intention of using it for this post. However, I think this six word memoir really sums up my life RIGHT NOW and I wouldn’t trade places with anyone.
I encourage you all to try this out with the students in your classroom! I had so much fun with this that I made a list of six word memoirs in my writer’s notebook that I could potentially use some as examples to show my students in the future. I definitely think this would be an encouraging way to get my more reluctant writers to feel safe about writing and to enjoy doing it. Saunders and Smith (2014) note that it is a great way to get students to share their writing at the beginning of the school year and to help set a precedent in your classroom that you are a community of writers who share. They also add that students can return to these six word memoirs to write longer pieces or to see how their writing progresses as the year grows. Sixwordmemoirs.com even has a page dedicated just for teens and resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. What it your six word memoir? Feel free to share in the comments below!
“Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.”—John Edgar Wideman
This week I want to talk about how essential it is for teachers of writing to help students find writing topics that move them toward discovering the things that are most important to them. Today, I’m focusing on narrative writing because I have been planning lessons to use in my own classroom to get students to write a narrative story. Narrative writing is a good starting point in the classroom because it gives a safe segway into writing. Narrative writing helps build relationships with students, helps students makes connections to what they are reading, and teaches foundation skills in writing for other genres (Gallagher, K. et al., 2018) If your students are anything like my students they LOVE telling stories about things that happen to them. Now you just need to invite them to do it in writing.
When we have a goal of getting our students to study narrative writing and to compose a narrative piece, it is first important to help them collect LOTS of ideas that they could write about. If I took a poll on my blog of how many of you have ever had writer’s block, I’d guess that most of you would answer yes. Many of our students find themselves completely overwhelmed when given a writing assignment and then told to run with it. I’ve co-taught in English classes and and have been guilty of this as a teacher. You gave them a prompt! How come they can’t think of anything to write about? (Does this sound familiar?) There are many possible answers to this question. Maybe they don’t have experiences related to the prompt, maybe they don’t care about the topic, maybe the response they have is too personal and they don’t feel safe writing it down. WE NEED TO ABANDON THE PROMPTS! As writing teachers, we need to have tools in our toolbox that we can use to help our students collect lots of ideas that are close to their hearts. Students need to learn how to generate ideas instead of always being told what to write about. Our writers need to have a place, such as the writer’s notebook, where they can go back to find a topic that they may have revisited often or written in detail about. Think of their notebooks as their “treasure chest” full of ideas that they can continue to return to and expand upon.
When we give students the tools in how to collect topics for their narratives and choice in what to write they begin to take ownership of their writing. The ideas they put in their notebooks begin to grow into first drafts and then published pieces that they can share in celebration with their peers. Below I’ve listed ways that you can help your writers begin filling up their notebooks with potential story seeds that could grow into their personal narrative:
Example of a heart map
Heart maps are a great tool for getting students to put down those things that are close to their hearts. This can be used in a broad sense or more focused. For example, in the picture above I focused on a place that was close to my heart and listed the things I could remember about it. Here is a free template and directions by Georgia Heard (1999) of how you can implement it in your classroom.
Invite students to make a list. List 100 things they love…or 100 things they hate. They can return to this when they need a topic.
Hand maps are a great prewriting technique to help students think about memories that evoke different emotions. Check out my example in the posted photograph below.
Personal photographs can be a great way to get students to think about a small moment connected to what is happening in the photo or to an object/place/person that is in the photo. I’ve attached a first draft of a lesson plan I wrote this week that uses a mentor text by Lois Lowry and a photo to come up with a topic for a small moment story. I’ll also post pictures below of the stages of my drafts of the small moment story that came from this process.
Use LOTS of mentor texts in your classroom to study how author’s come up with writing topics. There are some great mentor texts available that can plant seeds for potential narrative stories. Books about animals/people, places, photos, memoirs, and objects are good places to start. The National Council of Teachers of English have a great list here of possible options.
