Some of you know that I’ve had a student writer’s circle in the past. For six years, I ran an enrichment group for third grade students, handpicked by their teachers, to belong to a writer’s circle with me once a week during the school year. It’s been at least four years since I had such a group. And, I miss it!
We wrote poetry from mid-February to mid-March so that I could submit their work to a national compilation of student work – the Young American Poetry Digest. They look mostly for haiku. And, I found haiku was both fun and instructive to teach to eight year olds. Practice with syllables and sounding out words is essential in the younger grades, as is determining the usefulness of each word. They also revel in the thrill of not having to write complete sentences! This feeling carried over onto most of the poetry we wrote.
The students experienced cinquain, diamante, and bio-poems, as well as haiku and my favorite, color poems. I’ve written about the color poem writing experience many times, so I’ll skip that for today. Among all the units we covered during the school year, the poetry unit became my favorite. I wrote along side my students, shared my work, acknowledged my mistakes, and how I might edit to make my work better. I relished this time with the thirty six students I had the privilege to work with over those six years.
And, now I have the chance to do it again! I’ve been able to organize another student group, made of a few interested community members. We’ll start after July 4th and run once a week for eight weeks. It is a creative Writer’s Circle but we will definitely do some poetry! I can’t wait to see what this group does. They are somewhat older than my previous Writer’s Circle students, so I will expect a larger vocabulary and command of language. But, since this is an enrichment group, I mainly want them to enjoy the process of writing, sharing, and polishing their work!
The public library has a beautiful community room in which we can have our meetings. Since I no longer have children in school, I wanted to stay away from using our school buildings to make this a more inclusive community group. The first week we will meet outside and do some collection of ideas for our time together. I’m viewing this experience as eight mini-lessons with time to write and share work completed during their week between our group meetings.
So, this is where you – fellow Poetry Friday members come in…what would YOU do with these meetings? What mini-units would you conduct? The age range is 4th-7th grade. I have some ideas already, but thought I’d ask. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!
Here are some previous published student haiku from my former Writer’s Circle Students. The first group of three is from the Young American Poetry Digest, 2011.
Toads
Croaking, wet, bumpy
Cool, phenomenal jumper
Toads are excellent
By B.L age 9 years, 2011
Waiting for the sun
Please come shine on me today
In this winter cold
By S.G. age 9, 2011
Utah Prairie Dog
Claws is what they have
Endangered is what they are
Prairie dogs are cute
By. E.J. Age 10, 2011.
And here is a poem on the sense of hearing by a former student published in 2013, also in the Young American Poetry Digest.
I’m listening, I’m listening,
I hear what you say.
I’m listening, I’m listening,
I’ve been listening all day.
I’m listening, I’m listening
I’ve been kept at bay
I’m listening, I’m listening,
Wait…what did you say?
By B.S. Age 11, 2013
Today is Poetry Friday. Linda at A Word Edgewise is our host! Thank you for gathering our links today, Linda!
The Apples in My Orchard 
Leave a reply to maryleehahn Cancel reply