Many of the poems in Gary Soto’s A Fire in My Hands (Harcourt, 2006) invite opportunities to write. What makes the poems in this collection so powerful in eliciting response is their universality and their commonness. Soto accurately captures the emotions of growing up and shows adolescents how to revere the simple and the everyday: baseball games, a walk in the rain, friendships, first love, courtship, and food. These struck me as especially effective and inviting:
s “Black Hair”—Borrow the line “I was brilliant with my body” and let that line lead your thinking. This technique is often called “taking a line for a walk,” a metaphor inspired by visual artist Paul Klee (1879-1940) who described drawing as “simply a line going for a walk.” Perhaps best known for his color-rich compositions, cosmic metaphors, and surreal figures in fantastic landscapes, Klee’s inventive, often humorous paintings and drawings allude to music, dreams, and poetry. Drawing on this analogy, writing workshops use the method to spark critical thinking, writing, and discussion. After reading or hearing a song, poem, or other text, writers choose from the text a line that strikes them, copies it, and then continues in their own words, letting that line lead their thinking. The strategy illustrates the power of spontaneity.
s “That Girl”—Recall your own first experiences with a first love. Attempt to capture the sensations, the colors, and the details as Soto does. Borrow any line and take it for a walk.
s “Oranges
s “Mating Season”—Experiment with the he says, she says format. Consider taking a topic you enjoy, like basketball, and showing it through the female and male perspective or take a series of topics, like Soto does, and sift them through the gender lenses.
s “How You Gave Up Root Beer”—Write about an embarrassing moment or about an experience that forced you to make a change in your life. Maybe it was a bad habit others had chided you about, like the persona’s mother’s scolding, that you are finally moved to care about and alter.
s “Eating Mexican Food”—Imitate Soto’s format and create your own rules. They can be playful or serious, about the etiquette of eating or about another topic entirely. Let your imagination be your guide!
s “Saturday at the Canal”—Borrow the line “I was hoping to be happy by seventeen” and take it for a walk, or simply recall a “get out of town” memory of your own.
s “How To Sell Things”—Many poets have utilized this format to capture a person, place, or experience. Write your own how-to piece, giving thought to supplies and steps.
s “Hope”—Write an adventure from an animal’s eyes, similar to Soto’s telling from a dog’s perspective.
s “How I Learned to Fly”—Recall a fanciful childhood dream that you tried to make come true; tell that story.
s “Door-to-Door”—Borrow the lines “No matter how much I swallowed, / I couldn’t get the bitter taste of / That woman out of my mouth” and let those lines lead your thinking. Borrow any other line and write whatever comes to mind.
For my book in verse/poetry, I read "The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems" by Mel Glenn. The book chronicles a history teacher, who at his wits end with his students, holds them hostage. Each student in the classroom is given 5 poems: 1 of Freshman Year, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, and one written on the morning of the incident. There are multiple different types of poems in the book: concrete, haiku, as well as news reports, newspaper articles, and transcripts of conversations. I really enjoyed this book. I think it has several teachable moments: including multiple points of view, how poetry can combine to create a larger story, and types of literary forms.
ReplyDeleteCall Me Maria, by Judith Ortiz Cofer, is a delightfully lyrical pastiche of poetry, prose, and letters, written by a young girl who moves from Puerto Rico to live with her father in New York City.
ReplyDeleteThe novel takes an intimate look at finding identity through language: Maria uses three languages to express herself: Spanish, English, and Spanglish.
It's great to see a YA novel take a subject like 'Spanglish' so honestly, finding humor in it but not treating Spanglish like a subservient or unworthy dialect. Especially considering research indicates that all dialects are linguistically equal, and incorporating students’ home speech patterns into classroom instruction, as well as treating 'proper English' as its own dialect that is also necessary to learn, can provide a needed boost to learning in some classrooms.
