Progressive Poems progress

So.... let me tell you about our first crack at progressive poetry. It was awesome! I started by telling the class Mr. Sentz and I were invited to a "progressive dinner" and what that is. We talked about what the word progressive means and linked it to progress (which makes them think of progress reports). Then I reminded them that April is National Poetry Month and told them we'd be creating some progressive poems. They were very willing writers. This group always steps up for a challenge!

Well! They exceeded my wildest expectations! I enlisted the help of my two classroom partners in crime, Mrs. Zimmermann and Mrs. Vernon. With no prior planning, I asked Mrs. Zimmerman to start us with a line. She gave us:

"Fluffy, Happy, Sunshine, Bright"

Then Mrs. Vernon added:

"Wagging his tail and smiling"

And I couldn't wait to put my two cents in:

 "With delight."

So that gave us a really good start and gave the kids the idea of what we'd be doing:

"Fluffy, Happy, Sunshine, Bright

Wagging his tail and smiling

With delight."

Now we had their wheels turning! At each table, a set of six collaborative, progressive poems was constructed as the papers rotated around from student to student. They turned out so cool! When they got done adding lines to each others' work, they did final copies and illustrations. I began calling them one at a time to add to our BIG poem. That was something to behold. They typed in their own lines, adding it to the document which was also being displayed on the Smartboard. It was pretty neat to watch the poem grow.

Here is our final product:

Room 110 Progressive Poem

                                                                                                  

Fluffy, Happy, Sunshine, Bright

Wagging his tail and smiling

With delight.

While everyone drinks Sprite

The sun is shinning bright

Still continuing the fight

The moon is dark but also bright in the night

The sun was shining so bright

I think I might be blind, I just might

Tonight on the flight I might be blind by the light

Then plants will blind the sun.

Awww that wont be fun      

Airplane, HUGE, bird, small not good.

I saw mouse in my house

The suns now light not bright

The fluffy clouds a BIG HUGE POODLE!

Humans get muddy in the puddle! Ewwwww!

Soaking wet sloppy mess I wonder what will happen

I hope It’ll stay bright for awhile, my bunny is sad!

Filling Up With Anger I Terribly mad!

Maybe its just one of those days sad and mad, day I had and sort of BAD.

I’m REALLY mad! What should I do? I guess I’ll get my bunny cleaned up.

 It’s just one of those days!

My bunny is fluffy and got all clean!

We shaved the fur, now it is lean!

Trying to run away from the water!

Trying to run on water.

Its just one of those bright days.

It was so interesting to witness the process, how children built on the work of others. In some cases, it looks like when they were really stuck, they switched gears, which, in my book is perfectly okay! Important to remember that we wrote this in about 50 minutes – 24 students adding to the work of the others, typing in their own words – not  bad. Actually, I think it’s an amazing feat of quick creative collaboration. I love my class!

No one said “I can’t…” Early in the year, we established a culture built on the premise that “I can’t” means “I quit.” There are no quitters in my class!

Tomorrow I will share some of the mini progressive poems from the tables. They are equally cool!

Now I Can Teach Again...

Here in the great state of New York, we wind up our annual celebration of gauging student reading and writing abilities. It's like a marathon, the 3-day ELA event my students experience each year -- New York State testing. Ahhhh.... when I think of the hours of preparation, the anxiety of the children and the teachers, the dread while waiting for scores. It warms the heart. No child left untested.

Just to be clear, my little 10 year old friends (actually some are still only 9) still have baby teeth in their mouths, still believe in the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa. They like to color and paste. They love to read, and they love to write, but they live in fear and trembling of those stinky state tests. It was three days of torture (90 minute sessions!) for my lil peeps to sit and read, write, and ruminate on whether this would keep them in fourth grade for another year. Kids do say the darnedest things!

Now that we have hopped over that hurdle (who knows what the tests will actually show or prove, probably not much that I didn't already know, frankly!), we can get back to the business of real reading and real writing in our real world. We can go back to enjoying what we read and write, without that sense of foreboding. We can't wait!

So, first on our agenda is a little teamwork. We will start writing a progressive poem tomorrow. I got my idea from a blog I follow, The Poem Farm, http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/ written by my dear friend Amy Ludwig Vandewater. If you haven't been to her blog, you should visit. She is an AMAZING poet, teacher, mother, and friend. But before you go, let me tell you what my kids are doing tomorrow! We are writing a progressive poem. Actually we may write a couple of them.

April is National Poetry Month, but my students have been prepping for ELA. So... with ELA done, we can celebrate poetry in our class. A progressive poem is simply a group effort, a collaborative work. The exciting thing is that you don't really know how it will turn out until it's done. Have you ever done a progressive dinner? Kinda the same idea, only with words.

My students sit in groups of 6, at tables, and are very good at group work. I will give each student a sheet of pastel colored composition paper. (It could be plain, but I use colored paper, fun border paper, etc., whenever humanly possible.) Each student will compose a first line, then on my signal will pass the paper to the person seated at their left. That person will read the first line, then they will add the next line. We will continue passing the paper, with the next person adding lines until it finds its way back to the original author. Done! Simple!

The students can mix with friends from other tables and share their masterpieces. We will probably illustrate the edges and hang them up for the world to see. But that’s not all. We will finish our progressive work with a class poem. I’ll draw names to get a really random order. We will read our class progressive poem on the morning announcement next week.