Absolutely, look for the SLAM this upcoming school year. It is awesome. Additionally, one of the most worthwhile poetry projects that my class did was around the book, Love that Dog. I wrote about it extensively earlier. If you've already read about it...skip the next part!
Would you like to do an awesome poetry and literature project with your students? Let me tell you about ours! Thought I 'd give you a run down on the lessons and activities I have developed with "Love that Dog" by Sharon Creech. Creech wrote a wonderful short novel told in free verse about a young boy named Jack and his initial aversion to writing poetry. As Jack is introduced to various poets and their work he begins his own writing journey. Through his work Jack finally comes to terms with his sadness about a tragic event in his life. He also meets author and poet, Mr. Walter Dean Myers. My students and I developed a script and we "put on" a play from "Love that Dog" for parents. For every poem Miss Stretchbeery introduced I developed a lesson and writing activity. The students were more motivated than I had ever seen them. In my multi-age class that year I had a large number of 6th grade boys. Soooooo...I had them all play Jack. They interchanged the part through an initial reading, a blended voices portion and then the trade off to the new Jack. My tech savvy student created an electronic slideshow as a backdrop. One of my 8th grade girls was Miss Stretchbeery and one of my 8th grade boys played Walter Dean Myers. He also researched a bio and came up with dialogue to introduce this important character. All kids read their own poetry as they fulfilled the roles of Jack'and his classmates. They also are recited the poems highlighted in the book. For instance, the kids created pieces from what I call "Shades of William Carlos Williams." They wrote their own poems based on the "Red Wheelbarrow" as Jack did in the story. They learned about tricky rhyming schemes with Robert Frost's, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." They tried their hand at writing their own pieces that using the same rhyming sequence as Frost. We talked about "Where the Wild Things Are" and every kids love of wild things. Then we read poetry about the topic before reading William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright." Students illustrated a picture of their favorite "Wild Thing" in full color and then using Blake's technique created a poem about their own "wild thing". We read Robert Frost's "Pasture" and kids came up with a poem that included the invitation "You come too" at the end of their 4 line stanzas (like Frost's poem) but they chose to write about a place they loved and would like to share with friends. When reading Valerie Worth's "Dog" poem we talked about how she slowed the world to create a little (or in her words small) poem that held so much within a moment's time. Her very real descriptions of a Dog led to a "Doggone Poem" activity to write about a pet, and in absence of a pet, a squirrel, bird, or they could go to the web site and watch the live Eagle Cam for inspiration. Rhyming was discouraged and words that "show not tell" were encouraged. I used the poem from the book's title and featured the main characters "inspired by" poem. WDM's "Love that Boy" inspired Jack's "Love that Dog" poem. My kids own "Love that ___" poem was the final piece. When my students performed their play for parents it was incredible. Interspersed through out the play, students recited their own original poetry based on their lives and the connections they made from poetry and storyline of the book. We finalized the performance with each student sharing their own "Love that _____" poem. They all chose to write about someone in their family. I was touched, as were the parents and caregivers in the audience. There was nary a dry eye!. Love those kids like Ms. P loves to teach! I said I love those kids, like this teacher loves to teach! Love to call them to the classroom Love to call them, "Hey there kids!" Inspired by Walter Dean Myers and Jack On 7/16/07, Bill IVEY <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi! > > One possible activity for April is to participate in the annual OnLine > Poetry Slam run off this listserve. It's a way for kids to share their > poems with kids in other schools and get comments back on those poems. > There's some amazing work out there, and the kids seem to love the > opportunity. > > Take care, > Bill Ivey > Stoneleigh-Burnham 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 > -- Tena _______________________________________________ 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
