First class at Lawrence Barnes today. I let each student choose a rock from Lake Champlain (see photo) and inspect it closely, as though they'd never seen a rock before:
What color is it? Any patterns on its surface? Is it warm or cool? Smooth or bumpy? Does the shape remind you of anything?
Immediately the answers came spilling out: "It's a submarine!" "Mine looks like a long, twisted finger!" "Look, this one is a pyramid!" They passed their rocks from hand to hand, feeling the weight, sampling the texture. They used a magnifying glass to check the tiny details: some were speckled, some were striped, some had designs like cave paintings. One more adventurous boy even licked his rock, reporting that it tasted "really gross, like a dusty attic."
Then I asked a different set of questions:
Now imagine you're a tiny, tiny person, no bigger than a speck of dust. This rock is your landscape. What's it like to walk across its surface? Does it look like a desert? A mountain range? A planet full of craters? What if you could go inside the rock? What kind of world would you find?
One girl described a quiet, spooky forest. A table of boys hoped to discover a diamond mine that would make them rich. Another student said "I can't see anything, it's so dark in here." I passed out copies of "Stone" by Charles Simic, and we read the poem aloud, discussing favorite lines and parts that weren't understood. To help students enter their rock and describe the experience, I played some slow, haunting flute music in the background. Here's a taste of what they wrote:
Diamonds Diamonds I'm as rich as Diamonds and shinier than my dentist's teeth.
-Elijah
I see animals in the rock.
I see forests in the rock.
I see diamonds in the rock.
I see grass in the rock.
I see dinosaurs in the rock.
I see noises of the dinosaur.
I am imagining I am getting chased.
I see a snake in the rock.
I see a bird in the rock.
I see a whale in the water.
-Ibrahim
I will see bumpy and rough and maybe sparkly white stuff. My rock will have black little worms. I will see grass with flowers. It will be silent, not one peep...My rock is special, no rock in the world will be the same as mine. I will see a guy sitting the dark doing yoga because it is so quiet and peaceful. I see lots of little designs.
-Paulina
