Especially to CPitS Poet Teachers

    Dear CPitS Poet Teachers: I love this idea but it will require some coordination. Here's the gist:

     For THE LESSON PLAN ANTHOLOGY: We will need to give the reader more best practices and background than is possible in the page-long lesson plan procedures. 

      Instead of an introduction by one or two poet-teachers, why not have paragraphs by many of us? 

      Topics to include: ~on what poetry is ~ on inspiration ~ on helping stragglers and superstars ~ on to rhyme or not to rhyme ~ on line breaks ~ on metaphor and simile and image ~ on music magic ~ on other poetry tools: onomatopoeia, hyperbole, alliteration ~ on juxtaposition ~ on five senses ~ on rhythm ~ on encouragement ~ on keeping going ~ on discussing poetry – what did you like? not what does it mean! ~ on ___fill in blank___

      What is your pet topic? Write a paragraph about it - not enough - but a start. May be part of a CRAZY quilt.

      

       To ensure variety, and avoid too much duplication, post your preference here, so others can see.

Forever Emily, June 23 2013

Here I am, dressed up as Emily Dickinson, reciting "I'm nobody, who are you?" Sonoma County had a grant to participate in the NEA's "Big Read" this year, and Dickinson was the target author.

I worked Dickinson's poetry into my lessons at Prestwood School. We studied, "There is no Frigate like a Book." Because the annual "Sitting Room" publication was on the topic of "When I was a child I read..." I was able to get three 3rd graders' poems included in that book.  

Books

When I get my nose in a book

I can read through rain or shine.

A book is like a friend to me

who stays there by my side.

            – ISABELLA BOUCHER

My Favorite Book

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid

is the best book I ever saw.

It makes me want to draw

the picture on the front.

It makes me watch the movie.

            – KEVIN MOYA

A Book

A book is like a flying carpet

that addicts me a lot of the time.

It brings me in and I can’t stop.

It’s like it is stuck to me.

I can’t get out of it.

It is too good to resist.

            – ROLLO BENSTEAD

From concrete to emotional, June 19, 2013

This is a tanka card from Japan. It has a related picture and one line of the 5-line poem on one side. On the other it has the whole poem. There are 100 such in the tanka canon which Japanese children often memorize. 

Here is a translation from my friend Paula Doe:

In the deep mountains,

cutting through the autumn leaves,

the cry of the deer.

When I hear it,

autumn sadness, loneliness. 

I like to teach tankas, though I put no pressure on kids to conform to the traditional short/long/short/long/long format. I like the other feature of them – they tend to start with something concrete and move to the emotional. I especially like to teach tankas at the end of the school year when kids are saying goodbye to a classroom or sometimes even graduating to a new school. What physical things will you remember about this year or time of your life?

Here are some tankas from students at Cali Calmécac about to move on to middle school.

Tanka – RENE TOLSON

Green, itchy field

A surface to play sports on.

Oval –shaped

Memories of making bracelets and jump ropes out of flowers.

Saying bye to the times in first grade.

Monkey Bars – ROGELIO CRUZ

Yellow monkey bars.

Swinging from metal bar to metal bar.

Blisters on our hands.

Racing each other to the other end.

Sorry, monkey bars, but we have to leave.

And a group poem from kids at Monroe:

Bench – ROOM 9

Chipped blue paint

on a broken wooden bench

squeaks when you sit

down because you got in trouble

but it holds favorite memories of hanging out.

 

Let us gather and write poetry... June 17 2013

June 17, 2013

On this blog, I'll be mainly referring to the lessons I myself teach. But in the lesson plan book we'll be creating, CPITS poet-teachers from around the state, and throughout our history, will be included. It was Luis Kong who first introduced me to “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way,” by Juan Felipe Herrera, current poet laureate of California, and a former CPITS poet-teacher himself. Especially in bilingual classrooms, I have often had students use it as a guide to write their own individual poems, as David Cabrera did a few years back:

Famous Dishes – DAVID CABRERA

Let us gather in the country of Mexico.

Let’s bring my mom’s best sopa de elote

and my grandma’s famous churros

that taste like cinnamon with sugar.

Let us remember my mom’s pozole and flan.

They are like a piece of God’s famous dish.

Let us get lost in the taste of honey in the flan;

it gets you dreaming and knocks you out

like a famous boxer, Oscar de la Hoya.

He will knock you out, but you

will be happy because of the flavor of honey.

Let us gather en el país de México.

It’s such a festive, inclusive poem and lesson that I’ve started using it to create a virtual party on our last day of poetry class, at least in the longer residencies. On those occasions we usually do it as a group poem. Here are a bunch of 6^th graders at Monroe School sharing their creation:

Let us gather at the city of Atlantis that is as beautiful as a shining reef.

Let’s gather at Mt. Everest and at the end of the rainbow.

Let’s bring chips as crispy as an overcooked bread.

Let’s bring tamales as soft as marigolds.

Let’s remember all the times we were together having fun.

Let’s remember the day we all shared our beautiful possessions

in honor of our friendships and caring,

under the beautiful sea.

And how we had a wonderful time,

eating, and caring about each other.