J Scott Baker, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, jbaker3 @ uwlax.edu

Max Holden, Preservice Teacher, UW-La Crosse, holden.max @ uwlax.edu

Elizabeth Hubing, Preservice Teacher, UW-La Crosse, hubing.elizabe @ uwlax.edu

Kyle Kolar, Preservice Teacher, UW-La Crosse, kolar.kyle @ uwlax.edu

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Educators in pluralistic classrooms are frustrated, guarded, and exhausted from addressing complicated current events with their students – especially after the 2016 election. Basing classroom assignments on headlines plastered across media is not only difficult but scary; however, in the tumultuous political climate of today’s America, the ability to provide a community where students are free to express their voices reinforces cultural and political literacy and ensures an inclusive classroom environment.  

In my classroom, I utilize the writing of poetry as a mechanism for self-expression, political debate, and controversial conversations. These assignments not only require students to understand current events, but also to explore their opinions of the world around them. While many teachers may shy away from partaking in discussions of these issues, I find that poetry allows students to discover their own voices while simultaneously exploring complex terrains of political discourse. These student-written poetry assignments encourage students to think critically and contextually about current events and how they pertain to their own unique experiences.

“So, what?”
During my years creating high school English, speech, and debate lessons, I always asked myself, “so, what?” What does any topic matter to someone with different lived experiences than mine? Lessons are not worth teaching if they do not allow for students to learn and develop from a position that is meaningful to them. The classroom should be a place where those of all religions, races, and socioeconomic classes can learn through the prism of their own experiences, while being introduced to the viewpoints of others. Poetry pushes students to move beyond regurgitation of facts and figures and into a process of developing their own unique voices.

My students, both in high school and in college, remind me of the poet, Steve Colman: “I wanna hear a poem / I wanna learn something I didn’t know / I wanna say ‘yes’ at the end, / because I’m sick of saying ‘so?’” (Simmons, 2005, p. 3). It is this “so?” feeling that prohibits students from thriving academically in any classroom, while simultaneously and systematically excluding diverse voices from being heard. When students fail to see a personal connection to a lesson or fail to see how a piece of literature matters to them, they stop paying attention, and with good reason. They lose their voice in the classroom, turning their literature studies into meaningless text devoid of the humanity, which we as English teachers want our students to appreciate.

The Difference is Context
In my university multicultural education courses, we focus on social justice conversations that make many educators nervous: race, socio-economics, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, and ability. These issues scare some K-12 educators, too, since “the phrase ‘teaching for social justice’ may conjure images of facing off against opponents or carrying protest placards while marching in the streets” (Kelly, 2012, p. 151). However, many high school literature pieces commonly studied provide a natural platform for these discussions to take place without feeling forced or even inappropriate. For example, conversations about racism arise organically from Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird or Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying. Why is it we can explore and discuss these societally relevant topics in the context of required readings, but not in current events?

Furthermore, as educators, is it not our job to bridge the context of literature into our students’ lives? If we do not allow students to link today’s events to what we are reading in canonical classics – if we fail to make those connections – we hinder student voices. Poetry focused on current events allows them to discover and understand their position(s) on issues, which leads to increased engagement and ownership of their education and individual beliefs.

The Possibilities of Poetry
Inevitably, every semester a first-year teacher candidate (TC) asks, “why haven’t we ever talked about these things before?” I look around the room at many heads nodding in agreement. While these future educators have studied racism through a historical lens in high school classes, they indicate they have never spoken about systemic oppression and privilege, or had deep discussions about contemporary racism. This suggests a lack of current events discussions and/or correlations with mandated curriculum in their schooling. If students never discuss issues of social justice, identity, and oppression inside the classroom, we are not providing equity for our students who live these issues outside the classroom.

While I have the luxury of including poetic writings in my university classroom, I am aware poetry gets a bad rap in PK-12 classrooms. I know many English educators who do not even like poetry – as it is often rooted in archaic language and texts – burdening educators and students already facing too many curricular demands. My hope is to challenge teachers opposed to curricular-based poetry to reevaluate and attempt current events-based poetic exploration as a platform for social justice and student self-actualization.

