Odes

This week I shared selections from Pablo Neruda's "Ode to a Lizard" and asked the students for favorite lines. They especially liked the questions (From what planet, / from what / cold green ember / did you fall?) and tricks of scale (To / a fly / you are the dart / of an annihilating dragon).

I explained that odes were poems of praise, funny or serious. When I asked for possible objects of praise, the answers skewed toward funny: "A skunk!" "A zombie!" "Dirty underwear!"

I kept my ode-writing instructions minimal. I told them to pretend they spoke the thing's secret language. They could describe it, tell it why they liked it, or ask it questions. While I expected silly and over-the-top praise from the class comedians, the vast majority of students wrote poems consisiting entirely of questions, possibly inspired by Neruda:

Ode to the Sun
Oh what part of the sun do the flowers use?
Why don't you run out of heat?
-Elijah

Ode to a Turtle
Why are you eating Halloween?
Why are you eating the sun?
Why are you eating the ghost?
Why are you eating the dragons?
-Michael

Ode to a Pumpkin
What is your favorite color?
My favorite colors are pink, red, purple.
Do you like when people touch you?
How do you like growing on a plant?
Do you like fighting?
Do you make babies?
Do you like being smashed?
-Sevda

Change Poems

Today I began by sharing two poems by H.O. Wheeler students, using the form "I used to... / But now..." The kids were very curious about the girls behind the poems: "What grade are they in?" "Did this one really live in Africa?" "How do you say her name?" After I answered their questions about the featured writers, I asked which lines were their favorites. They especially liked, "I used to be a black and white cat and my name was Jane / but now I am a superhero and my name is Supercat," "I used to be snow, but now I am a snow princess," and "I used to live in Africa, but now I live in America."

I told them their own poems could include real changes, made-up changes, or a combination. I asked them to think back to when they were very young, to remember all the things they'd learned, all the ways they'd grown.

I was delighted when Samira asked me, "Can we use names like we did last week? I liked that." She and a few friends continued to draw inspiration from the Name Poems lesson:

I used to be a snow princess,
but now I am Samira.
I used to be Aladdin,
but now I am Sevda.
I used to be a fish,
but now I am Hamara.

Here are a few more selections:

I used to be super, but now I'm Super David.
I used to think I was weak, but now I know I'm strong.
I used to hate kickball, but now I love kickball.
-David

I used to be a seed,
but now I am an action.
I used to be a fly,
but now I am a jungle.
I used to be a nothing,
but now I am a nothing.
-Deng

I used to be math, but now I am a shell.
I used to be a tree, but now I am a book.
I used to be a hat, but now I am a village.
I used to be a sea, but now I am a wood.
I used to be sharks, but now I am a fire.
I used to be trash, but now I am a bat.
I used to be a piano, but now I am a robot.
-Michael

Name Poems

Attention spans were running short today, so I kept my introduction brief and simple: What are some of your favorite names? Do you have a nickname? A special name that's only used in your family, or with your friends? If you could choose a name for yourself, what would it be? What about the person you were yesterday; the person you'll be tomorrow? I told them about how members of some tribes change their names frequently over the course of a lifetime to reflect how they themselves have changed.

I provided a word bank of nouns, adjectives, and color words to guide their writing. To help them practice using it, I asked them to use those words to create a name that described them today, even if it didn't seem to make sense. One boy called out, "Dancing Black Pumpkin!" and the writing began. I thought the word bank would be a helpful tool, but most didn't seem interested in using it. The vast majority, however, did use the format I provided:

Today my name is Hungry Bear.
Yesterday my name was Playing Carrot.
Tomorrow my name will be Chicken Wing.
My parents think my name is Fartun.
My friends think my name is Nobody.
My secret name is Pink Fish.
-Fartun

Today my name is Akhmad.
Yesterday my name was Mohamed.
Tomorrow my name will be Kemran.
My parents think my name is Sarah.
My friends think my name is Troy.
My secret name is Emily.
-Makhmud

Today my name is Vanessa Hejin.
Yesterday my name was Gabriella.
Tomorrow my name will be Hannah Montana.
My parents think my name is Samira.
My friends think my name is Sarvina.
My secret name is Pocahontas.
-Samira

Dream Poems

Today we talked about the strange, beautiful, frightening things that happen in dreams. To start off, we wrote a collaborative poem, each student contributing a line or two:

I dreamed there was no school.
I dreamed of hitting Elijah in the head.
I dreamed all the world would be ninjas.
I dreamed about a lion coming to eat me.
I dreamed about motorcycles, dirtbikes, every kind of bike, and everything in the world.
I dreamed about gold stuff.
I dreamed about a scary test.
I dreamed a pirate tried to kill my cousin.
I dreamed Samira was wearing glasses.
I dreamed my brother got hit by a boat.

Next everyone wrote individual poems about one dream or many. I encouraged them to include all the crazy details:

I dream of many colors making a pattern.
I try to play with heart and flower!?
I find squishy gold. I make it into cats.
-Hamara

I dreamed about my brother running around crazy with a snake on his head.
I dreamed about ice cream all over the school.
I dreamed about being the smartest person in the whole school.
-Sevda

Hand Poems

"Hands have a history of their own. They indeed have their own civilization, their special beauty, their own wishes, feelings, moods, and favorite occupations."
-Rainer Maria Rilke

I'm still trying to create harmony within this class, to balance the louder and softer voices, to be attentive to each student and help them be attentive to each other. This is a wild group of children, but I see potential in their wildness: exuberance, spontaneity, and deep creative powers.

Today we talked about our hands. What makes them special, what stories they hold, what they love and hate to do. Here's a sample of student responses:

My hands love to play the spitbox.
My hands hate to work.
My hands believe they can rap.
My hands wish they can fly.
My hands dream to fight.
My hands remember playing the drums.
-David

My hand dreams to be a soccer player.
My hand hates to dance.
My hand wishes to be a Pokemon master.
My hand remembers when I stabbed a pencil in my hand.
My hand believes the tooth fairy is real.
-Michael