Celebrating the Pleasures of Poetry with Young Readers (and Writers!)

As I mentioned on Friday, I am "Out and About" this week, for two days of school visits where we're "Celebrating the Pleasures of Poetry." Yesterday, I gave 3 grade-level presentations to kindergartners, first-graders, and second-graders. It's amazing how much we squeezed into one hour (45 minutes for the kindergartners)! I talked about what it means to be an author and how I get ideas from real life; I read a picture book work-in-progress; and I taught them a fun song with hand signs.

I used the song to segue into the main purpose of my visit--to celebrate National Poetry Month. We talked about ways poems are like songs, and how, even when poems don't rhyme, they have a strong rhythm. The best part came when we wrote a group poem together modeled on one I'd found in Regie Routman's Kids’ Poems: Teaching Kindergartners to Love Writing Poetry (Scholastic). The book is the first in a series which also includes Kids’ Poems: Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry; Kids’ Poems: Teaching Second Graders to Love Writing Poetry; Kids’ Poems: Teaching Third & Fourth Graders to Love Writing Poetry. If you're looking for ways to introduce young students to poetry writing, I recommend all these books. What I especially like is that they include examples of poems written by students the same age mentioned in the title. By sharing these examples, we can help our students see that they, too, can write poetry. Yesterday's group poetry-writing activity was a great success. I hope today's goes as well.

During the visit, I also shared a bit of personal good news: a few days ago I learned my poem, "At the Chicago Marathon" will be published in a new anthology coming out later this year called And the Crowd Goes Wild!: A Global Gathering of Sports Poems, edited by Carol-Ann Hoyte and Heidi Roemer. The anthology will include 50 poems by poets from 10 different countries. I'm thrilled and honored to have my work included in the book, which will also feature a poem by former TeachingAuthor JoAnn Early Macken, and a number of other poets whose work I admire. I'll be sure to let everyone know when the book is available.

Meanwhile, happy writing!
Carmela

Answers---We Have 'Em (I Hope!)

      One of the reasons we began this blog was to give other authors the opportunity to ask us about their own writing dilemmas. So today's writing puzzler comes to us from reader Barbara Gold.

    I am writing a middle grade novel and have two writing related questions I hope your team would consider answering.

    OK, Barbara. Fire away. I'm listening (reading!)

 1.  In my story, a teacher gives a class an assignment to report on a famous person who has played a part in changing history.

     The kids pick their report dates by a lottery.  Is it possible for the first report presentation to be in 8 days?  Or is it more realistic to give the first kid a minimum of 10 or 11 days?

    My story works better using the least amount of days.  Creates more tension.

2.  Do the kids use the school resource rooms (with computers) for their research, the school library, the neighborhood library or home computers?

     Wow, Barbara...great questions.  Also difficult for me to answer without knowing your central story.

     Lucky for me, I just happen to have three high school seniors with me (I am chaperoning a spring break beach house) who remember far better than I how these projects worked in elementary and middle school.  The four of us talked it over and here is what we want you to think about.

1.  Is the lottery concept absolutely essential to the story?  We all agreed that a teacher would never give the same basic assignment, yet give the students different due dates. My senior advisory board have had teachers assign a project that had to be finished by a certain date (the paperwork had to be on the teacher's desk), but if the assignment involved some sort of presentation (speech, skit, Powerpoint) their presentation date might be chosen by lottery.

2.  How old are your characters?  Is a middle grade novel or chapter book? The younger the student, the longer a teacher would give for preparation.  A middle schooler (grades 6-8) would be given no less
than 8-10 school days in preparation.  An elementary schooler (grades 3-5) could easily have up to three weeks. The time assigned would depend on how complicated the project is. A simple two or three page report would be in the 8-10 day category.

     Middle school projects seem to become more complicated all the time. When my daughter was in the 7th grade (that would be five years ago), she and a partner were required to plan a seven stop world tour that had to include all the continents.  They had to come up with hotel and transportation reservations, choose sightseeing tours and restaurants....and a line item budget for all of this. Although it seemed to take forever, my daughter remembers it as being a three week project, with everyone presenting their five minute tour on the same day.

