Poetry Books for Kids

I am always looking for poetry appropriate for kids... that... doesn't... rhyme. With all of their exposure to nursery rhymes and songs, it seems children come to the classroom thinking all poetry must rhyme (which of course is the hardest kind of poetry to write well). So I was delighted recently when I found these two poetry anthologies at my library:

A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets, by Ralph Fletcher

A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, by Naomi Shihab Nye

Both volumes contain poems written by adults, but in the voice of a child or preteen. Subjects vary, circling around the experiences of childhood, and are treated honestly with the seriousness of a child. These are not "fluffy" my-brother-picks-his-nose kind of poems; they are heart-felt and resonate with me even as an adult. And they are minefields of metaphors, similes, imagery...all of the things we try to teach kids to do in their work! A few examples:

Memory Loss
by Ralph Fletcher
It's not like losing a wallet,
or even your best friend.

Losing your memory is
losing yourself.

Each sentence Grandma speaks
makes me think of crossing a river.

She steps from word to word
until suddenly

she stops in the middle, disoriented.
Should she go back or keep going?

Mom takes Grandma by the hand
and helps her safely to the other side.


If the Shoe Doesn't Fit
by Naomi Shihab Nye
you take it off
of course you take it off
it doesn't worry you
it isn't your shoe


Supple Cord
by Naomi Shihab Nye
My brother, in his small white bed,
held one end.
I tugged the other
to signal I was still awake.
We could have spoken,
could have sung
to one another,
we were in the same room
for five years,
but the soft cord
with its frayed ends
connected us
in the dark,
gave comfort
even if we had been bickering
all day.
When he fell asleep first
and his end of the cord
dropped to the floor,
I missed him terribly,
though I could hear his even breath
and we had such long and separate lives
ahead.

Don't Let the Pigeon Write This Book

I love Mo Willems' writing. He has a number of picture books out that are just fabulous. Not only is he a creative illustrator, but his writing is imbued with his wonderful sense of humor (the dry kind, like mine!). One of his popular books is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

Well, I just stumbled onto his blog tonight and found this inspiring post! It led me to imagine what the pigeon would find if he came to my school... Perhaps the principal's office, the swingset, the donuts in the staff lounge, the piano in the music room, the mailbox in front of the school...

So how's this for a writing activity?

Part One: Read a couple of the pigeon books by Mo Willems. Discuss what the pigeon wants in each book and how he goes about trying to get it. Talk about how Willems ends each story. Point out the talking bubbles or discuss quotation marks as a way to show that someone is talking. Take notes on chart paper for students to reference when they write their stories.

Part Two: Zerox and cut out a copy of the pigeon. Take photos of him sitting in various places in your school (this could be done by the teacher ahead of time or together as a class). Print the photos and distribute one to each student, or to each pair of students. Explain that this picture needs to be included somewhere in their story, either at the beginning, middle, or end. Model using one of the pictures as inspiration for a story: Think out loud as you construct an idea for a story: what does the pigeon want? Show students how you would begin your story (for younger kids, you might want to demonstrate writing the whole story). Then let the writing begin!

Of course, you will want to establish a teaching focus before beginning this lesson. Will you emphasize persuasive writing? Story form? Quotation marks? You also need to have a clear idea of what you want the final product to look like: individual stories? a class book? Think about how your students do their best writing: individually, in pairs, in table groups, or as a whole class? Perhaps you'll want to give out several photos rather than just one to each group.

If I were to do this in a first grade class (first half of the school year), I would take the whole class on a "field trip" around the school and have them give me suggestions on where to photograph the pigeon. We would then return to the classroom and go through the writing process together, crafting the story on sentence strips and putting them in a sequence that made sense. Then I would type up the story with the photographs and bind it as a class book to be enjoyed by everyone. The finished book would go home with each student, and once it had made it through each household, we would put it into our classroom library.

Since writing (and reading) can be so tedious for beginning first graders, this would give students an opportunity to contribute to the writing process and be creative without having to worry about the physical act of writing (we would of course be practicing this skill at other times). Also, once students have written a book together, they are immediately invested in learning how to read it!

Mentor Texts, Part 2

Here are some links from WritingFix.com to lesson plans using mentor texts. I have organized them by form.

Friendly Letter, Persuasive Writing
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
Focus Trait: Voice (persuasive writing)
Support Trait: Organization (friendly letter form)
http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/ClickClackMoo1.htm

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff
Focus Trait: Voice
Support Trait: Word Choice
http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/IWannaIguana1.htm

4-5 paragraph essay
How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long
Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency
http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/HowPirate1.htm

Short Story, roughly 2 pages
A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
Focus Trait: Idea Development (strong details: show, not tell)
Support Trait: Voice (using emotional words)
http://writingfix.com/Picture_Book_Prompts/Bad_Case_Stripes3.htm

Writing Exercise: Forming a Good Sentence
Hooway for Wodney Wat by Helen Lester
Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency
Support Trait: Varying Sentence Beginnings
http://writingfix.com/right_brain/Who_What_When_Where_Recess1.htm

I think that once you have taught several successful lessons using mentor texts, you will find a teaching style that works for you. When you have found your rhythm, it becomes easier to develop a lesson from scratch using a mentor text. At that point, you can use books from your existing library to form the basis of your writing “program.” (And once you know how you best organize a writing lesson, you can use the plethora of lists found on the Internet and elsewhere of good mentor texts.)

