Parent/Teacher Resources
A GENERAL OUTLINE OF A POETRY LESSON WHICH WILL GENERATE FRESH STUDENT WRITING
*Note: Both Oatmeal Mittens and My Underwear’s Inside Out have several chapters of strategies for writing poetry of various types.
Once when preparing a gymnasium full of primary children to write their own poems, I read my own poem about wrestling (Home Wrestling Federation) and asked the children to tell some of their wrestling experiences. I asked a young fellow about his usual wrestling partners. He said they were his two black labs. I asked where they wrestled.
"In the living room," he answered.
"Did you ever break anything?"
"My mother’s favourite vase!"
"Did you get into any trouble about it?"
"I don’t know yet. I only did it this morning and I put the pieces under the rug. I have to get home fast after school and put it in the garbage before she gets home."
At this point, the whole crowd, teachers and students, were hanging on every word. There is enough freshness, enough humour, enough drama, enough possibility for reflection to satisfy new poets of any age.
This is just one example from the extensive and delightful variety. The following is the general outline of one of these sessions.
(a) Begin with reading a poem. Choose poems which remind you of childhood experiences. My poems, Michael Rosen’s and Judith Viorst’s lean toward the use of the evocative. First, it helps to try and figure out what the poem is really about so that you can use this general topic to relate to the children’s experiences. Use questions like "Did anything like that ever happen to you? Does this remind you of anything?" Draw from the students their anecdotes and other responses to the poem. Ask questions that draw out more details –– where it took place, who was there, what the result was, how the person or others felt.
(b) Read several more poems and discuss the same way. After a few poems I check to see that everyone has an anecdote in mind. One way is to ask them to hold up their hands when they have decided on an anecdote. Wait until every hand is up. You may have to encourage one or two by reminding them of anecdotes they told earlier, or reviewing the topics discussed and seeing which one strikes a spark. Other students may have an idea which story the student should tell.
(c) Have them decide on a method of concentrating attention e.g. covering eyes, looking at the floor, window or corner. Have them recreate in their minds the "mental videotape" of the anecdote. Have them rewind and then rerun the "tape" checking that they have chosen the best beginning place and the best ending place.
(d) On an overhead or chart paper, show them a poem such as "Shaking My Shadow" in which each line is a shot from the "mental videotape." Some lines are dialogue. Some lines identify the speakers. Some lines describe the action. Some are flashbacks. The length varies with according to many different requirements ––the rhythm of the breath, the speed of the action, the appearance on the page or what is required for that ‘shot’. Explain that the last lines of the poem often give the writer’s feelings, even if they are mixed, about the anecdote.
(e) Have the students write a first draft.
(f) As the students finish, pair them up to read their poems aloud to one another. Instruct them to listen for anything that they want to know more about or anything they don’t quite understand. By listening rather than reading, they must focus their whole attention on understanding the writer’s ideas.
(g) When most students have finished, stop everyone for a bit to model the process of listening to poems and looking for those points which need elaboration or clarification as mentioned above. No one can do this perfectly the first time or every time, even after years of experience. All anyone can do is try and learn by experience.
What can you do if a student’s poem is very generalized with very little of the person who wrote it?
Look at each stanza that has been written. Ask the student if there is something that really happened that prompted the writing –– a real person, a real incident. For example a student writing about the glories of friendship may have a real friend in mind. A student writing about the wonderful example set by Mother may be able to remember the resistance he or she put up to this wonderful example. Have the student write in a line of comment, in his or her own voice, between the generalized stanzas.