3.  I agree that the tighter the time frame, the greater the tension. However, I think that different due dates might throw in one complication too many. Also, since you want a shorter time frame, make it a fairly uncomplicated project (no line items for a meal in Cairo, for instance!)

4.  All of my high school advisors say that the majority of school projects are mostly written using school computers. How affluent is your school?  My daughter's elementary and middle schools had desktop computers in all the classrooms, enough for everyone to be working at the same time. I worked in a considerably less affluent school where there was only a computer lab, with enough workstations for one classroom to come in and work at a time. My daughter's high school is in an economically deprived area.  Each classroom has two or three desktops.  The library has maybe two dozen computers.  There is no computer lab.  The economic condition of your fictional school will have a great deal to do with how your students complete their assignment.

     All four of us agreed that our local libraries have too many restrictions on their computer use (and too few computers) to be useful. There is an hour time limit, a limit to the number of printouts (which they have to pay for), and very little actual library assistance. (Public librarians please do not send me hate mail....I have been a public librarian and I know how small budgets are...at least in my neck of the woods). However, even if you decide to have your characters working in the world's richest library, there is still very little actual library help available. This is one of the main reasons that teachers like for the kids to do their research at school. The teachers and technicians are there to keep them from wandering up research cul-de-sacs or hooking up with bogus information. After all, anyone can put anything on the Internet and claim it's true. I always made my students check the authenticity of a website before using it as a source.

5.  If the student has access to a home computer, they will probably type their final copy there. If they are a real overachiever, they may also do some more research at home. You know if you have a character like that or not.

      I realize I am speaking from personal experience.  My experiences, or even those of other teachers may not work in your particular setting and plot.  So here are the questions you need to ask yourself before moving on.....

1.  How old are your characters?

2.  How complicated is the assignment?

3.  Is the assignment central to the plot?  Is the story all about doing this assignment?  Or is it a plot device for the characters to experience something else?

4.  What is the school's economic situation?  Are your characters economically similar or are some more affluent than others?

    Barbara, I hope I haven't confused you further with my own questions. However, when you know the answers to my questions, I think you'll find the exact right answers for your own story.

    Happy researching...for both you and your characters.
Submitted by Mary Ann Rodman

Celebrating Poetry Friday with a Poetry Month Preview, and a Timely Poem

I've been immersed in poetry this week as I prepare for two days of school visits where I'll be "Celebrating the Pleasures of Poetry." I can't think of a better way to kick off National Poetry Month 2012!

While working on my lesson plans, I found some terrific online poetry resources, including:

• Poetry at Play, blog sponsored by Poetry Advocates for Children and Young Adutls (PACYA)
• Writers in the Schools blog, where you can find lesson plans for teaching students about poetry writing. You can also sign up to receive a student written "poem a day" via email during National Poetry Month.
• Poetry Foundation website, which includes a section devoted to poetry for children.
• A round-up of Kidlitosphere Events in honor of National Poetry Month at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup blog.
• Kenn Nesbitt's Poetry4kids website, featuring fun kid-friendly poems, poetry lessons, and links to lots of other poetry-related sites.     

Speaking of Kenn Nesbitt, he has several funny poems that are especially timely for this weekend.  I've excerpted the first and last stanza from one of them below. You can read the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation site.

And when you're done here, be sure to visit the My Juicy Little Universe Blog for this week's Poetry Friday roundup.

Now, for that "timely" poem I mentioned:

Good Morning, Dear Students
by Kenn Nesbitt

“Good morning, dear students,” the principal said.
“Please put down your pencils and go back to bed.
Today we will spend the day playing outside,
then take the whole school on a carnival ride. . . .
                      . . . .
. . . “Tomorrow it’s back to the regular grind.
Today, just go crazy. We really don’t mind.
So tear up your homework. We’ll give you an A.
Oh wait. I’m just kidding. It’s April Fools’ Day.”


That's right, April Fools' Day is this weekend. Enjoy!

Happy Poetry Friday, and happy writing!
Carmela

Deserved Laurels for Our JoAnn EARLY Macken!

