You Can't Write a Poem About...

Windshield wipers. You can’t write a poem about windshield wipers. But I did. Or, at least I tried to. And I encouraged my students to do something similar…

Every day, I start my class in a circle. This circle is part of our community building, and in the circle, I share a poem. Tuesday’s poem was called “Song to Onions” by Roy Blount, Jr. After the poem each day, I ask a question and we pass around a talking piece so everyone can add to the conversation. My question for Tuesday was: “What is something that you can’t imagine a poem being written about?”

My students came up with some pretty interesting answers. I heard everything from brownies to Red Bull to shoes, and everything in between. I used this opportunity to lead into our lesson of the day: looking at a poem through the eyes of a writer.

After our opening, I shared a poem titled “You Can’t Write a Poem About McDonald’s” by Ronald Wallace. Individually and as a class, we examined Wallace’s craft as a writer to see what he does in the piece.

We created a class list of the aspects included, and I encouraged my students to write their own poem titled “You Can’t Write a Poem About…” whatever the item was that they named at the beginning of class, or another item they came up with. I challenged them to fill their poem with personification, as Wallace does in his, just to see how that feels as a writer.

Some of my students opted to work on other assignments during workshop time, but the ones who accepted my challenge to write a poem borrowing Wallace’s style had quite a bit of fun. As I conferenced with my students, I was really impressed with the creative route they took with the assignment.

Some found it challenging, others found it to be silly and enjoyable.

I’m hoping that as the semester progresses, more of my students will feel adventurous enough to try this style, just to see how interesting it can be.

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

Earlier this week, my university supervisor came into my classroom to observe me -- I was terrified.

He came to my first class on Monday morning, and I was so worried that my lesson would flop because most of my students forgot to do their homework that I was fairly scatterbrained when he walked into my room three minutes before the start of class.

But the lesson was great, and despite not having done their homework, my students caught on to the lesson after I provided a short review.

My supervisor was impressed, and in all, I was happy with how it went.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely things I would change now that I’m reflecting on the experience, but for having my first observation only about a week and a half into school, I think it went well.

The lesson I created was about heart maps and hand maps, which are tools that my Creative Writing students can use to help brainstorm topics for their writing.

In essence, a heart map is, so to speak, a map of your heart. You start at the center and work your way out with what means the most to you. However, not everything in the heart has to be a positive experience.

A hand map is a map of anything that you like to do. When I asked my students to make these, I asked them to think about everything they’ve done recently. An example I gave them was putting out fires – which I meant both literally and figuratively.

I gave my students 15-20 minutes to work on both maps, and then I had them stop and collaborate with their tablemates. Not only did they have my maps on the board to reference, but they were also able to listen to what their peers had to say.

This exchange of ideas not only helps build the community in our workshop, but it also helps students recognize different ideas that they could put on their own maps. It all goes hand in hand (pun intended).

Later in the week, I had the chance to do a marathon writing activity with one of my Creative Writing classes. For the activity, I typed a list of firsts, printed it, and then cut out each sentence on a strip of paper. I put the paper strips in a brown paper bag and went around so each student could pick a topic to write about.

Some of the items on the list were “First time getting in trouble with your parents.,” “First time trying coffee.,” “First time driving by yourself.,” and “First paying job.” were among some of the first time experiences.

I had my students pick a new topic three or four times throughout the course of class so they could get more ideas for their first assignment.

Before my students left for the day, I checked in to see how they felt the exercise went, and with the exception of a few students, they all asked me if we could do a similar activity with different prompts later in the semester. I’d say that means the lesson was a success…

Timing is Everything

It’s cliché, I am well aware. But I can’t express to you enough how true this statement has become for me.

Timing is, in fact, everything.

Throughout this semester, I will be completing my student teaching. I began my experience last week, and so far, all I have to say is wow.

For now, my only complaint is waking up at 4:45AM every day, which is well worth it the moment I step into school.

My cooperating teacher is incredibly supportive, and despite only being about a week and a half into my experience, I already feel more relaxed and more prepared for my future career. As I have started to teach more, she has been giving me resources to reference for ideas, as well as for general practices that I can use. I am so lucky to be working with such a dedicated teacher.

Photo I took of Big Ben in January 2014,
since timing really is everything.

Moreover, the students I am working with are among the best students I have encountered. When they come into class, they’re always eager to begin and they’re willing to put themselves out there. This was not the case in my field experiences last year, so seeing this stark contrast firsthand has been a learning experience.

Overall, I’m finding it difficult to put into words how amazing my experience has been thus far.

Now, I must confess, my experience hasn’t been sunshine and butterflies the whole way. I’ll admit there have been some minor bumps in the road, but so far, nothing earth shattering (and I’m hoping to keep it that way).

This is where timing comes in. I’ve taught a few different lessons over the course of this week, and I did not plan enough activity for one of my lessons. I am teaching two freshmen English classes, and we did an activity to foster a team-oriented environment earlier this week.

The activity itself was phenomenal. My students were really into it, and they were able to conclude the activity with the outcome I was hoping for: how to have a successful classroom environment in which everyone feels included and respected. The lesson worked and I couldn’t have been happier.

What didn’t work, however, was timing. The discussion we had as a class after the activity was one of the best discussions I’ve had in a classroom, but I had to drag the conversation out a little longer than I would have liked, as I feel like after a certain point, my students started to become a little antsy.

In hindsight, I should have included another activity so that downtime at the end of my lesson wouldn’t have been such a big deal.

Looking back, I could have included another short team building exercise so students would get to know students other than those at their table. I could have showed a short portion of Tom Wujec’s 2010 TED Talk titled “Build a Tower, Build a Team.” Or, I could have made the challenge a little more difficult so students had to work through a more difficult problem.  

While my lesson ended up working well, and timing ended up being just a small portion of it, I definitely felt better prepared for my lessons later in the week, which had no timing issues at all.

In fact, my lessons later in the week, which were about writing territories, went really well. Granted, I taught the same lesson four times, so by the fourth time, I had it down to a science, but each time I taught it, I realized more of what my students need from me, which leaves me feeling more prepared going into my lessons next week.