When I was in high school, my senior project was to complete a multi genre research project on Mother Teresa.  We had to choose ten different genres and write an eight to ten page research paper on our famous person.  I remember writing a fake email to Mother Teresa, writing her obituary, writing an acrostic poem using her name, and other projects I cannot remember at this moment.  Our teacher gave us the second half of the semester in senior English to complete this project.  I went into this journey afraid of all that was required of me, but I came out of the journey very excited about the hard work I had done.  Still to this day I remember so much about Mother Teresa, not because of the research I completed, but from the different genres I used to tell her story to my classmates.  This project was exciting, and it was a way I could show how creative I was.

I believe using multi genre projects is a great way to allow students to show their creativity.  Not all students like to write research papers.  Some students can show what they know, and do a great job at showing what they know through a song, a recipe, or a fake email.  I personally love to see how much my students have learned by looking at these types of projects.  It definitely beats reading sixty-one research papers.  If it is boring to me, then I know it is boring to my students.  We need to allow students to choose how they want to present their information, and not try to cram them into the same mold as everyone else.

Arnberg’s article on memoir was a great read.  The way she told the story of her journey with her students helped me see how wonderful writing can be.  I do not do a lot of writing with my students, but inspirational stories such as this peak my interest to start.

Before reading this article I was not sure of the difference between memoir and autobiography.  It makes sense that autobiography is talking about all of a person’s life, whereas memoir is talking about one moment in the past.  One other point of interest that came from this article were the mini lessons she taught her students.  I guess one area I really need to focus on are the elements of writer’s craft.  She talks about author’s voice and how the author puts feelings and memories into their memoir.  Writing is a subject that I would love to learn how to teach well.

Writing I poems is going to be a neat activity to do with my class.  I like the way Kucan talks about the teacher that has their students to write I poems on the different plants and animals of Maine and Kansas to introduce Sarah Plain and Tall.  I would have never thought of introducing a book that way.  I feel like I can incorporate I poems into my science curriculum.  We are going to move into rocks and minerals, and I feel that I could have my students to create I poems to get them ready for our rocks and minerals unit, or any unit for that matter.

Mojave, Atlantic, I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert, and Dirty Laundry Pile are great mentor books for I poems.  I love the way all the Karas, Christiana, and Siebert use I poetry to tell the complete story of nonfiction topics.  Sometimes nonfiction can seem so boring to children, but this is a great way for students to show teachers that they have learned basic facts about different topics.  I am always trying to think of ways my students can express themselves other than just writing a research paper.  It is great that I poems can be short, sweet and to the point, or they can be long, lyrical and very detailed.  There is lots of room for creativity when using I poetry.

I loved reading the acrostic poems in Silver Seeds and African Acrostics.  They reminded me of the WELCOME acrostic my first grade teacher had hanging up in her classroom for many years.  I have always thought that acrostics meant one word for each letter, but I noticed in African Acrostics not only did the author  put more words with a letter, the letters of the acrostic were incorporated into the middle of the sentences.  This creative way of writing was shown in the last poem Leopard Plan.  I like doing acrostic poems with my students at the beginning of the year as a way to get to know them, and it helps them get to know each other as well.

I love the way Elliot talks about reading children’s literature to get examples of great language.  I have always loved reading books by Mem Fox and Cynthia Rylant, because they use their words so beautifully to express their feelings through the picture book.  These mentor texts are a great way to get students fired up about writing.  I love the idea of reading stories or poems to my students each day if nothing more than to just let them hear beautiful language.

There are three important points that struck me from the Acrostic Poetry Content Learning manuscript.  They are acrostic poems can be used in all subjects and ages, acrostic poems are a good way for students to express what they have learned, and that it is always important for teachers to show students how to write before they ask their students to create on their own.

PowerPoint Reflection
After looking at the PowerPoint I can connect with the statement about how reading poetry is so relaxing and wonderful, but writing poetry is such a hard task.  As a child and as an adult I do not like to write, but there are days I have so many ideas for poems running through my head.  It is amazing how different situations can fill your brain with such beautiful thoughts.  It makes me want to take my writer’s notebook with me everywhere I go, because sometimes I can really write great poems.

My question is how do we get our students interested in writing poetry?  Will some never like poetry?  How can we get them through a poetry unit when they don’t want to?

SAID Strategy on a paper clip.

When I look at this paper clip I see twisted silver metal.  I see straight lines and curves all in the same entity.

I smell a metallic odor, that I do not enjoy.

I hear cling, clang when I drop it on the floor.

I am not sure I want to taste the paper clip; I’m not sure where it has been.

I feel cold metal.  The paper clip is smooth and sharp on the points where the metal was cut at the factory.

This object holds papers together.

It could get the CD rom open on the computer when the power button doesn’t work, it could make a great stamp to paint with, it could make a long necklace for my mother…

I find paper clips on the floor, on my desk, in my pocket book, just about everywhere.

When I think of paper clips I think of school, writing papers, students stretching them out…

Paper clips are special because they take the place of a staple that may destroy the papers you want to stay together.

Links I liked…

I liked the “Write an Instant In Charge of the World Poem” site.  I like how it allows you or your students to type in a set phrase.  It reminds me of mad lib.  I always enjoy filling out mad libs, because they are silly.

I also like the poets.org.  My colleague teaches a poetry unit, and I feel that this will be a great resource for her to use whenever she has our students to complete their poetry unit.  I like how the site has pictures of some of the poets.  It is nice to put a face to the name of an author.  This puts me in mind of Love That Dog when Jack’s class invites Walter Dean Myers to their class.  I could not imagine what kind of experience that was for those students.

So much depends upon

the joy snow brings me

white and pure

silent yet very dangerous

buying me two hours

on frigid February days.

So much depends upon

long stem, pink roses.

The way they smell so sweet.

Excitement fills my heart

when a vase of them

are waiting for me in

the school office.

It is a shame they have

to die so quickly.

I have always felt poetry is my strong suit when it comes to writing.  When I have talked to my students about poetry I have always given examples that rhyme at the end of the stanzas.  After reading Elliot and Certo I realized that I don’t need to focus so much on they rhyming, but I need to focus on allowing my students to talk about what is on their mind and in their heart.

I like the quote in the Certo article that speaks about teachers needing to trust that their students will eventually get better at writing poetry.  They will find their own voice after reading many examples from many poets.  I feel a lot of times we want our student’s writing to be quick, but perfect all in one day.  It just seems so hard to let that mentality go when you are pushed to get so much done in 180 days.  I could only imagine what kind of writers my students would be if I just let them take their time and read mentor texts to get their inspiration from.

The picture books and novels we read for this weeks’ readings were wonderful.  I have never read through texts as fast as I did in this assignment.  I love the way they all tied into each other.  I have to say Love That Dog was my favorite reading this week.  I love how Miss Stretchberry was able to take Jack through his writing journey.  He started off as very unwilling to think about poetry, and by the end of the book it seemed as if he couldn’t live without it.

I find it pretty neat how Elliott talks about using children’s literature to help children write.  In my undergraduate writing course we read so many books, and talked about so many writing devices that laid within them.  There is nothing like reading the first line of a great book to students, and then closing the book.  The looks on their faces are priceless.  They are so hungry for more, and I feel this is a great way to help them with great beginnings to their stories.

In the Graves article I was deeply touched by the story Sean wrote about his dad and the Vietnam War.  It is amazing how you can help a child by just allowing them to reveal their feelings through writing.  This child did not want to do anything for anyone until he met Ms. Atwell.  She helped him see that writing was an okay way to show how he felt.  I only hope I can be an inspiration to a student like Ms. Atwell someday.