This week, I read "Dead on Town Line" by Leslie Connor. Actually, I read it twice. I enjoyed every moment of this book. Written completely in poetry, it is the story of a girl, Cassie, who has been murdered. Her ghost speaks through these poems, talking about the circumstances leading up to her murder, the search for her body, and the grisly murder itself. Through the poems, Cassie's character manages to become incredibly well-developed, and we get a glimpse into her emotions that may not have come through with prose. Also, Leslie Connor manages to make minor characters incredibly complex, even though the entire story is from Cassie's point of view. The story was intriguing and the poetry was well-written. I can see this book being used in a classroom as a lead-in to The Lovely Bones or even a lead-in to a poetry unit. This would be a good way to teach the use of flashback and foreshadowing while allowing for a short and exciting read. Highly recommend it.
ReplyDeleteThis week, I read, "Shakespeare Bats Cleanup" by Ron Koertge. Originally I picked up this book because the title dealt with baseball, and we are in the midst of MLB postseason! :) But as I started reading the book, I realized that it is quite a gem! The book is about Kevin. He is 14 and baseball is his life. He finds out he has mono and is forced to stay home and sit out the rest of the season. Kevin goes stir crazy and borrows one of his Dad's poetry books. Kevin begins to pen poems about various aspects of his life from baseball to girls to the loss of his mother. The poems are in chronological order as Kevin has written them, and as the reader, you see growth in Kevin's understanding of life and his writing. The book is a quick read and full of ideas for poems that students could recreate on their own. Give it a read!
ReplyDeleteI read Virginia Woolf’s “Make Lemonade.” The book focused on the intertwined lives of Jolly and LaVaughn. LaVaughn, a junior in high school, begins baby-sitting Jolly’s two children Jeremy and Jilly, to save money for college. Jolly is the same age as LaVaughn and little does LaVaughn know, she will become submersed into the lives of these two children. I enjoyed reading this book because it showed many different aspects young adults may be going through, wish to not go through, or one day may go through. There are young adults who are single pregnant mothers, young adults who are working while attending high school, and there are young adults who want to help their friends, but are unable or do not know the proper way. I do believe if you chose to use this book in verse in your classroom, you could teach students the importance of making right decisions, the importance of being and having good friends, and many more. From this book, I took what I already know about life, it is unpredictable. I want my students to understand this notion and also to understand there is plenty of time to grow up.
ReplyDelete"Street Love" by Walter Dean Meyers was a very interesting read. The book is completely in verse and connects the lives of Damien, Junice, and Melissa who all live in Harlem. While reading the book I was struck by how fun it would be to read alongside Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Students could make their own poems based off of translating Shakespeare, and then read "Street Love." The book also raises questions about the influence of generations--are you destined to follow in your parents footsteps? How hard is it to escape?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the book and found a lot of good moments in it. Reading a book in verse was a new experience for me, but one i would like to repeat.
This week I read Elephant Rocks by Kay Ryan, a poetry book that effectively draws parallels between the natural world and the problems we as humans face in our everyday lives. I had never read any of Ryan's poetry before, but after reading the first couple pages of this book, I became an instant fan of her work. She uses simple diction and wordplay to convey deep and meaningful themes.I would definitely consider using her book or even just a few of her poems in the classroom. Often times when students are presented with poetry it is convoluted, and ittakes a lot of thought to fully understand. Ryan's simplistic diction makes her poems easy to understand. Though they do contain simplistic diction, the sophistication of her writing and the depth of her meaning is not compromised. Her poems have the ability to show students that poetry does not have to be complex and complicated to be "good poetry".
ReplyDeleteI also read "Street Love" by Walter Dean Myers and found it to be surprisingly fun! I enjoyed the separate characters whose stories connect as the book goes on and for my first book in verse, I am glad I started with this one. I believe it would be a great way to introduce poetry into the classroom without turning students off before you can finish the word "poetry".
