Crow in Tree
Photo by Hope LV
Students - Yesterday afternoon, my daughter Hope and I were driving home, and a murder of crows (yes, a group of crows is called a 'murder'!) was settling into many of the trees lining our road. I stopped the car, rolled down the window of the driver's side, and tried to take a photograph, but before I could, all of the crows had flown away. Hope offered to take a photo from her side of the car, rolled down her window, and...the same thing happened! Only one crow remained, and here it is.
Later in the evening, I studied the picture and imagined a story to go with it. The first two stanzas rolled out easily, but it the third one is my favorite. I like it in the way I like writing that is given to me, almost a surprise from a little writing bird...maybe a crow...
At first my poem-crow was a boy. And the poem-child was a boy too. I needed to make a change. See, I like a balance of male and female in my poems. So I needed to choose, "Should the crow be female or the child be female?" Well, I chose the crow to be female, mostly because 'her' rhymes with 'perfect', 'perch', and 'birch' in stanza three. I find it funny and wonderful how a change for gender surprised me by improving rhyme as well.
Be open to such surprises in your writing. For me, the surprises are the best part. The surprises, not the poems, are why I write.
Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.
Students - Yesterday afternoon, my daughter Hope and I were driving home, and a murder of crows (yes, a group of crows is called a 'murder'!) was settling into many of the trees lining our road. I stopped the car, rolled down the window of the driver's side, and tried to take a photograph, but before I could, all of the crows had flown away. Hope offered to take a photo from her side of the car, rolled down her window, and...the same thing happened! Only one crow remained, and here it is.
Later in the evening, I studied the picture and imagined a story to go with it. The first two stanzas rolled out easily, but it the third one is my favorite. I like it in the way I like writing that is given to me, almost a surprise from a little writing bird...maybe a crow...
At first my poem-crow was a boy. And the poem-child was a boy too. I needed to make a change. See, I like a balance of male and female in my poems. So I needed to choose, "Should the crow be female or the child be female?" Well, I chose the crow to be female, mostly because 'her' rhymes with 'perfect', 'perch', and 'birch' in stanza three. I find it funny and wonderful how a change for gender surprised me by improving rhyme as well.
Be open to such surprises in your writing. For me, the surprises are the best part. The surprises, not the poems, are why I write.
So much of what happens at my school is rooted in those two words. My school, where I get to practice being a better listener, learner, and human each day, is a non-profit independent school in Denver, Colorado. It dependeth embodies the way I see each child: a living wonder with dreams, fears, loves, and wishes. How I respond to each child's individual curiosities, wonderings, and hopes depends on each child. I try each day to listen to each of my students and scaffold them, walk with them to the next challenge, to the next level of adventure, and we also take time to walk down reflection boulevard and think deeply about our learning, growth, and welcome new questions about the world around us.
One special way in which my students are agents of their own learning is through an individual unit. Every one of the 250 students in my school chooses their own individual unit of study. From gravity, mermaids, and DNA to deception, terrorism, and Rosalind Franklin. Children pick their unit and as their teacher, I write an individualized curriculum with and for each child.
Is every child's unit guided by her/his interest. Yes.
Does every unit look the same. No.
Those seem simple enough to answer.
Can a 7 year old study quantum physics? It depends.
Would I have a Socratic seminar about gender in my classroom? It depends.
How do children create projects? It depends.
What determines growth as a mathematician, listener, or scientist? It depends.
So much depends on those two words. Units open doors for children to grow as language artists, social scientists, chemists, artists, architects, inventors, and something that is always very exciting - as poets. One way in which my students practice being poets is to integrate their excitement and learning surrounding their units with their growing skills as poets. We find different ways to bring poetry into our units and children take their love for poetry in many different directions.
One such path has been constructed by our love for William Carlos Williams's poem The Red Wheelbarrow. When we read this rather uncomplicated 8-line poem that is in fact one sentence, we meditate over his choice of words, the picture he painted for us, the depth and simplicity of documenting what he sees, and the parts of speech buried so systematically in the poem. We also talk about why "so much depends upon" that red wheel barrow and the possible stories behind that wheel barrow, that rain water, and those white chickens. Then, we begin to ponder, brainstorm, research, and write about what depends upon our units.
Why is studying about renewable energy or Alaska so important? The children follow a process of research and learning and then experiment with words, patterns, and sounds to create their own versions of William Carlos Williams's poem. Each child works on a few drafts in their writers notebooks and are often freed by the pattern of the poem and always integrate factual information about their unit. After some iterations of editing, the children share their final pieces. We then publish the poems on our bulletin board for our poems, lovingly called, "Poetree".
This year, my students really enjoyed this project and are coming to school regularly with more "so much depends upon" poems about their units long after the project saw completion in our classroom.
Poem by Zoe
Poem by Mari
Poem by Pearly
Poem by Sabrina
How do you define a child who cares deeply about endangered species, has a deep understanding of numbers, is learning to add two digit numbers, listens deeply, loves Taylor Swift, dreams about forests with giant talking ants, struggles at and loves soccer, wants to be a better reader, knows every type of toothed whale, sees themselves as seahorses, is learning how to hug, feels safe communicating in sign language, sees colors differently, can enjoy music with their eyes closed, breathes poetry, is sometimes overwhelmed with noise, laughs when talking about the purple polka-dotted people eater, is making a model of a tornado intercept vehicle, can empathize, doesn't like chocolate and loves homemade pho or pasta…? Is this child a 3.97 GPA? Or maybe an A-?
I would rather brave the daily joyful confusion of understanding each of my students as individuals than assign them numerical values. So, I don't mind being stopped in hallways or interrogated by skeptics to elaborate on how, why, and so what of "it depends", because this allows me to honor all children as they are and all they can become.
Thank you to Suparna, Jessica, and this classroom community and school for joining us today. Thank you for sharing your thoughtful and enriching work.
Diane is hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup over at Random Noodling. Head on over to her place and join us in this week's poetry celebration all 'round the Kidlitosphere.
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