One Way to Organize a Mentor Text Lesson

1. Present the text to the students
a. Give a brief summary of the plot (don’t give away the ending!)
b. Explain what the students should be listening for as you read (your teaching point or “Focus Trait”)
c. Read the text
d. Discuss how the text illustrated your teaching point
i. Discuss as a group OR
ii. Do a Think-Pair-Share OR
iii. Make a list together OR
iv. Give examples on your own (Unfortunately, this allows for no student interaction but can be used if you are short on time.)
2. Explain writing assignment
a. Model writing the assignment yourself OR
b. Model writing the assignment with student input OR
c. Give students a graphic organizer or list of steps and model following that format OR
d. Bring up a student and guide him/her in modeling the assignment
(You don’t have to model the whole assignment, but at least model how to start. Often, the first sentence is the hardest to write.)
3. Write teaching point on board. This is your look-for, or your objective.
4. Students begin writing!

You can follow this format for any type of writing. The most important element is teacher modeling. Students need to see you write in front of them (This is what you require of them, right?), and they need to see that sometimes writing comes easily and sometimes it does not.

**Rarely do you teach using a mentor text, model the assignment, and have students bring writing to completion in one session. (There are occasions when you can do this, however, especially with younger students who are required to write only a sentence or two.)

When I taught writing to first graders, I tried to divide my writing time (45-60 minutes) in thirds, so that I taught a mini-lesson at the beginning, had them write in the middle, and had students share their writing at the end (Whether they were finished or not, a few students would read their writing aloud and we would clap. I would take notes on who I needed to work with the next day during independent writing time, or what I saw as a common error that needed to be addressed in a mini-lesson).

Below is a sample week using a mentor text.

Day One: Mini-lesson (Read mentor text and discuss)
Day Two: Review mentor text and discussion briefly; model writing; students begin writing
Day Three: Mini-lesson (Bring up 1-3 students independently to share writing with class - validate what they have done well and give them a few suggestions to make their writing better); students continue writing
Day Four and following: Mini-lesson (Model developing ideas, working on transitions, or tying it all together; model revision; or repeat Day Three)

As students bring their writing to completion they can read their writing to a peer, take it through an editing checklist (If you do this, make sure you have introduced this at the beginning of the writing assignment so students don’t feel like you’re making them do “extra” work!), or write in an independent journal. Try to keep the focus on writing rather than on catching up on other assignments or busy work.

Please recognize that this way of teaching is very organic. It is not something where you can plan out specific mini-lessons ahead of time. You can, and should, have an idea of what your teaching points are, but you also need to take into account the pacing of your class: how much time you have for writing (some days, none!), how much guidance your students need (direct instruction as a whole group? small group support? one-on-one?), and how much time they can actually write independently (10 minutes? 20 minutes? 0 minutes?) Good writing takes discipline (writing every day) and constant reflection and revision. You can guide students through this process using the mini-lesson format (and please let them share!) so that there is always some collaborative effort, the feeling that we’re all in this together. Too often I imagine students feel isolated as writers, and when writing is hard, they give up. If you celebrate their writing as they write, and help solve some of their problems (not knowing what to say next, how to organize their thoughts, or how to conclude their writing) as they go instead of at the end by marking up their paper with red marks, I think they have a lot more fun at it! (And you have less to grade, since you have been guiding them all along!)

Mentor Texts

What is a mentor text? How is it used in teaching writing? Is it a realistic and effective way to teach writing?

My understanding of a mentor text is a piece of writing, typically a book, that is used by a teacher and/or a student as a model for how to write a certain way. Because a book can be such a long form, picture books tend to be recommended for this type of teaching.

Some ways mentor texts are used:
1. Formally (the teacher reads the text and tells the students what to look for or imitate)
2. Informally (students are given a variety of texts to study independently during writers workshop)
3. To model form (poetry, short story, etc.) or trait (organization, word choice, etc.).
3. To serve as inspiration for a topic
4. To open a writing lesson
5. To illustrate a teaching point (strong ending, varied sentence openers, transitions)

ReadWriteThink has a lesson on using mentor texts to teach organization within a comparison/contrast paper. This is an "inquiry" lesson where students are to discover their best method of organization as they read and study their mentor texts. (I think you would need some highly motivated and focused students in order to have success in this manner of teaching.)
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=974

Corbett Harrison, Director of the Northern Nevada Writing Project, often uses mentor texts to illustrate teaching points: sometimes at the beginning of a lesson to inspire kids to write or give them a form to mimic, and sometimes right before they are to revise. Here he lists his top ten mentor texts and gives a brief description of how he uses them in the classroom (very helpful!):
http://corbettharrison.com/mentortext.html

More mentor texts and lesson plans can be found at Corbett Harrison's other website, WritingFix.com. The lessons are listed alphabetically by mentor text, not skills focus, although at the bottom of the page there are mentor texts organized by the Six Traits (no lesson plans listed for these though).
http://writingfix.com/About_us/books.htm

I think that mentor texts are often presented to teachers as a way to have students learn by being exposed to great writing, but without a "how-to" and having the mentor texts in hand, this method can easily be dismissed. It would be helpful to have teachers or coaches demonstrate how they use mentor texts since they can be adapted to so many teaching styles (Teachers, can you ask your principal to cover your class while you visit a colleague's classroom, with their permission of course?).

Mentor texts are one tool for teaching writing; they are not an established writing "program." I think to be most effective, a teacher should look at an entire year of writing objectives (considering the teaching of form as well as "the six traits"), sketch out a sequence in which to teach them (or use the one provided by the district, if available), and then plug in mentor texts as mini-lessons to illustrate teaching points.

Surely you can teach mentor texts as isolated writing lessons, and I did this very thing my first year or two of teaching, knowing nothing else (I didn't call them "mentor texts" though!). As I taught each lesson I saved student writing samples along with an index card listing my objective and the steps in which I taught the lesson, and put them into a plastic page protector. I filed the lessons in a 3-ring-binder with monthly dividers. Then in following years, I was able to organize the lessons into a scope and sequence that made sense.