In order to promote these values, I ask TCs in my multicultural education classes to write poetry regarding current events, giving them the flexibility to write from their perspective and style. Thomas (2015) offers that “school with less poetry is school with less heart. School with no poetry is school with no heart” (p. 92), and I am consistently encouraging future teachers to find their hearts. Instead of forcing upon them structured argumentative essays, which identify barriers to systemic oppression or analyze the complexities of sexual identity, I ask TCs to write their ideas poetically – which provides them with voice – on a current event or issue.

I find that students produce stronger arguments when they write or speak from their perspectives, not what they think the instructor wants them to regurgitate to earn an “A.” Coates (2015) offers that “poetry aims for an economy of truth … poetry was the processing of my thought until the slag of justification fell away and I was left with the cold steel truths of life” (pp. 21-22). Here among these truths, the emotional underpinning of poetry as human experiences, students learn to make an argument; here among these truths, they find their voices.

Poetic Response to Current Events
During fall of 2017, as part of an ongoing research project to demonstrate this pedagogical strategy, I asked three TCs (who eventually co-authored this article with me) to write two poems each, offering insight into a 2017 current event. I chose TCs who plan to teach secondary English, and I gave them as much latitude in style or subject as they needed, only ensuring they wrote about current events. When they finished their poetry, I asked them to write a response explaining 1) why they selected the issue, and 2) why they felt it would be important for their future students to learn about each current event. As a result, the TC-written poems dove into the political turmoil over Civil War monuments and White supremacy in Charlottesville, the 2017 U.S. immigration ban, and aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.  

These poems address complicated, multi-layered issues of politics, belief systems, religion, and perspectives of life. Giving TC-participants the opportunity to express themselves resulted in greater appreciation of difficult discussions that arise in pluralistic classrooms, which in turn creates “open classroom climates that empower students of all ages to engage with complex issues, stand up for their positions, and work to understand differing opinions” (McCafferty-Wright & Knowles, 2016, p. 117). Moreover, I engage these difficult discussions with my college students now, as I did with those in the high school classroom, because student voice promotes equity in the classroom.

Neutrality is Not an Option
Max, in his first year of education courses, explains his rationale for writing the poem, “Somewhere in Charlottesville”:

As a kid, I had heard the stories of racist groups, but I never thought of them as real people. To me, they were ethereal, used only to show the epitome of prejudice. I wrote this poem because I had to wrestle with a new reality. When students learn about current events like Charlottesville, they must learn that neutrality on this issue is not an option. If we do not show students that these monsters are real, we cannot expect them to stand and fight when those same monsters rear their heads.

 

“Somewhere in Charlottesville”
Somewhere amidst the cosmos,
Through blackness and through eons,
There sits a younger me,
Who is not afraid of demons.

Somewhere beneath the steel gaze,
Of men who fought for tyranny,
Lies a dying woman,
Mowed down before she’d flee.

Somewhere in an echo chamber,
A man hears “Heil” and cheers,
Desperate to spread his message,
And aroused by the world’s fears.

Right here in this moment,
My blood has curdled like milk,
Are these men simply lost and uneducated,
Or monsters frolicking in their filth?

Somewhere in my skull,
My synapses and neurons wage war,
The boogie man has shown his face,
Stepping into daylight from lore.

Now I look toward heaven,
Angst no smile can conceal,
One day that younger me will find,
The monsters he fears are real.

After watching Vice News’ episode “Charlottesville: Race and Terror,”  Max explained that the “poetry assignment pushed me beyond memorization and regurgitation of statistics and into a critical analysis of my beliefs and opinions.” This analysis is felt in the emotional details that shaped his poem.  He furthers, “this process incited me to advocate for the awareness of racism in this country, and the suffering that comes from writing such evils off as dead and gone.”