Remember what Ben Franklin said about “early to bed, early to rise….?”
How it makes a (wo)man healthy, wealthy and wise?

Well,

my TeachingAuthor slot is Wednesday, every other week.
So every other Tuesday night, sometimes way past midnight,  guess who was finalizing her TeachingAuthor post,
battling Blogger to upload links and photos?

But, you know what?
Once I set the schedule to 7:00 AM Wednesday and clicked “Publish,”
I was instantly comforted:
“JoAnn’s next!” I’d remind myself.
I had myself my very own clean-up hitter.
I could count on JoAnn to give our readers sound advice, a reminder to play, plus that touch of Friday Poetry I so covet and admire.

For some strange reason, I was absolutely certain JoAnn was readying her post while I was readying mine, living up to her maiden name, EARLY.

I “attended” Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children Program vicariously, thanks to my fellow blogger Carmela and one of my All-time Favorite Children’s Book Authors, Carolyn Crimi.
When they connected me to their class Listserv, The Hive, they connected me to several of my future fellow TeachingAuthors, including JoAnn.

It turns out JoAnn and I share lots besides our Midwest (Chicago and Milwaukee) lives:
a publisher (Holiday House),
past and present SCBWI Regional Advisor roles,
educational publishing experience,
and best of all, of course,
our fellow TeachingAuthors.

I’ve dubbed JoAnn’s September 30, 2011 post “The Earlybird Gets the Story” My Favorite JoAnn Early Macken Post.
JoAnn loves writing first drafts!
Her joy for the process is downright palpable.
She shared this beautiful photo and beautiful poem.

We Are the Early Risers

We are the early risers.
We are drawn to the water
like turtles in spring.
While the sleepyheads snuggle with pillows,
we are shucking off sneakers and socks
to tiptoe through sand dunes
and wade in the shallows
and watch dawn hatch from the waves.

Somehow I became a part of that first person plural “we” and I was rising early,

vicariously, with JoAnn.

I know JoAnn is still rising early to partake of and celebrate all that’s in her Life.

She’s marching forth,
but just in case she tires,
I offer up for resting these deserved laurels.

We’re counting the days, JA, 'til you Guest Post on TeachingAuthors!

Your Grateful Fan Esther Hershenhorn

Marching Forth

As we consider our fond retrospective in honor of JoAnn, the post I choose to share is about the day that forever makes me think of her.

JoAnn is perhaps the hardest-working writer I know.  Simply reading her to-do lists leaves me exhausted.  Among the 'read, write, revise, organize,' there's always: shoveling snow for a neighbor or cleaning up litter in the park or marching at a rally with her equally hard-working sons and husband.  All of this is accomplished with good cheer and a sunny, 'Wish me luck.' 

JoAnn doesn't need luck.  She's got guts and gumption.  Further, she always takes time to stop and smell the flowers -- literally, and usually with the dog's leash in hand.

At Vermont College, I remember trekking around campus with JoAnn in that first glorious summer.  I said to her one day, 'I don't know why I keep wanting to call you Judy.'  She replied, 'Well, I do have an identical twin named Judy.'  At the time, I was working on Mind Games, which has semi-psychic identical twins among its cast of characters.  It was one of those providential moments that made me feel both lucky and inspired.

So, in honor of JoAnn, let us March Forth into spring with big plans, big motivation, and big smiles. We are lucky to know you, JoAnn! --Jeanne Marie      

Goodbye Songs, Goodbye JoAnn, Hello, Poetry Friday and a Poetry Prompt!

.
Howdy Campers--and happy Poetry Friday!

Thanks to wonderful Mary Lee and Franki 

of A Year of Reading for hosting today!

This round, each Teaching Author (so far Carmela and Mary Ann) will be sharing one of our favorite posts by blogmate JoAnn Early Macken, now on our Blog Advisory Board (or BAB).  Just kidding.  We don't actually have a BAB, although maybe we should. We're saying goodbye to JoAnn who is so busy teaching, writing and running Wisconsin's SCBWI chapter, she can scarcely breathe.

