sixteen-word imagery poems to inspire stories and poems
This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Dena Harrison. Check out all of Dena's online writing lessons by clicking here.
The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Step one (sharing the published model): Get a classroom copy of Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. It takes no longer than a week to share with your students, and it's a great introduction to a poetry unit. We dare you not to cry as the book ends...in sadness and in joy. The main character resists poetry, even though his teacher shares some of the best with his class. As he starts to let his guard down and toy with poetry in his notebook, we clearly see him imitate the techniques of the great poets. Of particular interest, is his imitation of William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheel Barrow, which inspired this writing activity.
William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheel Barrow (click hereto print the poem on a single page for your students) is a thought-provoking 8-line, 16-word poem. 'Why would so much depend upon that, Mr. Williams?' the reader yearns to ask the poet. The format of the poem is very easily imitated. In Love That Dog, the main character impersonates the poem with his own topic: a blue speeding car. 'Why does so much depend upon that blue speeding car?' we ask, and by the book's end...we know.
Tell students they will be creating their own sixteen-word poems, and they will be taking their favorite and turning it into the inspiration for a short story about a character, or for a longer poem.
Step two (introducing student models of writing): In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson. The groups will certainly talk about the voice, because of the post-it note that has been embedded on each model. You might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.
Step three (thinking and pre-writing): After you have talked about Williams' imagery-filled poem and shared the portion of Creech's book that talks about it, ask your students to write four of their own 16-word poems. Now since four of the words are already determined for them, stress the importance of making the remaining twelve words really be words that grab us with their imagery.
Have students share their four short poems with partners or in groups and talk about each poem's word choice. How were the poems' verbs and adjectives? The partnership or the group needs to then open its collective mind and ask, "Why would so much depend upon that image to another person...like a character in a story?" Brainstorm the possibilities. If your students know how Love That Dog ends already, they will understand why so much depends upon the main character's blue speeding car. Hopefully they will be able to find a possible story behind one of their So Much Depends Upon poems.
Step four (revising with specific trait language): To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts. Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings. For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.
Step five (editing for conventions): After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.
Step six (publishing for the portfolio): When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here. Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.
Interested in publishing student work on-line? We invite student writers to post final drafts of their original at WritingFix's Community of Student Writers. This is a safe-to-use blog for students and teachers. No writing is posted until it is approved by the moderator. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have questions about getting your students published.
Learn more about poet William Carlos Williams by clicking here.
Learn more about author Sharon Creech by clicking here.