Who is an American?
In “Lady Liberty’s Change of Heart,” a second-year TC, Kyle, sets the context of his poem:

An executive order at the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency barred people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for 90 days, refugees for 120 days, and barred Syrian refugees indefinitely. For a nation often known for providing aid to other countries in times of need, this was a step backward for US diplomacy. Many of the countries included in this ban face war, famine, or even genocide, and an order like this might prevent the escape of many innocent people and families. Many people come to the US with the aspiration of living comfortably and safely – so what sort of message does it send to Muslim citizens when our president says, ‘we don’t want them here’?

 

“Lady Liberty’s Change of Heart”
Who put a stop sign in Lady Liberty’s hand?
Once, a beacon of hope for those looking for a better life
Escaping famine, war, and genocide
One last chance at survival and prosperity.

What was once a graceful face to welcome the World
Turned sour at the words of a bitter man
Who told her she need not help these people
For they cause more harm than good.

And now she stands in New York Harbor,
Shooing away those desperate souls,
“For they’re too dangerous,” she says,
“We don’t want them here.”

In response to immigration bans, Kyle explains that “Poetry grants us the ability to not only share what we think about current issues but also showcase our passion for a given topic. Anyone can spew out an essay full of facts and statistics, but you’ll never find the same voice or passion that you would find in a poem.”

…And Other Types of Injustices
After writing the poem, “Oh, Mr. President,” a third-year TC, Lizzie, offered that

Political tensions have peaked following the 2016 presidential election, leaving no race or age demographic unmarred by the current societal climate. The White House has attempted damage control, trying to remind the nation through outreach efforts that we are all Americans, and if we stick together, we can achieve anything. However, when Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, these messages did not seem to apply. Youth have empowered many social movements and will continue to do so. Therefore, discussing currents events such as this one are not only relevant but necessary, to keep students informed of who is in need in our country and how we can help.

 

“Oh, Mr. President”
Oh, Mr. President,
Did you think it was enough?
To bring us lights and cameras
And toss rolls of paper towel into a sea of desperate faces
Devastated by the path of a ruthless Maria
Then hit again by the wake of your disregard.

Oh, Mr. President,
Have you forgotten your purpose?
To protect, love and serve
The people of this “great” nation
Who lost electricity and heartbeats
Lost our faith in the government
Who turned a blind eye.

Oh, Mr. President,
What did you mean?
When you said we
“Threw your budget out of whack”
When you said
“This is nothing compared to Katrina.”

Oh, Mr. President,
Do you find me greedy?
We may need resources but
Your wake requires more damage control
Than that of most other natural disasters.

Oh, Mr. President,
Aren’t you my president, too?
My complexion and compassion
May differ from yours,
But can you really pick and choose?

 

Lizzie explains how using poetic inquiry changed her perspective: “Had I written about this current event in a paper for a social studies class, I would have read and reread my writing to locate and eliminate any potential tone of bias or distrust.” However, by utilizing poetic inquiry to investigate, Lizzie was able to “reflect… without muting my opinions – my voice –” which led her to “better understand what happened” and, in turn, further investigate “what can be done to prevent such an event in the future.”

Facing Resistance
I admit it: educators might face resistance from students when introducing poetic expression to dive into complicated topics. For many, the mere idea of getting their students to buy into poetry is a daunting task. However, TCs who tell me they are not poetic, “for whom poetry feels inaccessible” (Lahman et al., 2011, p. 894), are the ones who end up surprising themselves most. We start with writing poetry about ourselves; we write a privilege poem that evaluates our own lives before we imagine writing about others. Because “Poetry’s potential to offer a stimulating way of reflecting on our lives and the lives of others is great” (Foster, 2012, p. 753), I stress that poetry is personal and I cannot judge them based on what they submit.  I can only expect sincerity, stressing that process is more important than product. When I build trust with my students, encouraging them to take risks, they produce brilliant works of art. Are all their couplets perfectly rhymed? No. Is every line of poetry perfectly sculpted and shaped? No. Do they find their own voice? Yes.

I embolden them to write what they want, with few limitations and an abundance of encouragement to take risks. This risk-taking accomplishes two goals: 1) it provides students room to fail; and 2) it allows students to say whatever they want about a topic. The power of voice in poetry provides a platform for self-discovery and growth, while opportunities to say what they want fosters independence. These two factors together equalize the classroom, where each student partakes in difficult discussions on complex concerns.