Make sure to model to your students where your writing topics come from. Show them your notebook! Fill your notebook with quotes, mementos, pictures, receipts, ticket stubs, and sketches. Model how you can go back and look at these to come up with ideas for small moment stories. Share your stories and invite students to share their stories! You will get to know your students better and will be building strong relationships by letting them see you value what they have to say. They and you will learn and grow from each other.
Example of a hand map
We also need our students to understand that is okay to abandon an idea and come back to it later or never again. If I took another poll, I’m sure most of you would admit to doing this as well. This will help our writers feel more comfortable taking risks. It shows that writing is a continuous process where you can return to a piece again and again to help develop a richer story.
Once your students have a topic, continue to encourage your students to borrow from others. Study mentor texts with your students and help them brainstorm how to use the literary elements they learn from authors in their own written narratives. In chapter 4 of their book Mentor Texts, Dorfman and Cappelli (2017) talk about how writers need to use a magnifying glass to enlarge a small moment by pulling out all the important details. Study examples of mentor texts with your students that show how good authors use dialogue, appeal to the senses, use descriptive details and anecdotes, and the word choice to show the passing of time. As teachers of writing we need to practice these techniques in front of our students to show how we return again and again to our writing to make our small moments bigger by zooming in on the details. I’ve included below the stages of a draft of a small moment story that came from my lesson on using photos to find topics I’ve included above.
Started by studying a photo
Focused on senses and outlined my story
First draft-I wrote quickly to get it all down
Beginning of next draft: “Can we pleaaaase go outside?”, I begged my older sister and brother. It was Christmas day, 1985, and I was dying to take my new Cabbage Patch Doll Big Wheel out for a ride.
With some convincing on my mom’s part, my siblings agreed reluctantly to take me outside. “Let’s use the Short’s driveway since it’s paved”, my brother suggested. I looked up at the steep driveway eager to show my big brother and sister how grown up I was on my new cool ride! I strapped my brown yarn pig tailed doll, Darla Sue, into her seat on the back of the plastic mint green, and pink low rider and hopped on. I felt so cool.
I decided to try to zoom in on just one portion of my draft this week to use dialogue to introduce my story. I’ll continue to post updates as I go through this process. How will or do you help the writers in your classroom find topics they care about? Please share in the comments below!
References:
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor texts: Teaching writing through children’s literature, K-6(2nd ed.). Portlan, ME: Stenhouse.
This week as I continued reading TextbookAmy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Rosenthal, (2016) and Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (2014), I set an intention of looking for pieces of their writing I could use in my own classroom as a mentor texts for my students. During my reading, I came across some ideas and have a couple of them I’d like to share. Rosenthal talks about different memories that make her think of why small is her defining word (pp. 106-109). I love the idea of using this text in my classroom. I immediately wrote up an entry in my notebook of the defining word I would use for myself: sensitive. I thought about how I could read what the definition of sensitive is to my students and then make a list of memories that make me feel that this is my defining word. In the end, I would choose a memory to expand on. I would break this idea up over a couple of days in my classroom. I’d first make the list and then invite students to make their own defining word list in their notebooks. The next day I’d go back to the list and pick a memory where from the list to write a first draft. In my notebook I chose from my initial list to write about the time when my sister wrecked her Big Wheel and got hurt. I cried uncontrollably and she didn’t even shed a tear even though she was the one covered in blood. I would explain to students that it is a small moment that I can focus in on and it all came from the word sensitive.
The other idea I want to share this week came from Brown Girl Dreaming (Woodson, J. , 2014). In How I Learn the Days of the Week (p.119), Woodson describes her rituals that she does each day of the week. I think many students could probably relate to this. I like the idea of using this for my students who might really struggle with coming up with ideas of what to write about to show that everyday occurrences are perfectly good topics. I could use this to invite them to write about what their weekly rituals are or it might even help them to focus on a more specific event. For example, I wrote about in my notebook how I look forward to lazy Sunday mornings because we have a weekly Sunday ritual of making waffles, sitting down at the table together, and enjoying the fact we don’t have to rush out the door.