ReplyDeleteI read "The Realm of Possibility" by David Levithan. I was skeptical about a book in verse at first, but I ended up really enjoying this. The book follows a dozen or so characters through the issues that inevitably come up for high school students. The lyrical styling in the book made for very memorable lines and messages that really reached me and made me consider the subject and helped me relate to it. What was most interesting about "The Realm of Possibility" though was the style in which it was organized. Instead of linearly following characters through a story it broke down into different overlapping perspectives. There were 4 or 5 sections in the book and at the start of each section there would be 4 names listed. These 4 people would be the speakers of the poems and would reference their issues and other people around them. Later in the book other characters would be speakers in different sections and offer their feelings on the same issues as previous speakers. This style allowed me to see into peoples minds and understand how actions by one person can affect another person. Whether it is intentional or not. I think this style would be great for students to read because it really gets readers thinking about what sort of effect their actions have on others. By reading and relating to the issues that arise in the story, students could learn to cope with their issues and solve their problems just like the characters in the poems.
ReplyDeleteLike Katie, I also read the great book Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff. The book is an excellent example of free-verse poetry, and explores the raw and realistic details of urban poverty. Set in an unknown, poor, inner-city neighborhood, the plight of main characters LaVaughn and Jolly, could take place in any place devastated by extreme poverty. Both teenagers, the book follows the two girls as they mature and learn the hard lesson of how to love and help others, while learning how to take control of their own lives. The girls discover that despite all odds, they are able to culitvate hope in the harshness of their surroundings. Dealing with mature social situations, I think the book would be most appropriate for high school. Besides being a great example of free verse, Make Lemonade could be used to study vernacular dialogue, foreshadowing, metaphor, fables or traditional folklore, and characterization, and the importance of education and self-betterment.
ReplyDeleteFor my book in verse I read "All the Broken Pieces" by Ann E. Burg. This is the first book in verse I have ever read and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was a very emotional book that dealt with serious issues like war, loss and acceptance. I thought primarily that a book in verse may not have the ability to encompass such deep emotions and messages like in a traditional novel, but I was very wrong. I would not hesitate to teach this in a classroom, it dealt with serious issues in a manageable way that young adults would understand.
ReplyDeleteI've been obsessed with Ellen Hopkins for about five years now, (thanks to "Impulse" and "Burned") but I had never taken the opportunity to read "Crank"--her first well-known book in verse. I really had no interest in reading about Meth addiction (having grown up in Montana, I've heard a lot about it), but I took the chance. And I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed "Crank". I think it is beautifully written, and it brings to the foreground the many ways in which we can all fail by making a wrong choice in a heated moment. It's partly based on the experience of Hopkins's own daughter, so that made much of the book even more powerful. I adored some of the lines in the novel,and I think some of the poems would be great to share in class. I don't think it'd be something to use as a class read, but I would make it available to anyone who was interested.
ReplyDeleteFor this week, I chose to read Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy by Sonya Sones. The title does convey the main theme in the short book, which I luckily had the opportunity to read through twice. I enjoyed the new point of view in a novel pertaining to mental illness, but I found that this novel is more of a creative memoir than fiction based. I do not know if I would use this particular book in a classroom to discuss mental health, but the topic should be discussed more often (or at all) within a classroom setting. I plan on doing more research on the topic, but do not have too many ideas for alternative suggestions at the moment (Perhaps A Wrinkle in Time by L’Engle for minor depression or loneliness?). After a quick Google search, I did find that there are a large number of suggested readings available. I hope that this review was helpful, and I do think that this book was a valuable read, if not a personal preference for classroom material.
ReplyDeleteI also read Crank by Ellen Hopkins. I thought it was Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteNarrative Poetry can be so expressive. It felt close and real. One idea to talk about is different structuring in novels. Perhaps we could asks students to write the same short story: one in prose, the other in narrative poetry. Then we could discuss presentation and begin to look at reasons why form and structure matter in writing.
Of course, we could also discuss choice and drug use, teen pregnancy, and split-home parenting issues.