The use of poetry to examine contemporary topics is not unique to my university classroom; these methods can also thrive in middle or high school. First, incorporating current events into a course, alongside mandated curriculum, aligns with expectations of listening and speaking in English language arts standards. Second, asking students to write poetry, rather than a full essay on a current event, allows for student voice to rise on an issue and not take too much time from mandated curriculum. Third, poetic expression encourages students to problematize ideas and concepts beyond the confines of their lived experiences, ultimately pushing them to define their own perspective of the world while still in school.

Practicality in the Classroom
When tackling curriculum, teachers often start with an idea, develop a plan, and negotiate their way through strengths and weaknesses of an activity or unit, and poetry is no different.  Over the last few semesters, I have tried numerous ways to incorporate poetry in my classroom – some have worked exceedingly well, others have not. From those experiences, I offer a few practical suggestions for teachers wanting to use current events-based poetic exploration: 1) start small; 2) use your curriculum to explode a moment; and 3) be careful not to have students speak for – rather learn from – others.  

First, there is no need for curricular redesign to add current events-based poetry into your classroom.  For example, if your class reads Sandra Uwiringiyimana’s How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child, a warm-up would be to ask students to read current periodicals on the country’s complicated discussion(s) regarding border security, refugees, and immigration.  Instructing students to then write a haiku, limerick, or cinquain about what they have read makes a simple assignment. Whether you allow them to read poems aloud in class or not, this task of writing current events-based poems 1) reinforces the link between literature and today’s political climate; 2) prompts students to recall poetic structures; and 3) offers an opportunity for students to express their opinions without spending extensive class time on an assessment.

Second, specificity is key.  I find when students focus on exploding a particular moment, line, phrase, or paragraph in a current event article, instead of trying to encapsulate the entire article into poetic form, they dig deeper into understanding implications of the news.  For example, ask students to correlate Crooks in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and issues of race with an article about Black Lives Matter, or gender inequities associated with Curly’s Wife and the #MeToo movement.  Inspire students to focus on details rather than attempt to solve world problems within the confines of a poem. Specificity, I find in my classroom, promotes both appreciation for others and authentic opportunities for voice.

Moreover, it is important to ensure that students are not speaking for others, rather learning from them.  This “speaking for” mentality could lead to increased frustrations, stereotyping, or even silencing marginalized voices. Rather, use poetry as a means to investigate what others may encounter in their lives.  I have learned from my own poetic explorations that it is not beneficial to have White students speaking as if they are people of color, nor is it helpful for men to speak for women; instead, use poetic forms to explore how current events impact who we are, what we think, and how we perceive the world around us.  Rooting poetry in published current events sources and/or pairing with corresponding curriculum prohibits these missteps from happening.

If our goal is a socially just classroom where every student feels free to express themselves, educators should create frameworks that allow risk and growth. As “creativity begets more creativity” (Felleman-Fattal, 2017, p. 72), students must explore strategies to interact with curriculum in a way that makes sense to them. Poetry addressing current events allows for students to make mistakes – tackling historical lessons of core curriculum – while simultaneously making connections to the realities of today. Equity in the classroom is promoted when sincerity is valued over quality; process, not product, is key; and learners are able to express ideas based on their own experiences, feeling free to explore without judgment.

References
Coates, T.-N. (2016). Between the world and me. Toronto: CNIB.

Felleman-Fattal, L. R. (2017). Action research in preservice teachers’ arts-integration pedagogies for social justice teaching and learning. Childhood Education, 93(1), 66-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2017.1275244

Foster, V. (2012). What if? The use of poetry to promote social justice. Social Work Education, 31(6), 742-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2012.695936

Kelly, D. (2012). Teaching for social justice. Our Schools / Our Selves, 21(2), 135-154. Retrieved from the Education Research Complete database. (Accession No. 86208456)

Lahman, M. K., Rodriguez, K. L., Richard, V. M., Geist, M. R., Schendel, R. K., & Graglia, P. E. (2011). (Re)forming research poetry. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(9), 887-896. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411423219

McCafferty-Wright, J., & Knowles, R. (2016). Unlocking the civic potential of current events with an open classroom climate. Social Studies Research & Practice, 11(3), 112-121. Retrieved from the Education Research Complete database. (Accession No. 121117280)

Simmons, D. (Ed.). (2003). Russell Simmons def poetry jam on Broadway–and more: The choice collection. New York: Atria.

