Transcript Slide 1

Naturally
Alive—
Reading,
Writing,
Speaking and
Representing
Poetry
Barry J. Wilson
[email protected]
“I don’t have to say, “Poetry is
rhythmic, boys and girls; why
don’t you dance a little?” They
know the music of the poem
because they feel it in their
bodies.”
Georgia Heard, For the Good of the Earth and Sun, p.1
The falling leaves drift by my window
The falling leaves of red and gold
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands I used to hold
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
A
U
T
U
M
N
L
E
A
V
E
S
by jacques prvert
Recipe for writing an autumn poem
by Georgia Heard
One teaspoon wild geese.
One tablespoon red kite.
One cup wind song.
One pint trembling leaves.
One quart darkening sky.
One gallon north wind.
“When I began teaching 20
years ago, poetry was something
taught in June when all the
‘important’ things were over.”
Georgia Heard
Teachers invite students to include poetry as
one of the genres they explore as writers. To
that end, poetry should be an integral
part of a program, not relegated to “a
unit” that sets it apart from everyday
reading and writing. Students’ ongoing
efforts at writing poetry can be part of their
writing notebooks, and other forms of writing
in their writing notebooks can be a source of
inspiration for their poems. Of course, the
teacher writes too and shares her/his poems
and thinking about the poems.
When does LEARNING
happen in your
classroom?
Principles of Learning
• Learning is a process of actively constructing knowledge.
• Students construct knowledge and make it meaningful
in terms of their prior knowledge and experiences.
• Learning is enhanced when it takes place in a social
and collaborative environment.
• Students need to continue to view learning as an
integrated whole.
• Learners must see themselves as capable and successful.
• Learners have different ways of knowing and representing
knowledge.
• Reflection is an integral part of learning.
What I/we think about poetry…
Instructional Strategies Online (KWL)
What I Know
What I Think I Know What I Learned/Resources
Misconceptions about poetry
Poetry is…
 difficult to understand
 has to be analysed/dissected
 always about happy things
 always about sad things
 has a right answer
 not for me, for those in love
 too emotional and sensitive
 not for the strong
 has to rhyme
 too many rules—punctuation, capitalization, structure
 about abstract things
 written by dead people
 too frilly and silly and…
 more on misconceptions about poetry
Poems come out perfectly the first time.
Georgia Heard’s lesson on poetry writing:
—Poems start with a feeling, and an image is one powerful
way to convey feeling
—Poetry write about what they can’t help writing about.
—It’s crucial not to censor, especially at the beginning.
—Let students decide what they want to write about.
—Create an open trusting environment.
—Spend enough time.
—You don’t have to be an expert.
Georgia Heard, For the Good of the Earth and Sun, pp. 32-35
What is poetry?
“Poetry is about recognizing and
paying attention to our inner lives
– our memories, hopes, doubts,
questions, fears, joys – and the
image is the hook we find to hang
the poem on.” (66)
- Georgia Heard, Awakening the Heart
“Poetry is a vital ingredient for
improving literacy and encouraging a
love of writing and reading. It is
language that's alive: it delights the
mind and engages the senses. It sends
shivers down your spine. Poetry is the
simplest and most profound form of
expression.”
POETRY IS…
. . .is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings recollected in tranquility, the breath and
finer spirit of all knowledge.
William Wordsworth
. . . should surprise by fine excess. Poetry should
discover to our eyes what has always been there.
John Keats
Prose is words in their best
order; poetry is the BEST
words in the best order.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Read Aloud
Up Home
Shauntay Grant
to reinforce the importance of reflection and
to appreciate ordinary things with a poet’s
senses
Read Aloud
A Read Aloud is a planned oral
reading of a book or print excerpt,
usually related to a theme or topic of
study. The read aloud can be used to
engage the student listener while
developing background knowledge,
increasing comprehension skills, and
fostering critical thinking. A read
aloud can be used to model the use of
reading strategies that aid in
comprehension.
Benefits of using Read Aloud
• One of the most important things teachers can do
in preparing students for success in school and in
reading is to read aloud with them—parents too, of
course.
• Listeners build listening and comprehension
skills through discussion before, during and after
reading.
• Listeners increase their vocabulary foundation by
hearing words in context.