JoAnn's poetry and photos sing.  Though we had hoped to talk about different posts from JoAnn's tenure, I was so struck by her poetry in the same post Mary Ann chose, I have to share JoAnn's photo and poem, "Landscape with Dog Nose":

Landscape with Dog Nose by JoAnn Early Macken

I wanted to capture the crisp horizon,

gradations of shades,

mountainous clouds,

but she insisted on

stepping into the shot.

Well, why not?

She’s always part of the picture.
photo and poem (c) 2012 JoAnn Early Macken, all rights reserved 

I'll miss blogmate JoAnn's unique view of the natural world, her kindness, her beautific smile, her poetry...and so much more.

If you missed her post with this poem, you'll find it here. Because it's an old post, you won't be able to comment on it, so share your thoughts below, or email them to the TeachingAuthors via this link.

We love you, JA!

When I think of goodbyes, folk songs flood my brain.  The first one that came to me as a tribute to JoAnn was Woody Guthrie's Deportee, which is a terrific and important song, but doesn't exactly hit the right emotional notes to send our JoAnn off to her next chapter.  I'm here to allay your fears: her leaving did NOT involve a firey plane crash.

Next, Tom Paxton's Last Thing on my Mind came to me--but again, his chorus just doesn't quite express our relationship with JoAnn:

Chorus from Tom Paxton's Last Thing on my Mind:

Are you goin' away with no word of farewell?

Will there be not a trace left behind?

I could have loved you better, didn't mean to be unkind;

Oh, you know that was the last thing on my mind.

The next one that popped up was Woody's children's song, Why Oh Why.  Just like three obstacles in a story, the third one's the charm--the perfect song!

Chorus from Woody Guthrie's Why Oh Why:

Why, oh why, oh why oh, why?
Why, oh why, oh why?
Because because because because
Goodbye goodbye goodbye

Okay...I know this looks--well, simple.  But you've gotta hear Woody sing it:

And here's another silly g'bye poem.  I wrote this one as my family ended a fairy tale vacation in Fiji:

GOOD-BYE FIJI

(bula = hello; vi naka = thank you; sota tallee = see you later)

by April Halprin Wayland  .

Bula, bula

and vinaka

Fiji rula:

no more clocka

everybody laughing, jolly

ask your name and make-a talka

leaving soon—so sota tallee!

poem (c) 2012 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved  

Writing Workout: Goodbye Poems

1) Get quiet.  Think about a recent goodbye.  Maybe a news event will inspire you, like Woody Guthrie's Deportees. Maybe it's deeply personal, like Tom Paxton's Last Thing on my Mind.  Perhaps it's silly like Woody's Why oh Why...or my Goodbye to Fiji.

2) Write it!

3) Share it!

P.S: Although I'm no longer in the running in the March Madness Poetry Tournament, I'm having a blast reading and voting as the new poems come in.  Come read along!

The Days Are Getting Longer, But They Still Have Only 24 Hours

The first day of Spring arrived here in the Northern Hemisphere yesterday.  (We in the Midwest have been experiencing record-breaking high temperatures for a week now, so it actually feels like summer has arrived.) And I finally got outside to take a photograph of the daffodils in our front yard:

As I mentioned last Friday, the TeachingAuthors are dedicating a series of posts in honor of JoAnn by dipping into the archives and sharing with you, our readers, some of our favorite posts of hers. JoAnn is an amazingly productive person, able to juggle many tasks and projects. Although we'll miss her as a TA, I respect and admire her for saying "no" to something she enjoys and values so that other parts of her life don't suffer. Life is a balancing act for all of us, and especially for those of us in creative pursuits like writing. It's difficult to earn a decent living as a fiction writer, so most of us have to "support our habit" with teaching, school visits, freelance work, a "day job," etc.

With the vernal equinox behind us, the daylight hours now exceed the nighttime ones. Yet we still have only 24 hours in a day. And I still struggle with how to prioritize and manage what I do with that time. Often, it's my creative writing that suffers, as I focus on "income-generating" activities. When that happens, I think of a post JoAnn wrote nearly two years ago called "One Big Rock" in which she shared this image:

In the post, JoAnn talked about her own time-management challenges and the advice she heard at a presentation on the topic: (I'm paraphrasing here.) If this "one big rock" represents your most important priority, you need to put it in your time-management "jar" before the container gets filled with pebbles and stones.

