Poetry Writing Made Accessible 3/25/2021
- Sarah Scrattish
- Mar 25, 2021
- 5 min read
After reflecting upon my endearment for poetry from my last post, I have come to the conclusion that I want to cultivate a classroom environment that extends the title to each of my young learners as poets. I want each student in my classroom to see themselves as and believe themselves to be a poet -- someone who can write great works, an individual who is capable of piecing and stringing together words to tell profound stories.
In order to create this space in the classroom I must first introduce my students to authors of poetry and collections of poetry or anthologies that reflect my preaching. These authors must be from older days, newer days, authors of color and authors of diverse backgrounds in the sense of culture, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, etc. If students are to have access to all styles of poetry, they must be introduced to the old and the new poets -- they must be given a chance to hear old poetry with complex wording while also reading and comprehending new, more current poetry.
Students must also be introduced to the "tools" they need for writing poetry. They must have access to the techniques and vocabulary terms if they are to expand and grow as a poet. I also would like to note that Georgia Heard provides such rich and vast techniques in a mass variety that I will only be discussing a few of her tips that really resonated with me!
Poetry Toolbox
The first step in ensuring poetry writing is accessible to my students is making sure they understand the tools that are available to them in their Poetry Toolbox. In the text Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard, chapters 3-5 provide me as an educator with this wonderful image of the tools for writing and understanding poetry. These tools include image, rhyme pattern, line-breaks, and more! Giving students a basic overview of each of these tools before they begin writing a new work of poetry can aid them in their form and style of writing. I would surely not present to students the information on every tool at once or in one day, but over time, teaching students a new tool every week or so to practice with -- keeping pace with what students are picking up on and practicing with well and where they might need a little extra support. **Image is found on page 65 of the text.
Students will be inclined to write poetry that is crafted and centered around metaphors and similes. They will build their craft as this young student has done on page 80 in chapter 4 of Heard's text.
Six-Room Image-Poem
One of the ways for students to begin interacting with poetry writing is by practicing with the Six-Room Image-Poem exercise that Heard mentions on page 65 in her text. This exercise teaches students how to describe the different things they see, feel, hear, experience, etc. After students have divided their paper in their notebook into 6 different boxes, they are invited to imagine a photo in their mind -- from a place or in the moment somewhere from their memories. They are asked to fixate on this moment that captivated them from the start. Then they begin to describe literal aspects of the place/object/person that they are looking upon. The students move into describing the quality of light in the place and the sounds they hear. Students move into a place of questioning and wonder about the image that they have drawn up from memory and then describe their feelings in that place or at that time. Finally, students take some time to scan over all of their words and phrases that are written on their page and they pick one. They write this word or phrase 3 times for repetition -- showing emphasis.
Here is my example:
Heard explains to us that we can expand this exercise or simplify it or shorten the activity depending on the age-range or grade level that we are working with. Here are some of her suggestions for expanding upon this lesson with older students and here is a short blurb about the purpose of this exercise (pg. 70):
Line-Breaks
A skill that I would like my students to have access to is working on reading poetry through line-breaks; with rhythm and with emphasis on specific parts of the poem or phrases/words. Teaching my students about line breaks will allow them to see and create poetry through a lens of meaning and music. They will find the flow that works for them and be better equipped to analyze the meaning in the poems of others. I feel this skill is important because it will build with emergent readers' fluency skills as well as older students' comprehension skills. I think this will also benefit students in their abilities to read works aloud, project their voice, and create inflection in how they read and speak. This exercise shows students that emphasis on specific words has meaning and it is imperative with how you read, speak, and understand words.
Heard discusses line-breaks beginning on page 84 but she teaches us some exercises and practices for learning about line-breaks on page 85. For the first exercise, she provides a sentence for students to create their own breaks or pauses in when reading:
"She loved the sound of the wind in the trees."
Students will practice with this, breaking the sentence into three major pauses or sections in order to create meaning in different areas of the sentence.
In exercise 2 she provides a poem that includes punctuation. Students practice creating breaks and pauses again, at least three times.
"Crickets talk in the tall grass all late summer long. When summer is gone, the dry grass whispers alone."
Here are my sample breaks for both exercises 1 & 2:
Observational Drawing
The final excerpt from Heard's few chapters this week that I want to discuss is the Observational Drawing in chapter 5. This was an enlightening task and brought me back to a STEAM course I had taken a couple of years ago. This exercise calls students into a present state of being -- honing in on every detail of an object in order to sketch it onto their paper. This exercise kept me focused on noticing all the tiny details of a familiar object on my nightstand! This activity will be great for practicing with younger students as well as older students! Heard encourages students to bring in their favorite object from nature -- already building excitement for younger students. Students will place the item on their desk and begin to sketch it taking note of all of their observations. Once the sketches are finished and the observations have been made, students will form a poem based on this activity.
Here is my example:
I want to include in this section what Heard makes known about the reasoning behind and importance of having students draw in order o enhance their poetry writing skills.
(page 95)
(page 97)
All students have access to drawing and sketching. They may not feel confident in their abilities at first, but they most certainly have the tools needed in order observe something and put on paper what they notice!! This activity will grow young learners as artists as well as poets and this is the reason I love to teach. Artists can do many things and everyone is capable of some form of creativity and art!!
Check out my Instagram for a fun post I made with creating a poem based off of William Carlos William's poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" found in the book I mentioned last week, Firefly July.
To conclude this post I wanted to leave you with a little poem I had pop into my head the morning of my 3 year dating anniversary just yesterday 3/24/21.
{ I hope it leaves you well... }
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