Benefits of using Read Aloud
• Listeners improve their memories and language
skills as they hear a variety of writing styles and
paraphrase their understanding.
• Listeners gain information about the world around
them.
• Listeners develop individual interests in a broad
variety of subjects and they develop imagination and
creativity—“What better way to build skills which
foster inquiry?”
Take a moment and make the best of it
• General Curriculum Outcome: Students will be
expected to use writing and other ways of representing
to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts,
feelings, experiences, and learnings; and to use their
imaginations. (The Atlantic Canada English Language Arts
Curriculum, Grades 4–6, p. 88)
Specific Curriculum Outcome:
Use a range of strategies in writing and other ways of representing
to
• find topics of personal importance
• record, develop, and reflect on ideas
Take a moment and make the best of it
General Curriculum Outcome: Students will be
expected to use writing and other ways of
representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their
thoughts, feelings, experiences, and learnings; and
to use their imaginations. (The Atlantic Canada English
Language Arts Curriculum, Grades 7–9, p. 78).
Specific Curriculum Outcome:
• experiment with a range of strategies
(brainstorming, freewriting ) to extend and explore
learning, to reflect on their own ideas and others’
ideas, and to identify problems and consider
solution
Finding a memory—just a moment
• Freewrite (see Naturally Alive, pgs 3–6)
• Freewriting is to generate ideas:
–
–
–
–
–
write down everything that comes to your mind
feelings, opinions, information, connections
writing is continuous and non-stop
no editing, analyzing, correcting
ignore spelling, grammar, punctuation
Peter Elbow on Freewriting
Finding a Memory
“Why don’t you close your eyes
and think about what’s important
to you — something that’s
happened to you, something you
care about, anything.”
(From the Good of the Earth and Sun, Georgia Heard, p. 11)
Finding a memory—just a moment
Freewriting
• The best way to improve writing.
• Automatic writing, babbling, jabbering nonediting, don't stop.
• Freewriting is inferior to careful writing but
good "bits" of freewriting are better than
anything you have created.
• Think of digressions as paths to explore.
• Start writing as a way to grow.
• Start before you know your meaning at all;
only after you start will you know
Think/Pair/Share
“…students often need to talk out
what they plan to write before
beginning to write.”
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product, p. 135
Writing from your Freewrite
—look back at your Freewrite
—find three words that you really like and circle them
—find a sentence that you really like, underline it
—find a paragraph or section that surprises
you—a series of thoughts or ideas that asks for greater
expansion, put brackets around this section [ ]
—reread your Freewrite—look for the sentence— the
heartbeat, the pulse of what you wanted to say, put
a heart beside it ♥
—write a free verse poem that focusses upon
this thought or idea—the ♥ of your freewrite
Writing a MEMORY—
Wordplaygrounds, John S. O’Connor
Write a list of sentences beginning “I remember”; this
can be
random or focussed on a time you were happy, a time
you were afraid, confused, angry, etc. Aim for ten
sentences.
Star two related lines (details, memories)—that are
related for you
EXPLODE the MOMENT (see Immersed in Verse p.10)
Experiment with removing the “I remember” (or keep it,
if it
works).
AN EXPLOSION of WORDS
Find a favourite song and look over the lyrics carefully, using words or lines
borrowed from the song insert your own ideas by expanding upon the words
of the song with your own words, thus creating AN EXPLOSION of WORDS
MEMORY
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight
The withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Memory All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
I was beautiful then
I remember a time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every streetlamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters in the streetlamp gutters
And soon it will be morning
Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I musn't give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new day will begin
Burnt out ends of smokey days
The stale, cold smell of morning
The streetlamp dies
Another night is over
Another day is dawning
Touch me
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with the memory
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me
You'll understand what happiness is
Look, a new day has begun
MEMORies
Apologies to Andrew Lloyd Webber
Midnight,
and sleep is uneasy
hours before sunrise
dusk
and a yellow hue
meets the horizon
I wait for the daylight
I can’t wait for the skyline
in the distance
concrete fingers loom
from a gossamer veil
the city -New York
Not a sound from the pavement
my feet touch the pavement
the city’s alive
I can feel the energy surging through my
body
I look up and see the sun
I look up and see the high buildings
when you are in New York
don’t forget to look up
but you can’t look up at the Twin Towers
The world has lost her way
Darkness.