For my book in verse, I read Heartbeat by Sharon Creech. Honestly, I am not usually a huge fan of books in verse in part because at the end of them I usually tend to feel that I would have liked them better if they had just been novels. Or a set of stand alone poems that don't try to convey a continuous story. But Heartbeats completely changed my mind about books in verse. Creech never lets the poetic form interfere with the actual story, so while the story is very elegant in the tradition of poetry, it does not interrupt the story, but instead adds a rhythmic element.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, Heartbeat has a number of thematic features that I think would make it an excellent choice for a classroom (though probably a younger middle school classroom). Annie, the main character, loves to run and must face the dilemma of whether to run for a team or simply run for the love of running. She faces familial difficulties when her mother becomes pregnant and her grandfather slowly begins to succumb to Alzheimer's. She has a number of dreams which would be interesting to interpret in a class. She also learns about footnotes in school and uses them wonderfully throughout the book, providing the perfect segue for introducing them in your own classroom.
For my book in verse I chose Boris by Cynthia Rylant. This book was about a woman’s bond with her adopted cat from the humane society. Ok, so the plot does not sound extremely wild and crazy, but the story affected me as an animal lover. As a child I loved animals, any assignment in school that had to do with a furry creature I seemed to excel on. This novel would be a great one to recommend to any student who likes animals, or for anyone who is familiar with relationships in general. The book is written from the woman’s point of view, and she is always speaking to Boris although he cannot hear her. This would be a great lesson on point of view; students could write it from a different perspective, or analyze the effectiveness of the way it is currently written.
ReplyDeleteWe deal with many events of pain in our lives, whether it is the lost of a loved one, violence witnessed, or general sorrow felt. It is how we deal with these events that define us and enable us to maintain our humanity. Unfortunately, these types of issues are very difficult and very unhealthily to deal with alone and yet many adolescents do. There needs to be some sort of reinforcement that the feelings that they have are natural and they are not out of the ordinary in any sort of way. This encouragement usually comes in the form of family or friends. Unfortunately in many cases emotions are internalized and bottled up leading to anxiety and depression. That is where reading someone else's words can lead to expression and externalization.
ReplyDeleteIn Seamus Heany's Death of a Naturalist, readers are invited to see a wide variety of situations that caused pain and anxiety fro the Irish poet. The death of his younger brother, religious violence throughout his country, feelings of inferiority and many common occurrences of discomfort are represented in beautiful lines of poetry. Though reading a book of poems like this can never solve real world issues it can create a bridge to dialogue between an individual in pain and someone who is more experienced. It can persuade someone to seek help by telling them that they are not alone that their feelings are not abnormal. Heaney opens lines of communication in his lines and provides individuals with a common ground of understanding.
Marlene Carvell's who will tell my brother? lends itself to performance, not only because of the strong first-person narration spoken by Evan, the half-Native American protagonist who details to us his protest of the offensive and stereotypical mascot at his school, but also because that voice is so evocative and imagistic while remaining a believable adolescent voice. The lit response I wrote for this book involved turning it into a three-scene mini-play, using only text from the book divided up between performers, with the character of Evan remaining the narrator. I would love to use this book as a class project, whether in an English or a drama classroom or both, to be used eventually for public performance. The voice in which Carvell speaks (through the character of Evan) is just that strong.
ReplyDelete“Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse is a novel told in diary form of free verse poems. Set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, the story is about 14 year old Billie Jo, the daughter of a poor wheat farmer struggling to support his family. The book is a realistic portrait of the Depression-era with entries dated from the winter of 1934 through the winter of 1935.
ReplyDeleteThis book is a great example of how free verse can be used to tell a story. Each diary entry of the book reads smoothly like a book would, and none of the poems are difficult in their meaning and understanding. It’s a good model to get the hang of verse writing before moving into more in-depth and abstract verse. It also could be used as a more personal historical reference of the hardships faced during the dust bowl.
There are tons of lesson plans online that focus on this book, as well as study guides, activities, webquests, and so on.
