My life at the present moment is quite chaotic... so this week I found it fitting to read a book of poems all collected in their glory of purely expressing gratitude.
Traci Sorell really hit the nail on the head and really dug into my emotions with this one. I am a first generation college student. I am a first generation graduate student. I have received my Bachelor's degree with the highest honors of Summa Cum Laude. I am the first. And this is a big deal.
I am practicing staying in the present moment as to not get overwhelmed by my thoughts and stressors that are currently pressing on me. Things can feel pretty heavy right now with planning for marriage, home hunting, graduation prepping, and job searching. I know that these are all hard and heavy things to carry, but they will be worth it -- it will be over soon and these poetry exercises are helping me practice sitting in the moment.
This week I was reminded that poetry can make me emotional and joyous along with encouraging me to write my own words. So I made it priority to sit down and practice a couple different styles of poetry.
After reading Song from Forest Has a Song by Amy VanDerwater:
Under giant pines
I hear
a forest chorus
crisp and clear.
Winds whip.
Geese call.
Squirrels chase.
Trees creak.
Birds flap.
Deer run.
Twigs snap.
Silence in Forest
never lasts long.
Melody
is everywhere
mixing in
with piney air.
Forest has a song.
I created my own version describing the sounds that I hear from the office space in my parents' home as I am currently on spring break from the school that I work with.
I am learning deeply that by incorporating poetry into the classroom at such an early age, students will grow into learning beings who adore poetry and seek it out in their everyday life. They will hopefully take on the practice of noticing the sounds, the sights, the words in their surroundings that keep them in the practice of mindfulness through their writing. One of the poems that takes after VanDerwater's poem and keeps focus and practice with the senses and poetry is the "Creating a Question Poem with the Senses" Your Turn Lesson 5 from Mentor Texts (a text that I have referenced in previous blog postings by Lynne R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli).
This lesson was enticing to me as a teacher because it is something that even the youngest of learners could complete. The students focus on the 5 senses, pick an object or an activity that they know a lot about, can focus on for a while, or even a person they love. Students then take note of what they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel with the activity/object/person. The poem is then formed based on the notes that were taken. The poem that I created was not exactly like that of the poem created in the lesson but I put it into practice and started with some more basic level questions that came to my mind and I wanted to play around with. I had never written a poem in the form of questions before, but I liked that I was answering myself in the poem with the information I had already jotted down previously. A great enticing and emerging poetry activity for students!
Here is my sample activity and poem, focusing on hiking:
The last poetry style that I worked with during my "poetry playtime" was a style I hadn't written before: a poem for 2 voices. This is a style that intrigued me from the moment I heard a poem read aloud entitled Honeybees from the book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman. Listen to the read aloud version below!
This style of poetry was reiterated in that of the anthology or collection of poems in Thanku: Poems of Gratitude edited by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Marlena Myles. The poem I focused on in this book was "The Best Birthday Present: A Poem for Two Voices" by Gwendolyn Hooks.
In the back of Thanku the editor has included a mini definition for what exactly a Poem for Two Voices means for writers and readers.
I do not plan to include my own poem for two voices on my blog because it is a little more personal and representative of where my brain is currently in regards to how I am attempting to manage all of the stressors in my life. I may just share this poem when the time is right, but for now it will remain in my journal for me to know it is there -- as a means for stress relief and representation of what anxiety sort of looks like.
I am feeling thankful for the time I have spent on this blog, reflecting upon reading and writing strategies that I can incorporate into my classroom. I have the most amount of resources that I could wish for. I feel set up and prepared to teach with the mindset that all of my students are readers, they are writers, and most importantly, they are poets. I am thankful for all the books I have and know about as I go off into the realm of education: teaching and shaping, molding and growing little beings into who they can become. I hope to bestow upon my young students that a love for words can be shared, embraced, and sewn into the many wonderful careers as Amy Krouse Rosenthal has helped me to put into my own words...
"Bye.
I love you.
Thank you."
- From Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Comentarios