Where I Am From . . .
Know Thy Self
I am from – choose an object of personal significance
I am from – something in your backyard
I am from – the front yard, the street
I am from the neighborhood
where …
I am from – city, town, place …
I am from something distinctly you.
I AM FROM…
I am from a people who,
were free to roam this
native land
but now
must be reserved.
I am from a land that
was rich in offerings;
now a land which resentfully
and unwillingly
gives up her issue.
I am from great foreststrees, which reached towards
an open sky- once –
but now are fallen sentinels,
uprooted and dragged
from sacred places.
I am from animals, wild vast plains,
from places untamed; but now
freedom spent,
barred and placed in cages –
fenced-off, man-made havens.
I am from waters flowing and ebbing,
clear and clean - in oceans, lakes,
rivers, and streams;
waters that now are infested,
Humanity-polluted, slimy, green.
I am from the air, fresh and refreshing,
breath that invigorates
breath that is life;
but now the air is tainted
stale, suffocating, choking,
B.J.Wilson
strangling life.
July 2003
How to Read a Poem
ALOUD if you can—at least read it out loud in your head.
• Look at the poem’s title.
• Read the poem without trying to analyse it. Read the poem
over SLOWLY twice.
• What do you already know?
• Write a quick “first-impression” of the poem.
• Look for patterns.
• Look for changes in tone, focus, narrator, structure, voice,
patterns.
• Identify the narrator.
• Reread the poem checking for new understanding.
How to Read a Poem
• Find the crucial moments—the pivotal moment might be as
small as the word but or yet.
• Pay attention to breaks between stanzas or between lines.
• Consider form and function.
• Check for improved understanding. Read the poem through
again, aloud if you can. Return to the title and ask yourself
“What is this poem about?”
• THINK—PAIR: Share by THINKNG ALOUD your
“thinking” about the poem.
Wordplaygrounds, John S.
O’Connor
“Through early exercises, I hope to help
students see that poetry often takes as its
subject ordinary objects from the everyday
world. Even more important, I want
students to see that they already possess
palettes of their own – their own words and
experiences – from which they can write
their own poems” (p. 11).
This idea of playing and having fun with words frees
students from the notion that “Poetry” is something
remote and a bit stuffy.”
Wordle (www.wordle.net).
•
•
•
•
Check out Wordle (www.wordle.net). This easy to use
program allows students to really play with words,
using either their own words or someone else’s.
find text that you would like to use —something that
you have written, a poem, an article, a passage from a
novel, etc.
go to Wordle.net
create your Wordle
hit the PRINT SCREEN button on the top right row of
the keyboard and that action will create a screen shot
Georgia Heard has a number
of excellent resources full of
simple and practical ideas for
teaching poetry.
Georgia Heard
writer, a keynote speaker,
educational consultant
The danger of teaching poetry is that the students get so
bogged down in the mechanics of poetry writing, they lose the
sense of wonder and enthusiasm that should be in the forefront
in enjoying poetry.
Jean Little expresses this in the poem, below:
After English Class
By Jean Little
I used to like "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
I liked the coming darkness,
The jingle of harness bells, breaking--and adding to
--the stillness,
The gentle drift of snow. . . .
But today, the teacher told us what everything stood for.
The woods, the horse, the miles to go, the sleep-They all have "hidden meanings."
It's grown so complicated now that,
Next time I drive by,
I don't think I'll bother to stop.
(Little, J. (1986). Hey world, here I am! Toronto: Kids Can Press.)
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Lee Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
The Poetry Experience
explores all aspects of poetry from guidelines and an overview of
poetic forms to the Top Ten lists of various poetry favorites.
Handy reproducible masters are also provided which include a
poetry timetable, ten questions to ask about any poem, an
observation checklist for teachers, and a personal poetry
inventory for students.
Naming the world—A Year of
Poems and Lessons
The Red Wheelbarrow
pgs 58–59
Teach Sharon Creech’s LOVE THAT DOG—HATE THAT
CAT
Poetry should be experienced a three different levels. Never skip a level when
introducing poetry… Do not destroy the joy of poetry by going right to step 3:
Step One: Introduce students to "user friendly poems", such as humorous poems by
Shel Silverstein or Jack Prelutsky, Ogden Nash
Step Two: Have students pick a poem that means something to them: Some aspects of
their lives are expressed in the poem. The poem becomes a self-portrait or
autobiographical poem, in some way.