When thinking about teaching writing, an area in which I’ve really struggled to help my students is moving from a “writing territory” to a specific topic (Dorfman, L.R. & Cappelli, R., 2017). I believe this is because I can struggle with this myself as a writer. I share this with students as I write because I want them to know that we get better the more we put ourselves in those uncomfortable places. Dorfman and Cappelli offer a genius graphic organizer in their text to help in this area. It is an inverted triangle to help writers go from a big idea to a small moment related to the bigger concept (pp. 54-56). They even offer a lesson plan with suggestions of specific mentor texts to use (pp.65-67) when teaching how to use this graphic organizer. I like the idea of using Donald Crews Shortcut (1992) as a mentor text for this mini lesson. In the author’s note it explains that the story is a true tale of an event that happened to Donald when visiting his grandparent’s in the summer. For the inverted triangle, I would create a chart in front of my students that would start with summer fun at the top of the triangle, then move down to summers in Cottondale, then to visiting grandparent’s farm, and finally the time we took a shortcut to get home on the train tracks and almost got ran over by the train. I’d follow with more examples and then invite students to look at topics they hold close to their heart (maybe from a heart map they made previously) to find a more specific topic. Dorman and Cappelli talk about creating laminating chart paper where students can write with a transparency pen (p. 65). I love this idea and would create several for my classroom to use and would encourage them to share their ideas with their peers. Once students are able to hone in on a specific topic I would invite them to create a first draft of that topic in their notebooks.
K. Gallaghar and P. Kittle (2018) also offer some great tips in how to get adolescents writing in the classroom. First they talk about the power of narrative. Narrative helps teachers build relationships with students, helps students to make connections to what they are reading, and teaches foundation skills in writing for other genres. Sadly, I have not seen a lot of narrative writing encouraged in high school classrooms. In my experience, students love to tell stories. I remember teaching a lesson as a beginner teacher in my Occupational Prep class about how to cope with frustration when we are at school, at a job, or dealing with a peer/co-worker. I was being observed by the assistant principal. During my lesson, I invited students to write in their journals about experiences where they either faced frustration or overcame frustration. The kids were so engaged and had so many stories to share of how they either coped or learned from these moments. We had built a classroom community where writers felt safe to share their personal stories and they learned from telling and hearing these experiences. I was so excited to have a visitor in my classroom to see how brave these students were in sharing very personal memories that meant something to them and me. I remember during my post observation conference, the Assistant Principal said he wished the students hadn’t shared so much after our writing time. I was crushed by this comment and told him I completely disagreed. I explained their stories helped me know them better, helped our class form relationships, and showed me where they were with their learning. He admitted he had not thought of it this way. Writing narratives in your classroom can be a powerful tool.
In their article, Gallagher and Kittle (2018) give some great tips on how to implement narrative writing throughout the school year. An idea I want to highlight from their article that I think would go over well with my more reluctant writers is Digital Storytelling. Letting students use music, photos, video, and voice over narration to tell a story seems like a great way to get my reluctant writers engaged. I have lots of students who struggle to put their words down on paper and I often suggest they record their thoughts as they tell a story. I think this idea would be amazing for some of those students and can’t wait to see what they do in my classroom!
