Poetry Reflection
When starting this poetry journey, I didn't know what to expect. All I knew about poetry was rhyming and bad experiences annotating famous poems. I didn't know the world of poetry that exists outside of Shel Silverstein and random poems along the way. Now that I have been introduced to so many poems to use as mentor texts, I find myself looking for poetry all day every day. I can also tell that my vocabulary has expanded as well.
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Poetry isn't something you should be afraid of. It's all about your emotions, feelings, explorations, observations, or whatever comes to mind. Poetry is writing without a structure. It's the greatest of all free writes. I feel like if we introduce poetry like this, people won't be as scared to try it. When we talk about poetry we discuss how to break the poem apart with figurative language, conventions, structure, and meaning. We never really talk about the building of poetry. I feel like in order to understand the structure of something, you need to be able to build it first. Poetry is no different. The best way to teach poetry is by engaging and trying to build it yourself. You will learn how words can come together to create different rhythms and emotions. The stanzas and lines create a whole new outlook on a poem once you try to include that in your own poetry. As you continue to explore, you are learning new things about poetry that SOAPStone and other annotated mnemonics can't.
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Just like how you teach anything, including it in the classroom as much as possible increases the love and appreciation for the subject. Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard is the poetry classroom of my dreams. She included small steps throughout the daily classroom routine to be able to include poetry as much as possible. Her advice and experience should inspire others to do the same. Poetry to teachers is something scary to teach too sometimes because it is something unfamiliar to most, but Heard takes all the fears away with her own experiences.
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The world of poetry books have changed in my life since diving deep into poetry. I always assumed poems were either never in a book or was in a large chapter book like Shel Silverstein (definitely wrong impression). Here are some of the many many books that can be used as mentor texts or inspirations.
I also think it's important to note that famous authors and poets shouldn't be the only writing inspiring kids. Using other children's work, whether it's from the classroom or finding published children's work online, can inspire kids and allow them to understand that even they can write and publish their work. Knowing that their words can influence others will allow them to work harder and put more meaning into their own poetry.
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Personally, I know as a student who wasn't the biggest fan of writing, I would've been introduced to a famous poem and would have to compare my work to theirs. I would've immediately thought, "this is a famous and skillful author, how can I, a third grader, do this?" I'm sure I'm not the only person who has thought this, but by providing a wide range of mentor texts and properly discussing "borrowing" with students, this thought won't circulate in their mind for long.
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Here are some slam poetry videos that can inspire your students to grow as writers no matter their age or skill:
As my final reflection of poetry, I want to discuss how simple it is to find poetry no matter where you are. Throughout this experience, I have learned so much about how the words and events around me can spark a writing entry in my notebook so quickly. In order to really capture these moments, you need to have your writer's notebook ready at hand as much as you can. There have been times where I thought of a poem idea and tell myself, "I'll remember to write that down later." An hour later, the moment is gone and it's just another empty page in my writer's notebook.
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Words are sometimes difficult to come up with. When I force myself to write poetry, I can feel myself struggling to fid the right words. You need inspiration, you need a topic, and you need a purpose. Some of my best poetry is when I'm inspired right at the moment to write something. I'm never thinking too hard about what to put down. The words and emotions just start flowing out. I correct my work when I draft, but I always just keep writing what's on my mind to start out.
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Sometimes you still need to find words, that's okay! That's what writing is all about. It's never going to be easy, but it will get easier. Found poems and Blackout poems are a great way to use someone else's words to create your own story.
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Found poems are where you look for words within a book, newspaper, magazine, old writing entry, instructions, you name it. The words that you find can be placed together to create a lovely poem. It's not copying someone else's work because you are creating something new out of it. I found myself finding a poem within Twister instructions the other day. As you look for words, you can begin to be inspired to write something completely different. You can highlight the words you find and order it in any way you desire.
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Blackout poetry is something I knew I would love the second I saw it. You find a page in a book and you blackout the whole page besides the words of the poem you create inside of it. It's like a scavenger hunt! You'll be surprised by what you can find within someone else's words. You can create a whole new story based on the words you choose.