On 1/5/07 7:48 AM, "Patricia Sankey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi all, > > I love this part of our listserv! And, this is a great time to thank > all of you for the wonderful ideas we get. I have been quiet this year > as my job has changed a bit and I REALLY appreciate all of the wonderful > discussion. > > So, moment of pride time: I read aloud the Chris Crowe's book > Mississippi Trial, 1955 to my 8th grade reading intervention class. We > took notes, discussed, asked questions, summarized--all the usual. > Then, a student of mine found the book of poetry A Wreath for Emmett > Till and brought it to class. > > In this book of 14 poems, the author does some miraculous things with > her poetry. The last poem took all the first lines of the previous 14 > and made an acrostic poem using RIP EMMETT L TILL as the first letters > to each line. My class voted to try this activity. I should note, that > my students don't "do" poetry. They don't hand in any assignments in > the "poetry unit" for Com. Arts classes. They wanted to do this. So, I > let them. ALL the students handed in a typed poem. > > WOW! The poems are phenomenal! They were all so moved by the demise > of Emmett Till, the injustice of the court system of 1955, and the civil > rights movement that they really threw their beautiful, caring, > wonderful hearts into this poem. The poems are displayed in my room. > Countless students from the "regular" reading classes have come through > my room to read the poems. The kids beam with pride whenever kids and > teachers comment about them. Me too. The best thing about this is that > my kids created their own assignment to prove their comprehension. > > Sidenote: the kids took an Accelerated Reader quiz on the book (this > is an option, but not required for my class) to see how they would do. > The class average was 8.6 out of 10! > > Can't wait to hear about everyone else's moments of pride! > > Patricia Sankey > Reading Specialist > Templeton Middle School > I used Cris Crowe's nonfiction book Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case, offered up his fiction version, and used the poetry book you mentioned. At the end, students listened to and then used Bob Dylan's song The Death of Emmett Till for a choral reading activity. Sherri Neofotist 7th Grade Language Arts West Middle School _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
