This Is Just To Say

Last weekend's poetry writing assignment was a huge success. I asked students to write a poem modeled after William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just To Say." Williams was a unique and fascinating poet. He turned observations of everyday life into works of art. If you didn't get a chance to read the original poem, you can see it by clicking here.

I wanted to share a couple of the students' poems. Every one of them did a terrific job, but here are four that stood out:

"This Is Just To Say"

By Alexander

I have eaten

your breakfast

that was on

your bed

and which you

were probably

going

to eat

Forgive me

it was delicious

so delicious

and not yours.

-------------------------------

"This Is Just To Say"

By Justin

I have eaten

the cookies

that were on

the refrigerator

I knew that

I should have

saved

them for my lunch

I was hungry

and too lazy

to make cereal

for my breakfast

----------------------

"This Is Just To Say"

By Angela

I have taken

your last candy bar

that was

in your store

And which

you were probably

saving

to sell

Forgive me

it was good

so inexpensive

so free

-------------------------

"This Is Just To Say"

By Ileana

I have gone

to the

amusement park that

was in the mall

and which you

were probably

wanting

to go to

Forgive me

you would have enjoyed it

so fun

and so exciting

----------------------

I could go on and on. These were awesome! I look forward to reading more poems soon. Keep an eye out for announcements about future poetry assignments.

Back to School Night and more

Just a couple of quick announcements/reminders...

• Back to School night is tomorrow (Wednesday) from 5:00-7:00. Come see our new room and get acquainted with the fifth grade curriculum. We'll also be holding a discussion about Exhibitions & Learning Plans.
• Book-in-a-Bag started this week. Every student has a book, a bag, and a reading log. These things need to travel back and forth every day. We'll be using those books every day during reading workshop.
• Scholastic Book Club orders are due tomorrow. Remember, you can order online using the link in the sidebar of this blog!
• Learning Team Meetings will be held next week. I'll start making appointments tomorrow night at Back to School Night.
• There is no school next Friday, September 25.

A Day of Remembrance

I know that my students are too young to remember 9/11/01. And soon I'll be teaching students that weren't even alive on that day. But I've still always thought that it's important to talk about it whenever the anniversary comes around.

In the past I've read some really good picture books, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers and Fireboat. These kicked off some really good discussions. But this year I decided to share a poem with them. It's called "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100" and it is dedicated to the 43 employees working at the Windows on the World restaurant on that fateful day.

In the last two stanzas, it gets a little complex. We focused on the details in the first two stanzas, and on the change between stanzas two and three, when the poet stops talking about the people and starts talking about the attacks.

Sometimes it's good to read complicated material. I think (and hope) this was a worthwhile activity.

Here's the poem: http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16596

Free Books for the Classroom!

The first Scholastic Book Club order forms were sent home on Tuesday. Money and forms are due to me on Wednesday, the 16th (which is also Back to School night!).

BUT...did you know that the classroom is guaranteed to get free books for our library each time a book order is placed online? Yes, it's true. Ordering online is easy and convenient.

Think you want to give it a try? Click the "Scholastic Book Clubs" link in the sidebar (on the right side of the page). There you'll find the instructions for placing an order. If you have trouble or have questions, please send me an email.

There are some really good (and affordable) books in this month's catalog, including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Lawn Boy by award winning author Gary Paulsen, No Talking by the popular Andrew Clements, and the hit series The 39 Clues. We'll be doing A LOT of reading this year...stock up now!

A Poetry Revolution

As many of you know, I spent five weeks in Chicago this summer at DePaul University. I participated in a conference called "Say Something Wonderful: Teaching the Pleasures of Poetry." Poetry was not something I knew much about prior to this summer. But I learned a lot and am trying to implement as much as I can. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to happen, but we're off to a good start.

Yesterday, we read a silly poem by Dennis Lee called "Alligator Pie." The kids liked this one a lot. We spent a few minutes discussing it and then I asked students to write their own version. They've done well with this, although a number of them have yet to turn them in.

Today, we read one of my favorite poems, "Dreams," by one of my favorite poets, Langston Hughes. If you aren't familiar with it, here it is:

Dreams

By Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

After reading it, I asked some questions such as:

• How many stanzas does this poem have?
• What are the metaphors?
• What parts are repeated? Does the repeated part change in any way?
• What words don't you know?
• Do any words have more than one possible meaning?

The students responded to this activity very enthusiastically. Some even noticed things about the poem that I hadn't noticed before!

My goal is to use poems regularly to teach analytic thinking, grammar, vocabulary, and other important comprehension skills. As we come across great poems, I'll pass them along through the blog so the discussion can continue at home.

Special Guest on the First Day

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you might have heard about President Obama's speech to America's schoolchildren today. I'll spare you a rant about how silly I think all the "controversy" surrounding the speech is and just say that I thought it was wonderful timing, today being the first day of school and all.

I broadcast the speech live and I was proud to be part of a historic event. I hope the students took something from his powerful, important message.

In case you're interested in hearing the speech, here it is:

Stay tuned to the blog for more info about the start of the school year. I'll be posting more very soon.

Switching Over

I've been working on combining the class website and the class blog. I think having two different sites is a bit cumbersome. It takes a lot of time to maintain both for me, and it takes too much time for parents and students to switch between the two.

So, I'm using this blog as the main classroom site this year. I've added some things to the sidebar that I think you'll find useful, such as links about homework and links about Everyday Math. And of course, you can access the class wiki, which is mainly for student use, through the link in the sidebar, too.

As always, I'll continue to add things as we go along. And I'll let you know of the changes as I make them.

If you haven't subscribed to the blog yet or if you have a second email address (or third) where you'd like blog updates to be delivered, use the form on the side.

Happy reading!