Unpublished Poem

I taught fifth grade for five years and sixth grade for three years. This is the Writing Process, I would use with my classes when we wrote poetry.

First of all, I had several poetry book in my classroom library. I would have a poem on the board at all times and would change it about once a week. Whenever, there was a new poem, I would make sure to talk about it. I encouraged the students to find a poem they liked for me to put on the board or they could write them on the board themselves.

As a class, we would spend at least one language period brainstorming words that we thought described a topic. On this day particular day, the topics was friends. I would write these words on the board in an area that we would keep for days, and we would periodically add to the words. The students would choose the words from this list they wanted to use or even some others they thought of.

I would participate in the activity with my students to model the process.

Then we would spend another language period writing about our thoughts and feeling on the subject.

Sometimes, this may be just notes. Students were also allowed to draw pictures during this time as long as it was about the topic.

The students knew they could sit on the floor or go to a quiet corner if they wanted. Sometimes, if the weather was good, we would take our clipboards and go outside for this where the students could kind of get off by themselves.

The third session is when I would encourage the students to actually start writing a poem.

This is a poem I wrote after one of these sessions.

Friends

by Sue Leavitt

	Sometimes I am not a very good friend It is often hard for my ideas to bend. I'm in the habit of doing things on my own So working with others to me is unknown. I'm too proud to let any of my friends see That this problem is really distressing me.

One of my classes loved to write poetry. In May, they gave me this book for my birthday.

They all wrote at least one poem and many wrote more. They asked other teachers to help them edit their work for them so that it would be a surprise for me. Some took the work home and typed and printed it on their home computers. A member of the PTA helped them to bind the book.

I wrote this poem about them and gave it to them as a thank you.

Difficult and Divine

by Sue Leavitt

	The sixth graders in Room 2 of the 1995 - 96 school year were difficult and divine. They were divine because they were extremely talented in many ways. They were difficult because I was expected to teach such a wonderfully unique group of people. They questioned to learn and to challenge. They were open to new ideas yet were not easily swayed. They were accepting of others yet confronted misdeeds. I questioned often, if I had the ability to challenge such a group. Yet, in the end it was they who challenged me. I will be a better teacher because of them.

Send E-mail to sleavitt@shf.org

Last updated: Saturday November 29, 2008