I think of that image, and JoAnn's words, whenever I start to feel out of balance. If you missed her post, or would like to reread it, you'll find it here. Because it's an old post, you won't be able to comment on it, so I hope you'll come back and share your thoughts below, or email them to the TeachingAuthors via this link.

Happy writing!
Carmela

The Magic Carpet(bag) Ride

     Blessed was that day in July 1998, when I first met JoAnn Macken in the Burlington, Vermont airport. We newbies in the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children Program milled around the one conveyor belt, looking for our bags, but also sizing each other up. (To digress for a moment, Jeanne Marie, I first remember you sitting on the floor, your back against a pillar, reading I, Juan de Pareja which if I am not mistaken, is historical fiction...see last week's blog!)
     This was back in the day, before luggage charges and laundry lists of what you could and could not bring on a plane. I was living in Bangkok, and had already been "home on furlough" for two months. My two enormous suitcases were large enough to carry small children (or, in reality, seventy pounds of books).  As I dragged my bags toward the jolly green Vermont College school bus, I noticed a woman who appeared to have grabbed Mary Poppins' magic carpet bag by mistake.  I soon learned that Magic Carpet Bag Woman was JoAnn. What struck me about her bag was that other than the unusual shape, it was a completely unremarkable piece of luggage. What really got my attention was its size...smallish. Certainly much smaller than my mini-steamer-trunks-on-wheels.
     That has to be her carry-on bag, I thought. But no. It turned out that one bag had all she would need for ten days of heavy study and hard writing. I felt a little sorry for her. What could she possibly have in that bag besides a change of clothes and maybe a journal?
    I soon found out, that like Mary Poppins,  JoAnn's bag contained anything you might ever need. Someone need herbal tea to sleep?   JoAnn had it.  Epsom salts to ease sore muscles from hiking uphill and down? Ask  JoAnn.  Blackberry preserves, tiger balm, an extra pillow?  If you needed it,  JoAnn had it. I never did figure out how she got all that stuff in that one (magic?) carpet bag.  I started calling her, "JA the Girl Scout" since she was "always prepared."
      JoAnn herself turned out to be exactly like her suitcase...prepared, organized and a head full of images that she weaves into the most amazing poems. I too lived in Wisconsin in a lakeside town for six years. I have many memories of those surreally frigid winters...but some how they did not end up in such beautiful poetry as the ones in this blog from earlier this year. http://www.teachingauthors.com/2012/01/new-year-poems-and-poetry-friday.html
      Continue to March forth (and January and the other months as well) my talented and intrepid friend.
Blogging with you has been one heckuva magic carpet(bag) ride.
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Missing JoAnn

Today would normally be JoAnn's turn to post. But as she announced two weeks ago, she's had to leave the TeachingAuthors team, at least as a regular contributor. All the TAs have shared with her privately about how much we're going to miss her. Beginning on Monday, we'll also share with you, our readers, a small tribute to JoAnn.

In honor of JoAnn, who always shared such wonderful photographs with us, I wanted to share a photograph today too. With our unseasonably warm weather here in the Midwest, some of the Spring flowers are already blooming. However, I haven't had a chance to get out much to enjoy them. So I'm going to "cheat" and share this clipart photo instead:

 
And since today is Poetry Friday, I'd also like to share the opening of William Wordsworth's "Daffodils":

                 Daffodills
      I wandered lonely as a cloud
      That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
      When all at once I saw a crowd,
      A host, of golden daffodils;
      Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
      Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

You can read the rest of it at the PoemHunter website. 

Speaking of poetry, don't forget to check out the amazing March Poetry Madness competition going on at Think Kid, Think. As I type this, there's still time to vote for your first-round favorites. Our own TeachingAuthor, April Halprin Wayland, is participating. You can see her match-up here.  

Today's Poetry Friday round-up is at Greg Pincus's GottaBook blog.  Greg happens to also be participating in March Poetry Madness. Read his match-up here. And see the list of all the participants here.  
 

Happy Writing!
Carmela