Though I absolutely love reading poetry - and out loud, much to the chagrin of the people around me, I decided to try my hat at a new form (to me) of literature, that of the book in verse. So I read Marlene Carvell's "Who will tell my brother?" New York: Hyperion, 2002.
ReplyDeleteThe book could also easily be used as a Native American selection as well. It deals with a stereotypical Indian mascot being used in a predominately white high school. Two brothers, in different years, challenge the use of the mascot, but the school board shrugs them both off. However, what's probably more powerful is that the second brother gets the students to begin thinking about something they took for granted - and that's when the minds start to change. The book leaves off with the mascot staying the same, but one gets the feeling that it's only a matter of time before it changes. The students are beginning to realize that they are making a caricature over a diverse group of people, and as with many worthwhile causes, they begin not with adults, but with students.
I liked the book and I especially enjoyed reading books in verse. As a side note, about four years ago I wrote a 48 page "story" that was in poems. I have never done anything with it, and didn't even know there was such a genre as this, but now I am fully confident I wrote a book in verse and perhaps will someday add to it and try and get it published - as I love the story behind it, and it's one I couldn't write in prose.
I actually read a banned book in verse this week by Sonya Sones titled "What My Mother Doesn't know". It about a 15 year old girl named Sophie who is struggling to seperate love versus lust. She goes through two boyfriends before she ends up dating Robin Murphy (but everyone calls him Murphy) who happens to be the least popular kid in school. He and Sophie start dating over winter break when everyone is out of town and though she corresponds with her two best friends, she doesn't tell them who she is dating. The first day back at school, Sophie has to choose between sitting with her friends at lunch, or with Murphy. She risks her social life and sits by Murphy.
ReplyDeleteBesides the issuses of love, lust and social pressures that Sophie is dealing with throuhout the novel, there are also poems about tensions between her and her parents, being Jewish, and online chat room conversations going awry. I don't see myself ever using this book as a unit but there are some poems in it that would make excellent prompts for writing into the day.
Heartbeat by Sharon Creech really captured the essence of the book in verse genre, perfectly reflecting the form-follows-function concept on every page. The book tells the story of Annie, a seventh-grade girl whose passion for running translates into a palpable rhythm in Creech’s writing. Intertwined with her running are the stories of Annie’s love of art, her mother’s pregnancy, and her grandfather’s aging and forgetfulness. As Alex noted in her early blog post about the novel, the book would be well-suited to a middle school classroom, and I think that the writing could easily serve as a model for how writing style can reflect meaning. Heartbeat is a fast read, but offers powerful, hopeful messages that lend themselves well toward teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteFor the verse novel week I read Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.
ReplyDeleteThe novel tells the incredible tale of surviving the Great Depression in Oklahoma through the eyes of main character Billy Jo Kelby. Billy Jo and her family are not only fighting to get through the depression, but as farmers her father is fighting a horrible drought in Oklahoma in the summer of 1934.
To make matters worse, Billy Jo accidently sets her mother and unborn brother on fire, and sends the family into even more turmoil. Eventually, both her mother and brother die during child birth, and Billy Jo and her father drift further and further apart.
Billy Jo dreams of getting out of the dust and depression to a better place, but when she does make an escape attempt on a train she meets a homeless man who changes her perspective on life.
She decides to return home to help her father get through the horrible summer, and eventually things start turning for the good. Her father remarries, and the drought ends.
The end of the novel is not perfect happiness but it depicts well how despite the horrible conditions of the time period many strong Americans persevered and survived the Great Depression.
In terms of teachable moments, I think the imagery of the novel is the most important thing to teach students. Without the amazing writing of Karen Hesse and imagery she creates, the novel would probably be too morbid and boring to even pick up. I think kids will enjoy the pictures she paints on every page, and some sort of drawing or art activity of what they are seeing might be a great alternative to essay writing.
Overall, I think Out of the Dust should be taught in every classroom. It is well written and offers a unique look at an event in American History that students might not be interested in otherwise.