Telling students neat fact after neat fact gets boring and you lose the interest of those who just want to know what is going to be on the test. However, if you relate it back to home, a local controversy, students are more likely to pay real attention and retain the information they are learning.
"In poetry, we think small." ~Sara Holbrook
Rather than asking the children to write a poem about an entire event, encourage the students to focus on one aspect of it. This makes complete sense. How can you write one poem about a large event such as the Civil War or the Holocaust? Not only is it overwhelming to attempt to summarize an entire complicated event into prose, but, I feel, the poet becomes detached from the event. In order to describe something so complicated, one must discard all the descriptors. Instead, ask the students to write about a certain aspect that really affected them. Something that had an impact. Write a poem about a picture of a fallen soldier, the pile of shoes from the Holocaust, or the caves used as shelter during WWII.
From Personal Historical Narrative to Poem
This is such a great idea! Using the Fortunately/Unfortunately method of writing, students write about an event. This morning/Last summer/At the park/etc...
Here is my Fortunately/Unfortunately narrative.
Kenny and I went to look for suits.
Fortunately, we found the Menswearhouse by his place.
Unfortunately, we didn't find the suit we wanted.
And so we ended up back at square one.
Using the underlined words, my poem is now:
Look for suits
Found
Didn't find
Back at square one
The Thing Is
I love this idea! It helps facilitate the students' creativeness while using a concrete object. Holbrook used a brush and wrote a poem called The Solitary Brush. She mentioned taking the children to a consignment shop or used store and have them pick out one object they like. Using that object, the students are to create a poem telling a fictional story of that object. Because taking students to a store is out of the question for most schools, the teacher can either bring in random items for the students to choose from, or the students can bring items from home. I know that writing was always difficult for myself. I hadn't learned how to be creative in my writing, I was only told to do so. Therefore, much of my writing reflected that of what the teacher had read to us as an example. This activity really helps encourage the creativity of the children and helps show them how.
It's Not Fair!
What a great way to introduce the concept of looking at things with a different perspective, persuasive writing, and interest in writing! Beginning the lesson, hand out index cards with a the words "It's not fair that..." and have the students complete the sentence. Take up the cards and post them around the room. She then had the students, in pairs, pick out a card/topic of choice and each take a stance, whether they agree or not. For instance, for "It's not fair that I have to ride the bus." Have each student take a stance for and against riding the bus. They each then write a poem about their stance.
Another reason why I love this activity, is that you can delve deeper into the topics by having the students better research their topics, write persuasive essays/poems, and possibly have mock debates for or against their topics. This is a great way to facilitate healthy discussions and introducing the concept of perspectives.
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