This week I read an excellent post from Tara Smith at the Two Writing Teachers blog I mentioned last week. Smith talks about building bravery in the writers in your classroom. To do so, teachers need to show that they take risks just like they are asking their students to do. We need to write when students are writing. We need to model when even we are uncomfortable in a writing piece and share ideas that can be hard to talk about. I will note that this doesn’t mean that we don’t think about what we are going to model beforehand. I always plan and practice before writing in front of my students to help ensure that my lesson isn’t sloppy. However, I talk about areas where I find myself struggling, such as, choosing a better word to describe how I felt during an embarrassing moment. We need to show that we are learning alongside our students. By doing so, we create a classroom culture where students have the courage to take risks in their writing, share their ideas, give feedback to their peers, borrow ideas from authors they are reading, and learn from all the risk-taking that is happening during writers workshop. In her post, Smith talks about how her classroom is a noisy place where she allows time for students to share, discuss, and debate on what they are reading and writing. However, when it is time to read and write the students know it is a time for “reverence” and they become respectively quiet. I love this use of the word reverence to describe writing and reading time for our students because it should be! This made me think of one of my favorite classrooms I visited of a colleague of mine. She described her students as reluctant readers and writers. However, when I visited their classroom during their reading and writing time, students were completely engrossed in what they were doing. It was quiet and respectful. They were spread out in their special reading and writing spaces. She had created a space where students felt respected and it showed when they shared their pieces each Friday during Author’s Chair. This made me reflect on how I might invite my students into the writing workshop. I like the idea of asking them to be uncomfortable in their writing with me. I think this would peak their attention. I like the idea of reading Elizabeth Ellington’s words from her blog that Smith posted on Two Writing Teachers: “… if we aren’t risking failure, we aren’t learning. I can’t get better by doing the thing I already know how to do. At least not if that’s the only thing I do. And so when I’m uncomfortable, I know I’m growing, learning, discovering, developing.” I want to ask my students to risk failure with me and together we can grow, learn, discover, and develop into better readers and writers!
References:
Crews, D. (1992). Shortcut. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6(2nd ed.). Portlan, ME: Stenhouse.
This week I have explored readings and ideas that have encouraged me to write in my writer’s notebook and have given me inspiration in how I can invite my own students to begin their writing adventures. I’ve been reading like a writer. I’ve continued to read the intriguing book Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Rosenthal (2015). Her sense of humor, sarcasm, and beautiful way of capturing simple moments in writing have continued to inspire me in my writing by sparking memories of small moments in my own life that make me smile. As I’m reading, I keep sticky notes where I can quickly jot down ideas that come to mind for my own writing. This week I “borrowed” an idea from her where she made a table of person-food associations. This table represented food that thoughtful family members linked to other family members who had once shared a “fondness” for the treat. This cracked me up! It reminded me that my mom made me red velvet cake for years for my birthday thinking it was my favorite type of cake. I have no idea why she thought that, but plain ole’ chocolate cake has always and will always be my favorite. I’ll never tell my mom that. For some reason this lead me to think about “misquotes” that family members, close friends, and I have said over time. I decided to “steal” Amy’s format of a table and created a table in my writer’s notebook to keep tabs of these “misquotes”. These “misquotes” are song lyrics or common phrases/sayings. I’m not sure what I want to do with these yet. I’m thinking a short story where I include the table similar to what Amy does. This is what I want to be able to show my students. That it is okay to see what good author’s do and borrow it. I’m reading like a writer!
Another invite I decided to try out this week that I could use with my students is exploring my name and where it came from. An excellent mentor text to use in introducing this is Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is an exquisite and beautiful collection of freestyle poetry where Jacqueline tells her story of growing up in Ohio during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement and having to move back to her mother’s home in South Carolina when her parent’s split up. Reading her description of how her dad wanted to name her Jack brought a smile to my lips. I knew my dad was the one who came up with the idea for my name, but I had never dug into the story deeply. I’ve had a sporadic relationship with my dad throughout my lifetime because he struggles with addiction issues. However, I do remember how close we were when I was little and my mom always said I was his shadow when he was around. I decided to call my mom to “interview” her about how her and my dad decided on my name. As I questioned my mom on the phone, I took notes in my writer’s notebook. I’ve always joked that my parents wanted me to be a country singer because they named me Tonya Rhea Moore. It just has the ring of a famous country singer. When I hear someone say my full name it makes me feel like I should tease my hair, put on some sparkly boots, and a poofy dress with fancy embroidery or tassels and start singing about heartbreak. Well it turns out that my dad got really into country music when my mom and him moved from California to Tennessee in the mid 70’s. He took a serious liking to Tanya Tucker and decided that if he had another daughter he wanted to name her Tonya. My mom said they didn’t decide for certain on any of the names of my siblings or me until they took a look at us. She said dad took one look at me and said that I was definitely a Tonya. So, I’m named after the original bad girl of Country! For some reason, I really thought I wouldn’t get much to write about from my name. I could not believe how many goodies I got from this idea. Not to mention, it allowed me to have an awesome, happy conversation with my mom that involved positive memories of my dad. This made me think of how inviting students to explore their names could potentially spark some fun conversations for my students and their families.
