This Lesson's Title:
Poems of Apology
"this is just to say" that I hope you forgive me
This original writing lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Todd Herman. |
T his on-line writing prompt is based on the poetry of William Carlos Williams. Before writing to this assignment, students should hear and discuss the poetry of this great poet.
Click here to learn more about this poet.
If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for a collection of works by this poet that you can check out from the county library. |
Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:
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This is Just to Say
by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold |
Step one (sharing the published model):
Enjoy Joyce Sidman’s This is Just to Say as a read-aloud with your students. Start by sharing William Carlos Williams poem from the overhead below. Then choose several different examples, depending on your audience and grade level. Then ask them, "How does each author make sure his new poem sounds so much like the original poem?" and "How does each author make sure his new poem has unique qualities from the original?"
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From Todd Herman, this lesson's author: "Tell students they will be writing their own apology poem. Print and show as overheads the first two pages of her book. The first overhead shows two poems, one by William Carlos Williams, the other by a member of Sidman’s class, I suggest the very first poem, the one dealing with powdered doughnuts. Read these poems together as a class. The second overhead would be a response back to the writer of the poem. Read this poem together as a class. Then discuss how the poems are the same and in what ways are they different."
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; two can be located on the bottom of the Ogden Nash handout from above. Encourage the students to talk about the sentence fluency in each poem, and then to talk about how idea development was accomplished by the writer.
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Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The first button of the interactive prompt on the Student Instruction Page provides some pretty good suggestions for verbs in their poems. The second interactive button is a list of possible topics that students could write about. Instead of giving students free reign to begin with, you might select one topic to apologize for--like not turning in homework or an important assignment--for the whole class to write on, and then allow them to all write about any topic they have interest in. You can also let students write their poems with partners or with small groups.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Learn more about poet William Carlos Williams by clicking here.
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