This week we focused on creating observational poetry. In the book, Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard, she encourages students to go outside into nature. Being outside and exploring the world around us sometimes is the best inspiration for writing. Especially if you are stuck on what to write, nature inspires! Heard goes on to discuss the important toolboxes and features that poets use to help in crafting poetry. She starts off by mentioning the two toolboxes of poetry, the Meaning toolbox and the Music toolbox (Heard, 1999, pg. 64). The Meaning toolbox uses visual and sensory tools like image, metaphor, simile, personification, line breaks, titles, observations, and beginnings/endings to express feelings and experiences (Heard, 1999, pg. 65). The Music toolbox consists of "auditory, musical, and rhythmic tools" such as rhyme, repetition, alliteration, line breaks, onomatopoeia, assonance, and consonance to express feelings and experiences (Heard, 1999, pg. 65). Using these toolboxes and the tools discussed in each, helps to pull readers in and create a poetry experience.
Thriving
After Valerie Worth
First
A small seed,
Then the sprout,
A small white bell appears,
To hang, a moment,
Upside down, before
It stretches to face the sun, it's keeper
Protected by a smooth plastic coat,
Breaking and billowing into bloom,
Spilling out an array of colors against the eye,
Spraying the satisfying scent of the famers market.
In Awakening the Heart, Heard discusses the importance of first sketching your image and then writing your poem. By sketching it first, it allows you to really see the details in your image, think about it from the perspective of your image, and really be in the moment (Heard, 1999, pg. 94).
I had so much fun writing this poem! I love being out in nature observing the world around because what better inspiration than that! To write this poem, I first went outside on a walk, just looking around at what caught my eye. The first thing I saw was this flower bush! What caught my eye about it was the upside down bell shaped blossoms as I had never seen a flower like that before. As I walked over to it and examined it more closely, bells, spring weather, and Beauty and the Beast's wilting rose flooded into my imagination. I knew this would be the perfect piece of nature to write my poem about!
I think observational poetry is a much easier way to start writing poems for any age. Having an object to write about gives someone a topic, details, inspiration, and a specific thing to guide their writing. With this, I can't wait to use observational poetry in the classroom with my future students. Having experienced writing my first observational poem, I think I will have students partake in the same steps as I did. Taking students outside on a nature walk, having them keep their eyes open for inspiration. To help guide students through the process of making an observational poem, I would first show them my poem I wrote, modeling and thinking aloud about my experience. Then, I would bring in an object for the whole class to see, such as a neat leaf or flower fossil, to allow the class to write a poem together. This way, all students would have experience with writing a poem with support, before taking students on a nature walk so they can write their own poem. I think by following these steps and using my own experience with writing an observational poem, I would set my students up to have a successful experience.
This week, I read the book, Forest Has a Song. I loved this book! It is such a good mentor text for writing poems about nature. As I was reading, it made me want to go out into the forest to explore! The poems in this book consist of a little girl talking to things in nature, as well as nature talking back to her. Some of the nature characters that the poems includes are a pinecone, chickadee, fossil, flowers blooming, frogs mating, spiders, dusk, an owls first flight, poison ivy, geese flying south for the winter, and a rotten log that is home to many critters in the forest (Vanderwater & Gourley, 2013). The poem Farewell, is an example of the two voice poems seen throughout the book, first showing the girl talking to the forest and then the forest talking back.
This is my favorite poem from the book! I love how the author details all the animal prints in the snow, describing it as the forest news. That is such a beautiful comparison!
Growing Poetry Sessions with the Anderson Reading Clinic at Appalachian State
Cheetah
I dreamed
I was a clever cheetah
Running in the grass
Protecting its babies
Intently.
I see a magic wand shop
I hear magic pictures talking
I smell pizza
I feel excited and happy
I touch super hot pizza
I think I love it there!
(Favorite Place: Great Wolf Lodge)
This past week the Anderson Reading Clinic, along with professors, guest speakers, Academy teachers & students, graduate students, and tons of students in Watauga County have come together to learn about poetry, comics, and engage in fun writing/making activities. These sessions have been so much fun to be apart of!! Seeing all the young students who are eager to get on and learn is so heartwarming! I have been able to observe and participate in the sessions, as well as work with a Kindergarten student on the activities. The two poems above are poems written by the student I worked with! Getting the chance to take what my professors are teaching and apply it to a real-life student has been such a wonderful learning experience. I have loved getting to see the imagination and possibilities my student comes up with, getting to experience it with them. Not only have I been able to apply what I am learning to a student, but my professors are right there supporting us and the students along the way. By getting to see my professors model lessons, guide students through an activity, and then give fun challenges at the end has showed me what an effective lesson looks like. Even over zoom! You can make writing fun for students just by being excited to teach it, show yourself as a writer, and give students a glimpse into your life through your topics and stories. Overall, these sessions have really showed me how to make a lesson flow, hooking students with books, videos, and stories, making them eager and excited to go on a poetry journey with you. The poems and creativity students come up with in the end is so amazing to see!
Useful links:
Getting started with poetry: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xAdFmTA3ojopRdT0IaVRZjZm5Px0HuwmDLubYNDcWBg/edit
Guiding questions for poetry: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RoYi6lp3hspunCKith2SIfFIOBNX9qp6qHypVvUudu0/edit
Micha Archer reads Daniel Finds a Poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZC80z2geqk&feature=emb_logo
Anderson Reading Clinic Blog: https://andersonreadingclinic.org
NCTE celebrates poetry: https://asulearn.appstate.edu/pluginfile.php/627344/mod_page/content/20/ncte_verse_pdf.pdf
After Forest Has a Song: https://padlet.com/bethfrye/classroomchorus
Mary Oliver reads "Night and River": https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL668E92F8EA6CF22E&v=uyQGP1w3YXw&feature=emb_title
Sources:
Heard, G. (1999) Awakening the heart. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Vanderwater, A. L. & Gourley, R. (2013) Forest has a song. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
Worth, V. & Babbitt, N. (1994) All the small poems and fourteen more. New York, NY: Square Fish.