Another strategy that I have used in my own classroom is creating a heart map. Heard (2016) gives some excellent ideas and inspiration of how to use heart maps to support writing in all types of genres. One ideas she mentions is using a heart map to focus in on a small moment. I did this in a class when we were working on writing a personal narrative. I had a student who wanted to write about a visit she had to Carowinds with her sister. The heart map was a perfect tool to help her hone in on the little moments that occurred in that busy day. She ended up with an excellent final product that told of her adventure riding a roller coaster for the first time with a complete stranger. Heard’s also gives a suggestion a heart map that focuses on a favorite pet or favorite animal. I love the suggestion that students could use this to support nonfiction writing. I have one student, a reluctant writer, who could adapt this idea to write about his favorite airplane, train, vehicle, … whatever he chooses. I think this would be a great motivator because he LOVES sharing facts about different planes and vehicles. The heart map I created this week focused on one of my favorite places. It inspired me to sketch a picture and I wrote a quick write of a funny memory that I’m hoping to turn into a longer story.
This next writing exercise I explored this week came from the blog Two Writing Teachers. This blog is an amazing resource for implementing Writers Workshop in the classroom. The link takes you to their ideas for a lesson where students learn to walk like a writer and it includes a list of suggested mentor texts. After reading the blog post, I set out for an early, cool morning walk with my pup. I took my phone along and used the voice memo app to record my thoughts as I payed attention to my surroundings. As I walked, I thought of the book that Two Writing Teachers suggest be used as a mentor text, Ask Me by Bernard Waber and Suzy Lee. In the book, a young girl and her father go on a walk together. The conversation in the book reminded me of conversations with my three year old. As I walked I thought about the things my toddler would notice and ask me as he walked. His natural curiosity always makes me stop, slow down, and think about the why of something. Thinking this way helped me notice more. It was an absolutely beautiful morning where frost was covering the grass and trees. I’ve jotted the notes I have from my voice memo on my phone into my notebook and am playing around with making it into a poem full of sensory details.
Dorfman and Cappelli (2017) talk about how students need a place to store ideas they get from pictures, readings, quotations, mementos, memories, and experiences. They talk about the need for writers to have a place, such as the writer’s notebook, where they can go back to find a topic that they may have revisited often or written in detail about. This week I feel that I’ve done just that. I’ve begun to fill my “treasure chest” full of ideas. I’ve planted lots of seeds and can’t wait to see how they will grow. I’m learning how to be a teacher who writes and to better support and invite my students into the wonderful world of writing. I can’t wait to get back in the classroom!
References:
Dorfman, L. R., & Cappelli, R. (2017). Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6(2nd ed.). Portlan, ME: Stenhouse.
Heard, G. (2016). Heart maps: Helping students create and craft authentic writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Rosenthal, A. K. (2016). Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Not exactly a memoir. NY, NY: Dutton.
Woodson, J. (2014). Brown girl dreaming. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
This will be my professional blog for for some of my Reading Education courses and beyond. Looking at children's literature as both a reader and writer (and a future teacher of reading and writing) through a critical lens. Sharing works of my own as I grow as a writer. And resources for reading and writing instruction. Everyone is welcome here.
Tonya's Trunk of Tremendous Books 