Download Poetry - UNT College of Education

June 21, 2005
Poetry:
Capturing the Image
Jeana Etamé
North Star of Texas Writing Project
Lewisville ISD
[email protected]
Rationale:
“What is it that allows many people in
the United States to accept the view of
poetry as a luxury rather than food
for all: food for the heart and senses,
food of memory and hope?”
- Adrienne Rich, Introduction (xvi)
From Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard
Thought for the Day:
“Mental pictures, or images, are
at the heart of poetry, just like
emotions.” (21)
Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters
Let’s begin…
Whole Group Writing:
Read-Aloud
Student Focus:
Image Details
Think/Pair/Share:
What do you…See? Hear? Feel? Think?
Think/Pair/Share:
“…students often need to talk out
what they plan to write before
beginning to write.” (135)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process
and Product
Modeling:
“We need to raise our expectations
for student writing to a higher
literary standard and teach
students how to meet them.”
- Nancie Atwell, Lessons That Change Writers
“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)
“Teachers encourage children by demonstrating
how to develop topics using the ordinary
events of daily life and school life. Teachers
encourage children to talk about things that
interest them, stories they have enjoyed, ideas
they might want to share with classmates. Out
of these conversations, topics emerge.” (49)
- Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process
and Product
“…ELL students at any grade level
learn a great deal when they write
with classmates and the teacher.” (31)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and
Product
“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
Let’s continue…
Whole Group Writing:
Read-Aloud
Small Group Writing:
Image Photography
Student Focus: Image Details
Pre-writing Activity
“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
“…the image moistens the poem.”
- Robert Bly, Awakening the Heart (66)
“The energy that comes from
rubbing one image against another
in poems…we’re desperate for
that energy.”
- Naomi Nye, Awakening the Heart (66)
“When an author lacks a visual eye, his or her
writing has no heart and soul: images lie
lifeless like cadavers in a morgue.” (2)
- Harry Noden, Image Grammar
Brushstrokes
Show, Don’t Tell
Use Your Senses
“Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring
her on and let her scream.”
- Mark Twain
On your own…
Whole Group Writing:
Read-Aloud
Small Group Writing:
Image Photography
Individual Writing Activity:
Six-Room Poems
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
Six-Room Poem
Image
OR
Think of some time long ago
that is a special memory
OR
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.
Questions to ask yourself…
Six-Room Poem
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Do you want to know anything
else about the image?
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.
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Questions to ask yourself…
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
“[poets] create strong images when they
use unexpected comparisons, repeat
sounds within a line or stanza, imitate
sounds, repeat words and phrases, and
choose rhyming words.” (409)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing
Process and Product
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)
“We need to look for, listen for, and
feel the heartbeats in our students.
That’s where the energy is, for us and
for them.” (90)
- Donald Graves, Teaching Day by Day
A suitable lesson for your classroom?
Elementary Age Students:
 Four-Room Poem – Memory; Sound; Feelings; and Now
Middle School Age Students:
 Add some rooms to describe image using similes and/or
metaphors
 Add smells, touch, taste that students can imagine in the
images
High School Age Students:
 Thirteen-Room Poem – Using Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen
Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
 Add a room to weave a favorite line or quote from another
poem or book that helps describe the image.
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart
Quest for the Test:
“…reading and writing poetry will
give our students more than a good
score on a writing test.” (5)
- Georgia Heard, Awakening the Heart
6th grade Language Arts
TEKS
4A (W) connect his/her own experiences, information, insights, and
ideas with experiences of others through speaking and listening
15C (W) write to inform such as to explain, describe, report, and
narrate (1)
15D (W) write to entertain such as to compose humorous poems or
short stories (1)
15E (W) select and use voice and style appropriate to audience and
purpose (1)
18A-I (W) Writing Processes (1,2,3,4,5,6)
18A (W) generate ideas and plans for writing by using prewriting
strategies such as brainstorming, graphic organizers, notes, and
logs (1)
18 G (W) refine selected pieces frequently to “publish” for general and
specific audiences
24C (W) assess how language, medium, and presentation contribute
to the message
R=Reading; W=Writing
6th grade Language Arts
TEKS
3C (R/W) analyze the use of aesthetic language for its
effects
8B (R) select varied sources such as plays,
anthologies, novels, textbooks, poetry,
newspapers, manuals, and electronic texts when
reading for information or pleasure
9C (R) read for varied purposes such as to be
informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the
writer’s craft, and to discover models for his/her
own writing
10D (R) describe mental images that text descriptions
evoke
11A (R) offer observations, make connections, react,
speculate, interpret, and raise questions in
response to texts
R=Reading; W=Writing
“…[life] is not about the amount of
breaths you take but rather the
moments that takes your breath
away.”
- Will Smith in Hitch
Bibliography
Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about
writing, reading, and learning. Portsmouth, NH:
Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.
______. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth,
NH: firsthand.
Fletcher, R. (2002). Poetry matters: writing a poem from the
inside out. New York, NY: HarperTrophy.
Graves, D. (2004). Teaching day by day: 180 stories to help
you along the way. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: exploring poetry in
elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Keene, E.O. & Zimmermann, S. (1997). Mosaic of thought:
teaching comprehension in a reader’s workshop.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Noden, H. (1999). Image grammar. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Tompkins, G. (1990). Teaching writing: balancing process
and product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson
Education, Inc.