Thomas, P. L. (2015). In defense of poetry: “Oh my heart”. English Journal, 104(4), 90-92.

Kelly L. Hatch, Associate Professor of Literacy, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, hatchk @ uww.edu

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In 2017 I was a Fellow in UWW Program for Community-Based Learning, designed to augment in students a “sense of social responsibility and citizenship skills” and to improve “complexity of understanding, problem analysis, critical thinking and cognitive development” (AACU, 2012, pp. 60-61). Because this program obligated me to integrate community-based learning (CBL) into an existing course, I chose to re-imagine my Children’s Literature curriculum. This is a course required by every pre-service teacher seeking a license from Pre-K through 8^th grade, so I have the potential to reach many students each semester.

When I undertook this challenge, I gave tremendous consideration to the notion of developing a transformative curriculum. The word means something different to most people, but I took it at its most basic definition and decided that my curriculum needed to change my students’ minds about something significant. On the first day of class, I asked them to define “literacy.” They generally agreed that it is the ability to read and write. One student added that it should include comprehension. Another suggested that the definition should include speaking.

Of utmost importance to me as a Literacy professor is that pre-service teachers embrace the importance of instructing a diverse population of learners by offering a wide variety of best practice methods and learning spaces. Thus, it is crucial that they broaden their understanding of Literacy, to recognize it as a social practice rather than merely a set of skills (Au, 1993; Heath, 1983; Gee, 1996; Pérez, 1998; Street, 1984). I impress upon them the importance of understanding socio-cultural theories of language and literacy (Cazden, 1988; Cook-Gumperz, 1986; Erickson, 1984; Ferdman, 1991) so they understand that literacy is more than simply being able to “read, write or speak.” In other words, I explain that literacy is more than decoding or encoding, more than being able to handle a set of discrete and technical skills (e.g., knowledge of letters, words, sounds) and more than “possessing” the cognitive capabilities necessary to engage with a text (e.g., attention, motivation, or memory abilities). Instead, the overall context of the situation shapes what it means to be literate, depending upon the type of text, the type of reading or activity expected with that text, and the identity or background of the reader. Finally, I offer that a socio-cultural perspective both emphasizes the social worlds and cultural identities of students and views the act of making meaning as always embedded within a social context, very often within structures of power.

This framework suggests that the ways in which teachers and their students interact is a social practice that affects the nature of the literacy being learned and the ideas about literacy held by the participants. The structure of power in the traditional classroom, for instance, impacts the ways that children develop literacy learning. I offer this lecture to the pre-service teachers in my Children’s Literature course each semester, but I had never demonstrated the possibilities when the structure of power in the classroom is disrupted. I wanted to confound their traditional notions of how and where literacy may be taught and to alter the structure of power in my college classroom. In an effort to extend my pre-service teachers’ classic notions of what it means to engage students in literacy learning, I moved my classroom outdoors onto the Ice Age Trail.

UW-Whitewater rests within the Kettle Moraine Forest and is surrounded by miles of the Ice Age Trail. More than 12,000 years ago, much of Wisconsin was covered by ice, and as that ice receded, it left behind a variety of unique landscape features. The Ice Age Trail, one of only 11 National Scenic Trails in the United States, is a 1,000-mile footpath that highlights these features as it winds its way throughout the state.

In order to help my pre-service teachers understand, utilize, and value this outdoor classroom, I partnered with Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail Alliance, the non-profit organization that builds and maintains this vital resource. Through this partnership, my students learned from botanists, geologists, conservationists, erosion experts, and a variety of multi-generational outdoor enthusiasts as they learned how to build and maintain the trail, as well as how to utilize the trail as an outdoor classroom. This trail can be accessed throughout the state, so it is very likely that they will have access to this most amazing outdoor classroom whether they remain in this community or move across the state.