Step Three: Experience and discuss the poetry.
Read a poem every week, or even every day. Have the students pick the poems.
What’s important in being a teacher of writing—of
poetry
• ANALYZING the writing plans and writing work and writing
environment
• ASKING questions and answering the hard questions
• APPLAUDING the big and small writing steps
• ASSISTING each other in the learning process
• ASSESSING the work and the value of that work and
• ADVOCATING for children to always be a part of
exemplary writing instruction
Of Primary Importance,
Ann Marie Corgill, 2008, pg. 174
Poems composed by middle-school students tend toward
brevity. In addition, free verse, which has very few rules, if
any, make the task of composing a poem both challenging
and achievable. There are many decisions to be made,
including topic, audience, opening line, and absence or
presence of pattern; a short poem does not appear to have
the same degree of difficulty as a 500word essay: and finally, students don’t have to concern
themselves with the complications of meter and rhyme.
Using Poetry in the Classroom: Engaging Students in Learning.
Ross M. Burkhardt, p. 70. (2006)
POETRY WARM-UP
Getting in touch with your senses-
sight
sound
taste
touch
smell
Six-Room Poem
Fold your paper in thirds.
Fold your paper long-ways in half.
First Room
Think of something you’ve seen
outside that is amazing,
beautiful and interesting
OR
Six-Room Poem
Image
Think of a moment in time that
has stayed in your mind like a
picture
ACTIVITY: Close your eyes.
See your image as clearly as a
photograph. Notice the details.
Describe it…
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Second Room
Looking at the same
“photograph” in your mind,
focus on the quality of light.
Six-Room Poem
Image
Light
Questions to ask yourself…
Is it bright? Cloudy? Dull?
Are there shadows? Colors?
Examples:
Shiny blues, Sparkling red
ACTIVITY: Describe the
quality of light…
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Third Room
As you picture your image,
what can you hear? Focus
on the sounds you hear.
Six-Room Poem
Image
Light
Questions to ask yourself…
Maybe it’s silent. What kind
of silence?
Sounds
Examples:
Rustling of leaves, Pitterpatter of rain, Sweet laughter
ACTIVITY: Describe the
sounds you hear…
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Fourth Room
Write down any questions you
might have about the image.
Six-Room Poem
Questions to ask yourself…
Do you want to know anything
else about the image?
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Do you wonder something?
Examples:
Why were we in this place in
the winter?
Why was I with them?
ACTIVITY: Write your
questions…
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Fifth Room
Six-Room Poem
Write down any feelings you
have about your image.
Questions to ask yourself…
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
How was I feeling?
How do I feel now?
Example:
I remember being so happy as
we played outside together.
Feelings
ACTIVITY: Write your
feelings…
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Six-Room Poem
Sixth Room
As you look over all your
rooms,
think of one word,
a few words,
a phrase,
a line,
or a sentence that is important
to you and/or describes the
image entirely.
ACTIVITY: Repeat your word
or words three times…
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Feelings
Repetition
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
CREATURE
Choose a creature
Title at the top of the page
Pass the page around the room
Each student adds a line, word,
phrase…
Pass the page around
twice…Share
Choose a feeling!
Do the same thing
as above with
creature.
Nonfiction Naturally to POETRY
Wonderful, wilderness wanderer
weary traveller with
steely eyes.
Yellow stare freezes your prey—
a piercing glance
and then the charge.
The chase continues
until the fittest wins—
a feast
or famine.
See Naturally Alive—
Reading Writing and
Representing Poetry
Pgs. 33–34
Nonfiction Naturally to POETRY
Table Poem
Chart Paper
Title of poem or first line of a poem (Your own or
something familiar—
“There's a whisper in the night wind”
“Wind sped leaves . . .”
Poem rotates, each student adding his/her ideas—a
line, a phrase, a word.
Together student edit and get ready for sharing and
publishing.
It’s FUN!
Look at the poet’s version
Autumn
Wind sped leaves
colors blurred in
light
dance
then clear again
as motionless
each poses crisply
on the ground
in artful pattern
of design and hue
no sound
till cool wind
blows again
through its stillness
and lifts it fairy-like
in autumn air
Barbara Kelley
Autumn is Coming
There's a whisper in the night wind
And a coolness in the dawn;
There's a star agleam to guide us
When October starts to yawn.
