Fun, Food, and Figurative Language: It's Poetry Time!!!!!

I haven’t blogged in a long, long time. Actually, that’s not true!!! I’ve blogged in my local newspaper!!!!!

That’s kept me super busy -

not really the writing….

or the cooking……

or the photos…..

Nope. What kept me busy was the WORRY!!!!

But there it is. It’s out there, so on to something else!

It’s time to teach poetry in my classroom. Hear the collective sighs of many adolescent boys as they think, “Yippee!” Here’s what’s going on in class -

· I’ve jumped onboard with Jeff Anderson’s “Mentor Sentences,” and I LOVE IT!!!!! I will keep this strategy FOREVER. Check out his book…..

Mentor Sentences

· I’ve also jumped onboard with Kelly Gallagher’s thoughts on mentor texts and week-long, current-event texts. Check out his book……

Readicide

· I’ve been onboard with interactive notebooks. I will never get rid of them in my classroom. I will, however, strive to improve them every year!!!!!

After combining all of these strategies that I’m currently using in my classroom, I’ve created two new products. One is a week-long study of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers.” The other is an updated study of Langston Hughes’ poem, “Mother to Som.” Here are links to them….just in case you are interested.