In exchange for this educational windfall, my students each devoted 15 hours of service to the Alliance. Some completed a weekend-long boardwalk-building project alongside hundreds of other volunteers. A small group, dubbing themselves the Trailblazers, hiked several miles of the Whitewater segment with an Alliance sponsor and painted blazes on trees to mark the trail. Others worked on an erosion project on the trail just beyond our campus. Several led Tyke Hikes for children around the community.

Finally, each created a multi-disciplinary literacy unit to be shared with the Alliance’s education outreach program, which reaches teachers, parents, and students interested in working on the trail with young learners. These multi-disciplinary units were rooted in literature and spanned the content areas of Math, Science, Social Studies, History, Art, and Health.

The pre-service teachers in this CBL course explored the Ice Age Trail as an outdoor classroom for an entire semester and created lessons that integrated literacy across all disciplines. Their understanding and use of Children’s and Young Adult literature provided the framework, and their experience of learning in this non-traditional space informed their lessons, as they began to imagine different ways of reaching children. It seemed that, while they have each learned about the importance of implementing best practices and the necessity of differentiating their instruction, they struggled with the idea of putting the theories learned in the classroom into practice. I suggest that this was due, in large part, to their limited definition of literacy. When they began to understand that the learning spaces and methods that they choose for young learners will help to shape a socio-cultural context for their students’ understanding (Pérez, 1998, p. 5), they started to imagine ways in which they could offer experiences that recognized the background knowledge and social/cultural identities that children bring to a learning activity. Slowly, they began to fully understand that literacy learning happens, not just by reading and writing, but also through conversations, interactions, and relationships with teachers and peers. When the they began creating the multi-disciplinary literacy units that would eventually be shared throughout the community, I could see in their work a transformation from a traditional to a more holistic view of literacy.

I titled one of the activities Poetry in Motion (see Appendix A for the assignment guidelines). We met for class at a walking bridge on a segment of the Trail near our campus, where I read excerpts from Jane Yolen’s poetry. We discussed the idea of having elementary age students collect Small Moments or images to use as writing prompts for poetry, and I explained that they would practice this themselves in order to understand how they might use this type of activity with their own students. I offered two different options for the assignment. First, I gave each pre-service teacher a Small Moments journal, made simply by folding four lunch bags in half and securing them at the binding with twine. I used small Velcro circles to close the open ends of the bags to create pockets for little treasures, and I printed a label for the cover of each. I explained that students could collect Small Moments by finding artifacts along the trail to put inside the pockets, or they could write about these moments in the journal. The other option was to capture the moment in a photo. Afterwards, they dispersed along the trail to hike and write poems about their Small Moments (see Appendix B).

By re-imagining my Children’s Literature curriculum, I learned what may happen when the power structure in a collegiate classroom is disrupted. It was not, as every teacher may secretly fear, anarchy or chaos. It was the first truly collaborative experience that I have had with students. When we moved our classroom onto the trail, students who were typically quiet suddenly came to life. We sauntered along chatting and laughing, and, at a point, I don’t believe an observer would have been able to distinguish the professor from the student. We were just a bunch of individuals hiking, writing, reading poetry, and laughing.

 

References
Au, K. H.-P. (1993). Literacy instruction in multicultural settings. Fort Worth: Harcourt.

Cazden, C. B. (1988). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Cook-Gumperz, J. (1986). The social construction of literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A crucible moment: College learning and democracy’s future. (2012). Retrieved from Association of American Colleges and Universities website: https://www.aacu.org/sites/default/files/files/crucible/Crucible_508F.pdf

Erickson, F. (1984). School literacy, reasoning, and civility: An anthropologist’s perspective. Review of Educational Research, 54(4), 525-546. Retrieved from ERIC database. (Accession No. EJ313056)

Ferdman, B. M. (1991). Literacy and cultural identity. In M. Minami & B. P. Kennedy (Eds.), Language issues in literacy and bilingual/multicultural education (pp. 347-390). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Gee, J. P. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses (2nd ed.). London: Taylor and Francis.

Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pérez, B. (Ed.). (1998). Sociocultural contexts of language and literacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Street, B. V. (1984). Literacy in theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Appendix A. Assignment Guidelines
The following poems will comprise our “Poetry in Motion” curriculum. The idea behind this study is that students will complete a variety of poetry activities while they enjoy the beauty of the universe … outdoors. The use of the outdoor “classroom” offers us an opportunity to flip the classroom: students who typically do not excel in a traditional learning space may thrive here. Our hope is to offer students opportunities to observe and enjoy the nature around them and to leverage the power of poetry to describe it.

We shall begin with Haiku, because it is a very easy form for children to understand and create. Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme.

Here’s a Haiku to help you remember:

I am first with five
Then seven in the middle–
Five again to end.

Palm trees shoot so high
Mountains reaching to the sky
Sun on my face…sigh

 

Sonnets are far more complex; however, because they offer a rigid rhyme scheme, they are sometimes fairly easy to create. Students think of a topic and then simply follow the scheme. Sonnet comes from the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song.” Traditionally, the sonnet is a fourteen-line poem. Two sonnet forms provide the models from which all other sonnets are formed: the Petrarchan and the Shakespearean. The second major type of sonnet, the Shakespearean or English sonnet, tends to be easier for students to create as it has three quatrains and a couplet and follows this rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The couplet offers students a chance to be clever as it plays a pivotal role, usually arriving in the form of a conclusion, amplification, or even refutation of the previous three stanzas.

 

Free Verse is a perennial favorite because of its complete lack of rules. It is a literary device that can be defined as poetry free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm and does not rhyme with fixed forms. While they do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, they do provide artistic expression. In this way, poets can give their own shape to their poems. However, free verse still allows poets to use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, or rhythms to get the effects that they consider are suitable for the piece.

Odes are really fun for students, because they are intended to be quite solemn and serious, but when written for an object (like a pickle), they may suddenly become quite hilarious. Ode comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning “to sing or chant,” and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.

Concrete poems take the shape of the thing, place, or action about which they are written. These are fun for children as their poems are naturally illustrated as they are created. You may offer students the option of finding their forms (pictures/clip art) online and then creating their poems onto the framework. This type of poetry has been used for thousands of years, since the ancient Greeks began to enhance the meanings of their poetry by arranging their characters in visually pleasing ways back in the 3rd and 2nd Centuries BC.

Illustrative Poems solve one of the biggest problems that writers have as they set out to create a poem … coming up with an idea. Students may simply “caption” a picture that they have taken on the trail. This caption may be joined with others to form a poem, or perhaps the young writer will add to the caption as inspiration strikes.

Winter closed its icy doors,
allowing joy only to the hearty.

When I grow up
I will be graceful, funny and smart.
I will always be happy,
because I followed my heart.
I didn’t listen to friends
who said I was weird.
I didn’t run away
from the things that I feared.
I will stand up for the weak
and give them a voice.
I will be a great leader
if given the choice.
But for now…
I will glide.
I will stop, spin and start.
Living each moment, everyday,
with a smile in my heart.

I Am poems express who you are by sharing personal characteristics and qualities. There are a couple different types. The first is a formulaic type, basically a fill-in-the-blank poem. There is also the free verse version where the author takes the basic idea of the I Am poem and runs with it. Either is just dandy, as long as the poets represents themselves. A fun twist is to create I Am poems to describe famous people in history. Students can have fun guessing who is being described in the poem.

We will practice the strategy of collecting Small Moments as inspiration for our poems. I have created journals for this activity and will share them at the trail. Students will each receive a journal to collect their moments, or they may take pictures of the moments they wish to capture. Students will then use the collected moments as a starting point for a poem.

 

Appendix B. Student Writing

“Home of the One Thousand Heart Beats”

Light filters through the citadel
And through her song, she does compel.
The traveler to walk through her domain
A place touched by wind, snow, and rain.
He must be surefooted-
To walk through the city wick and wooded.

