www.tinyurl.com/BeachBernabei2023
Who is someone you know with a quirky habit? Or one unusual behavior? Describe it. Write about that for 3 minutes:
My thoughts:
Quicklist - Cousin Tommy? Joy?
Joy thinks she is a guard dog. I don't need a guard dog. She's also a chow hound. I don't need that either. She knows only one trick: be cute. Actually, it means "sit" to her. So, when we are at the table, she "sits" thinking that she'll get a treat. When Dean is there, we don't ever really hear her because they share the plate and he offers small tidbits throughout the meal. But, when he's absent, things are very different.
When we keep eating and talking, ignoring her, she makes a small, barely audible, "huff." As if, "excuse me, I'm being cute and no one is noticing." The huff's punctuate the dinner, coming more and more frequently. Until, she feels like we can't hear her at all and her sharp exclamation of alarm pierces the air: and she is scolded for being not so cute.
Nobody starts with a blank page.
Read aloud from Possums
Read aloud from again. Highlight 2-3 lines you really like and want to call your own.
We shared our underlined phrases. Why did we underline it? What did the lines do to you? What were you thinking? Talk to me about that.
(Thoughts: It always surprises me how long we talk about the poem and our reactions. It's like we do a full poetic analysis with talk before we ever do another thing. It happens like this in class, too. Just being humans and reacting to the words, our thoughts, confusions, reactions, nodding our heads and seeing more as we see what others have felt. "I don't think I would have noticed that if you hadn't said that." How does Gretchen know when to stop talking about the lines and when to move into the next steps of the lesson? Gretchen notices and names their noticing with the academic language: enjambment and poet choices: The poem is awkward representing the contrasting ideas, forcing us to stop our reading like the possum stops. We must remain motionless like the possum. The words are poking at us with a stick.)
Showed us the chunks. Quirky thing. We marked our copy, using different colors.
Read the poem one more time to confirm the chunks and what they mean. We call this kernelizing. Pointed out that the text isn't the same size - that all paragraphs aren't the same size. It's just what each chunk does - tracks the movement of the mind like stepping stones(Thomas Newkirk). It's coherent!
Can you predict what I'm going to ask you to do? Write for 10 minutes to restructure your writing or to write something new. What kind of poem will you create?
Tricks for Gluttony
Sitting next to my dining room chair
the dog's acting cute: silent sitting,
expecting me to deliver a reward
Because that's the only trick she knows:
"Be cute!" She sits for a piece of duck jerky.
I wonder: what do I do for treats?
What am I waiting for people to notice?
Until they don't and I under my breath
Huff for a notice, a glance, a praise
Repeat the throat clearing as if unheard
Until a sharp piercing call interrupts
Irritating and Self-Focused Interference
Am I seeking what others can provide?
A reward and noticing: superficial sustenance
when I'm already full and capable of feeding myself.
My AHA: Wow. I didn't expect the depth that the structure caused. It shifted my prewriting to a new place! Exciting revisions. As I talked with Gretchen before the session, we talked about how we begin to see ourselves as writers and poets through this process. It made me think more about schema. Kids often approach comprehension from their own schema. Which is good for the reading until we go to the kinds of questions valued on STAAR. We don't want them to use schema of self. We want them to use schema of text. But...if they are working from a schema of authorship...if I were the poet of this piece...I'd be doing x to cause y...That's a kind of personal schema I can support in instruction about poems and author's craft. What a difference it makes when we experience ELAR as both reader and writer!
It was hard for some in the crowd to write. She said, "Leave each other alone..." and shared what she would offer them for lessons. We laughed and talked. She reminded us of how she would monitor and grade in class. We shared with each other at our table. Then folks read aloud to the whole group.
We covered 7 of the 8 TEKS strands (all but research.)
Kids can write responses from their own poems and from the poems of others. The more kids experience both hats - reader/writer - the better equipped they are!
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