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One of my resolutions is to try something new in my classroom this semester. So I’ve been tapping the pencil on my skull trying to figure out what that means. A small knot is beginning to form, but I have come up with something for introducing poetry. For some reason I cannot fathom, saying ‘poetry’ to high school student always elicits groans. Really? Don’t they realize what a joy it is to write poetry? Soon enough, they will.

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On the board for silent writing, it says, “Write down as many categories as you can think of that describe your winter break. Then pick one and write about it.” I borrowed a piece of graph paper from one of the math teachers and copied it. Once we’ve shared our categories and the one we wrote more about, we’ll craft a poem on the graph paper, using the categories as the labels for the y axis with whatever they decide equates to ‘just okay’ on the zero and then building positive categories up to the ‘whoo-doggie’ and negatives down to the ‘total bummer.’

Once they’ve done that, they’ll add the words to describe the events running up and down along the x axis from the beginning of break to the end. Once we get past the ‘I don’t get its,’ I think the results will be some sweet action!