He is on mission true
To escape the gray, and find the blue
To clear his lungs of fog, the smog, and the black hazardous emission,
To walk the trespasser’s walk of careful contrition
He walks and walks, trying to hear the sound
Of all that is around
The sound of just one
Just one of those one thousand heartbeats to pound.

His feet crunch
On the carpet of a million shreds.
Of green life once known to touch the endless blue
He thinks he is almost through
The honking, hollering, and the hullabaloo.
He has almost shrugged the tangled threads
That hold him to the flashing lights
The endless sights
The concrete elites
And escaped to the home of one thousand heartbeats.

The muck underneath
The blue above.
The sparrow, the songbird, and the dove.
Soar above the scurrying rat, the scuffling mouse, and the scavenging squirrel
The wolf, the fox, and the deer from their dens unfurl
As spring’s warmth seeps into the branch and touches the leaf
The wind whispers through the trees
And hears and sees
The life among the death
The light in the dark
The evil in the good
All in this small wood
This small park
That holds its breath
And the one thousand heartbeats
That the traveler has yet to hear

The traveler begins to fear
All that he cannot hear.
Has he been so long in the noise and commotion
That the sound of his own heartbeat has become a forgotten notion.

Then he begins to hear-
The pounding, the thumping, so loud and clear.
Just one of the one thousand heartbeats that reside here.

The sweet trickle as the water flows,
The radiant glow from below,
Even the stones have a home
in the bed of the water’s foam,
It is like a marvelous dream,
When studying the ways of the stream.

 

Ice Age Trail Poem
Crisp dews reflect yellow hues
I can feel the sun shining through me
The grass shifts under my toes
As I walk the path guided by thousands before me

 

bugs fly in my eye
this hill seems to touch the sky,
mud seeps into my shoes
lost in the woods, we don’t know whose.

 

Wander somewhere not far from home,
a separate history to us unknown.
Ice came and went but left a path,
for us to learn from, for it was made to last.
The sights and sounds of the forest
are there to amaze and never bore us.
Rain or shine, hot or cold,
explore the trail to see what it holds.

 

Bugs.
Lots of trees.
Very quiet all the time.
Grass, leaves, weeds, vines.
Green is everywhere.
No cars, no trucks.
Lots of trees.
Rivers,
Streams,
Bugs,
Birds.
Life,
silence,
nature

 

Who am I?
I am tall
and change colors in the fall.
When the wind blows,
I do not shrink.
Instead I grow.
The rain does not scare me.
Instead it feeds thee.

 

Between the Evergreens,
birds chatter through the day.
Children run full of life.
Air is light, roaming free.
Life moves a bit slower.
I want to spend more days
between the evergreens.

 

Rain patters
wind blows
leaves whistle
Rivers flow
Sun shines
We know
It’s mother nature
putting on a show.

 

The trees so tall, they touch the sky 
branches sway, as birds fly by 
I wonder how the world would look
if nature wasn’t forsook

 

Trees are brown
Trees are green
This is the calmest place
I have ever seen
The sun is glistening
through the trees
just feeling the breeze

 

H owling of the wind making the
I ncus, Malleus and Stapes working to
K eep up with the sounds.
I  see the leave twisting and turning.
N eedles softly covering the path.
G reen ferns turning red and
T rees casting shadows.
H eart pumping and muscles straining.
E yes ever watchful for the elusive woodland creature.
I mprints of the Earth
C arefully setting into the soul.
E arth, sky, air, and water
A geless in its purity
G ently soothing my spirit.
E nergy coming to me egging me on.
T aking a breath feeling the burn in my lungs.
R eleasing my worries and fears.
A llowing the peace and tranquility to come
I nto my mind
L earning to love the wilderness and accepting its gifts.

Oh the trees
How green they are
They are so big and tall
They sway left and right
If only people would look up to see their beauty
Go ahead and get lost
Because there is no cost
To witness the beauty
Of what the outdoors has to offer