Found Poetry

I cut out several words from magazines. Then I put them onto single sided laminating sheets, put colored paper behind it and recut them out to make them durable. I decided to color code the words. This is not part of regular found poetry, but I thought we might want to use the words for something else in the future, and I thought that maybe if the kids looked up the words, they might learn different types of words like adjective, adverb, article, noun, etc. Once the words were created, the kids could play with them, move them about, and make poetry on the spot!

Before I was done with the words, my daughter asked if she could make a poem. I reminded her that we had just gone on a trip to see the salmon run and spent the day at the river. Could she make a poem while thinking about that day?  Here is what she created:

A River

Frost arrived

All sleep

We play

One traveler's favorite voice

The only change my daughter made, was the apostrophe on the word travelers. She wanted to indicate that the children's playing voices were one traveler's favorite sound.

Then, a few days later, the kids and I watched a short video I took of the salmon attempting to jump up the large waterfall. We watched in silence, while we all thought about the sounds, visions, feelings and memories of that day. Then we all dove into the pile of words and picked out what we were thinking about. I asked for a set of three lines from each of us. My daughter gave four. Then we put them into an order that we felt made sense. Here is our group poem:

Wish for a River

natural adventure

open exploration

and great kids

launch area

electric bounce

wet, fresh season

happiness, warm, good

uncommon, extreme, and charming

all unique

we wish for a river 

I love that we were able to make a poem within 5 minutes without fear or hesitation. We had fun. We worked alone and together. The colored words looked pretty. We ended up with a nice poem.

What can I expect from my children?

Have *I* Learned Anything?

Depends on what time of the day you ask me. I feel that I am learning daily on what works and what doesn't work for my family. My daughter just completed her biography report. There were many times where we walked the fine line of "critique, criticism, constructive suggestions, brainstorming". Sometimes it went well, other times we fought to where we would come to a creative stand still (that's code for "lots of tears".)

How high can I set the expectations?

I still am not sure how to gauge the quality and level of work to expect from my children. What is age appropriate? I didn't pay much attention to how her past teacher's taught language arts. For example, how many 45 minute sessions did it take the class to write one project? How many minutes were spent on introducing the project, first draft, second draft, final draft, presentation, etc. How often did my daughter complete her daily goal and was just waiting around for the rest of the class to be finished? I have very high expectations, I want them to have attention to details and have pride in their work. However, if I expect too much, will it cause them to feel less than adequate, set up to fail, resistant to doing the project at all? I am still trying to figure this issue, no answers yet.

Our Writing Class

Getting down with grammar:

I have been very concerned with my ability to teach language arts. I did ok in school, but it has never been my strongest subject. In fact, it was my weakest. So, how am I supposed to school my kids in this area? At my children's ages (currently 6 and 9), I think I can get by with some workbooks and making sure they read or are read to every day. But how far can I go on like this? How do I make sure that by the time they are college age, they are ready to write their thesis?

Take a step back:

I know, don't panic. But I can't help but worry about making sure they get all that they need in this area. I feel fortunate to have come across someone who's teaching a writing course for kids my daughter's age (9). There was an opening and we were able to jump in (a little late). The course very vigorous and I'm not sure how we're going to keep up with the time demands, but I'm finding it very helpful in many ways. Not only is my daughter getting exposed to thought processes, research methods, ideas and more, but I am able to talk with the parents of the other students at the end of class. This part has been a wonderful benefit as I hear what other parents are doing that work and what didn't work for them. I'm an introvert by nature, but am finding that I have missed talking to other parents on a daily basis (I used to do this at pick up time in the hallways.) I get to ask a lot of "newbie" questions and everyone seems more than willing to share their advice and experiences.

Here's my daughter giving her first presentation in the class.