Where the prairie browns in silence,
Lonely sunsets fade and die,
Then the stars throng out in glory
To gem-light the vaulted sky,
Or the green-clad mountain valleys
Where the stillness brings deep
peace—
As the moon comes out of hiding
To renew her earth-born lease.
There's a hushing in the evening
And a lateness in the dawn,
And the leaves begin to tremble
When October starts to yawn.
Amelia V. Christeson
PHOTOS
Pass around a series of
related photos (black and
white is best).Write down
your reaction(s) to the
photos as you view them.
Organize your written
reactions into a poem.
Cut and collect 20 to25 words from . . .
Organize into a format
Spend some time rearranging the words
(If you have to, you can generate some of your own words to help
you to connect ideas/thoughts.)
Share your creation with others.
Borrow some of your favourite words for future
writing.
GROUP POEM
(3 per group)
Find a recent news article.
Read it.
Independently generate a list of words
(allow 7-10 minutes)
Share your list and combine to create a
group list. (5 minutes)
Collectively write a poem.
FIRE CRACKER POETRY
Think of a word and have students generate at least five
words that come to mind when you hear the word associate to the word. Use post-it notes.
What quickly comes to mind?
Using chart paper stick all of the words on the paper
surrounding the TOPIC.
Scan and discuss connections.
Have the students (groups of 3-4) select several of the posted
words and ask them to create their own poem.
ocean
music
sand
seaside
peace
insect
book
ice
fog
autumn
door
family
poetry
home
tree
hope
war
city
water
dreams
QUESTION POEM
Pass out an object and ask
QUESTIONS about it.
??
dragonfly
bug
nest
feather
boot
leaves
?
Beetle
Neat!
Why the split?
Why so small?
Where do you come from?
What kind of skeleton –exoskeleton?
Great legs.
You must have excellent eyesight.
Do you?
Fabulous
FRIDAYS
Have students select
and bring to class a
personal object (a
favorite, memory,
heritage),and ask
them to think, talk.
Share and write a
poem about this
SPECIAL OBJECT.
The Locket
Heart-shaped,
Favored,
Gilded,
Golden locket,
You are still warm, well-worn,
Smooth yet textured, your intricate design,
Woven and weathered, polished and benign.
A lover’s locket,
From a lover’s pocket.
A picture present The elegant sweethearts meet,
So sweet.
Enclosed within your heart –
B.J.Wilson
February 2003
Secrets.
Musical Vision
Select a piece Play the sound
of
recording.
MUSIC!
Contemplate the
sounds and
rhythms of the
music.
Draw a picture
while you are
listening to the
music.
Your picture is
your
representation of
the music.
FREE WRITE PHOTO
Select a picture(s) from
newspaper s,
magazines, etc.
-present picture(s) to
the class
-ask students to
brainstorm ideas,
thoughts,
-then ask the students
to write
freely about the
picture(s)
Choose your favourite
Month
Thing
Place
Season
Celebration
Event
Person
Whatever?
Write about it, ask it
some questions, talk to it,
talk about it—observe and
respond.
Have a conversation with
it.
WHAT IS A…?
Maybe a definition
and then
your InTerpreTATIon…
MAybe WHAT IT ISn’T…
What is a ________________? POEM
What is a Whale?
A whale is not a snail;
however, on the surface
of the water it leaves a trail,
like a snail’s,
or a fish’s tail.
A whale is not a football field –
it is a force
to which you must,
definitely yield.
A whale is a mammal a giant leviathan.
A whale is something
to be relied upon.
B.J.Wilson
Pronouns and Performance
he
it
us
yours
me
I
them
she
him
her
his
you
they
mine
hers
theirs
we
Prepositions and Poetry
PRE - before POSITION - relationship
Prepositions are words that come
before nouns(pronouns) and show
position or relationship.
