It is important to note that while there was much writing that was completed during the Child Labor Inquiry Unit instruction, however I chose to focus on the writing that was done between one of my students who has a
STRONG PASSION for writing, specifically writing poetry.
STRONG PASSION for writing, specifically writing poetry.
Poetry by Alexis Greene
Pictured above is Ms. Hamilton and Alexis's "Teacher and Student Connection Book". Alexis and Ms. Hamilton have been writing daily entries to each other for six weeks to date! While some of the entries are written in narrative form, many of them are in poetic form with comments. pictures, and questions situated around those poems. It is important to note that Alexis currently has 75 unrevised/unedited poems!
Alexis's 75 unrevised/unedited poems
| greenealexis_poems.doc |
The P-O-W-E-R of her Poetry!
Planning
(Early February and into March)
Based on Alexis's talent for writing as well as her yearning for sharing her feelings, it has been concluded by both Alexis and myself that a student-teacher connection writing journal is going to be used/written in daily. This idea spawned from a individual reflection questionnaire that took place on Thursday in early February. One of the questions on the reflection questionnaire was “Would you rather be a pen pal with someone that you know or someone that you do not know?” Everyone except for Alexis excitedly wanted to be pen pals with individuals that they did not know. In fact, I received responses such as “Ms. Hamilton, I would LOVE to be pen pals with people who do not live in Illinois!” or “Can I write to a girl?” asked an 8th grade boy. Alexis responded by saying “Ms. Hamilton, I want to write to anyone who has a lot to say and who will write back, especially someone who will give me advice about going to high school!!! I am so so so nervous, overwhelmed, and excited about going to high school. Do you think we could start writing to people tomorrow? Will you write to me too? I will write to you Ms. Hamilton, I promise!” This was more then enough motivation for me to begin this additional journal with Alexis. Together, we choose a pretty-looking journal and agreed to write back and forth to each other in the journal as frequently as possible.
(Early April)
To date, Alexis currently has 75 poems in our teacher/student connection writing journal, we are planning to choose ten poems that we would like to have to create her own PowerPoint Poetry Book. The planning for this book required that Alexis and I review a number of different poets. In addition to becoming more exposed to different poets, we also explored the poetry that exists based on the lyrics of many current pop music songs. After delving into these different types of poetry (i.e. classical, lyrical, etc...) she concluded that poetry is "an author's way of expressing their feelings. It seems as though each poem and song that we heard is centered around an idea, a feeling, an experience. Sometimes they rhyme, sometimes they do not but either way is fine!" This understanding of poetry will help us in the organizing phases of our PowerPoint Poetry Book.
Based on Alexis's talent for writing as well as her yearning for sharing her feelings, it has been concluded by both Alexis and myself that a student-teacher connection writing journal is going to be used/written in daily. This idea spawned from a individual reflection questionnaire that took place on Thursday in early February. One of the questions on the reflection questionnaire was “Would you rather be a pen pal with someone that you know or someone that you do not know?” Everyone except for Alexis excitedly wanted to be pen pals with individuals that they did not know. In fact, I received responses such as “Ms. Hamilton, I would LOVE to be pen pals with people who do not live in Illinois!” or “Can I write to a girl?” asked an 8th grade boy. Alexis responded by saying “Ms. Hamilton, I want to write to anyone who has a lot to say and who will write back, especially someone who will give me advice about going to high school!!! I am so so so nervous, overwhelmed, and excited about going to high school. Do you think we could start writing to people tomorrow? Will you write to me too? I will write to you Ms. Hamilton, I promise!” This was more then enough motivation for me to begin this additional journal with Alexis. Together, we choose a pretty-looking journal and agreed to write back and forth to each other in the journal as frequently as possible.
(Early April)
To date, Alexis currently has 75 poems in our teacher/student connection writing journal, we are planning to choose ten poems that we would like to have to create her own PowerPoint Poetry Book. The planning for this book required that Alexis and I review a number of different poets. In addition to becoming more exposed to different poets, we also explored the poetry that exists based on the lyrics of many current pop music songs. After delving into these different types of poetry (i.e. classical, lyrical, etc...) she concluded that poetry is "an author's way of expressing their feelings. It seems as though each poem and song that we heard is centered around an idea, a feeling, an experience. Sometimes they rhyme, sometimes they do not but either way is fine!" This understanding of poetry will help us in the organizing phases of our PowerPoint Poetry Book.
Organizing
We began organizing the poems both before, during and after many of the journal submissions. We were able to begin organizing the first draft of our PowerPoint Poetry Book by reading the 75 poems together. After reading all of the poems together, Ms. Hamilton made comments on all 75 of those poems. The comments included questions, suggestions, and praises about each of the poems. The comments are included for each of the poems in the document below. Those comments helped us to organize the poetry into the writing submissions that Alexis would like to include in her Poetry book.
| poemswithcomments.doc |
Writing
The writing in this student-teacher connection journal began in early february and has continued well into April. We have been consistently planning, organizing, continuously writing, as well as editing/revising the responses that have been included in this journal. As previously mentioned, Alexis included 75 of her poems in this journal along with a few narrative responses to my journal entries. Based on all of her writings, we concluded that it would be best if we chose ten of those poems to revise and edit. All of the editing and revisions that Alexis completed on her ten poems is clearly outlined in her PowerPoint Poetry Book. The link is included below in the editing/revising section of this web page.
Editing and Revising
Based on the initial comments given as well as discussions and new poem drafts, Alexis and I were able to create the above Final PowerPoint Poetry Book. The process of providing comments, having individual discussions and working explicitly on new poem drafts took approximately two weeks time.
Final PowerPoint Poetry Book
(Is all included below as a PowerPoint Link)
| alexis.ppt |
In the midst of all our journaling, there were SEVEN DAYS where we also had the chance to look at the works (poems and lyrics) of other writers (students as well as famous writers). This meant that Alexis and I sat down together and read the poem or lyric silently, then listened to the song (if we chose lyrics over a poem), read the work again together and have an informal discussion. The seven pieces of literary work are included in the following document.
| seven_days.doc |
Disclaimer: Please refer to the final Teaching Writing Document for more information on this Writing experience.