I retreated from the window and went to the
driver’s side of the car. (STARS, P.2)
about
above
across
after
against
along
amid
beside
besides
between
beyond
by
down
except
for
from
in
into
of
off
on
though
throughout
until
under
up
upon
out
with
within
without
but
during
since
yet
Write a prepositional poem
—choose a subject, object, idea, concept
— create “phrases” describing your idea
—begin each line with a preposition
—check your list of prepositions
To the Sun
by B.J. Wilson
towards its zenith
in center sky
from the east
by glorious rays
on the horizon
with sprays of golden-orange down to the earth
like a mother’s hand
into the sky
beyond the middle
through the atmosphere
across the sky
above the horizon
towards the end
around the circumference
of day
of sea of space
above the mountains
against the azure blue sky
with radiant colours
with colours
of violet and tangerine
of yellow gold
near the tree line
for hours
with Venus
of warmth
in the west
Riddles
Riddles offer and engaging
‘sponge’ activity; one that
stimulates inferential reading
comprehension.
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls:
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls .
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
His body was tubular
He seemed to know the
And tapered
harbour,
And smoke-blue,
So leisurely he swam;
And as he passed the wharf
His fin,
He turned,
Like a piece of sheet-iron,
And snapped at a flat-fish
Three-cornered,
That was dead and floating.
And with knife-edge,
And I saw the flash of a
Stirred not a bubble
white throat,
As it moved
And a double row of white teeth,
With its base-line on the water. And eyes of metallic grey,
Hard and narrow and slit.
...
E.J.PRATT
A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him,---did you not,
His notice sudden is.
The grass divides as with a comb
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.
…
Emily Dickinson
Caterpillars
Brod Bagert
They came like dew drops overnight
Eating every plant in sight,
Those nasty worms with legs that crawl
So creepy up the garden wall
Green prickly fuzz to hurt and sting
Each unsuspecting living thing.
How I hate them! Oh, you know
I'd love to squish them with my toe.
“Mental pictures, or images, are
at the heart of poetry, just like
emotions.” (21)
Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters
“If you want to create strong images, get in
the habit of observing the world so you can
create your own pictures using words.” (21)
Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters
To Look at Any Thing
~ John Moffitt ~
To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
Illustrate your poem
EYES WIDE OPEN To look at this green and say,
"I have seen spring in these
Verbal/Visual
Woods," will not do - you must
Be the thing you see:
See Naturally
You must be the dark snakes of
Alive—Reading
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
Writing and
You must enter in
Representing
To the small silences between
Poetry
The leaves,
Pgs. 36–37
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.
(Teaching With Fire, edited by S. M. Intrator and M. Scribner)
Visualizing:
the key to understanding
• the picture the text has helped a
reader to create (I see… I feel…)
• enhances meaning with mental
imagery
• enables readers to become part of
text
• stimulate imaginative thinking
• heightens engagement
• strengthens relationship with text
Visualization
The Storm
Wind rustled crunching leaves
That on the sidewalk lay.
There was a big storm coming
On a windy Autumn day.
Thunder rumbled overhead
And shook me through and through.
A jagged bolt of lightning struck!
The sky then cracked in two!
Rain washed down the dirty road.
It hissed, and gushed, and muttered.
The downpour swept dead leaves away
Into the bubbling gutter.
James K. McAlister
“ … research suggests that readers
who are able to visualize what they
are reading – for example,
characteristics of setting, events in the
story, or character traits – are better
able to comprehend what they read.”
(Lessons in Comprehension, Frank Serafini, 2004)
The poetic prose and magnificent drawings vividly
depict the great beauty of the wolf.
VISUALIZATION
After having heard “The Eyes of Gray Wolf”
visualize scenes in your mind. You may have a
series of scenes that you imagined in your
mind’s eye.
Draw a picture/scene that you visualize based
upon the reading of “The Eyes of Gray Wolf”.
Make sure to remember the moon, the creek,
the mountains ,the snowshoe hare …
“I take off the top of my head and write out
loud in front of [the students]…I show
them how I plan, change my mind, confront
problems, weigh options, make decisions, use
conventions to make my writing sound and
look the way I want it to and my readers
will need it to, and generally compose my
life.” (25)
- Nancie Atwell, In the Middle
As teachers, we are mentors of writing, mediators of writing strategies
and models of writers at work. (21)
How to Make a Poem
Awakening the Heart, Georgia Heard
Close your eyes.
Don’t peek.
Close them tight,
tight so it’s
dark, dark
till you see something
in sight.
Close your eyes
don’t peek.
Try
and see a poem.
Danielle Pioggia, Grade 3 (125)