Visualization and Verbalization- Ekphrasis Employed

Jennifer Frasher

Tanka

My friend, in order,

all sensible syllables

neat and sequential

making the impossible

finally accessible.

Introduction

Ekphrasis has an evolving definition according to multiple sources. It was originally a device for descriptive writing but has currently come to be known as “a literary device in which a painting, sculpture, or other work of visual art is described in detail.”1 In seminar we discussed Ekphrastic Poetry as being any form of “poetry about any art form created to evoke a sensory response.”2

The idea of teaching poetry to first graders seems daunting at the outset. With so much focus on beginning reading and writing instruction, there seems to be little room for the finer thought forms of poetry. If students have any ideas about poetry it is usually that it “must rhyme”, a still tricky concept for the many students who haven’t mastered phonics or even the basics of onset and rime. Ostensibly, I could “teach poetry” through word families but to what purpose? The ultimate focus of such teachings would be the phonetic practice and that can be achieved with other research-based practices. So where could I fit poetry instruction in? I asked that question during a professional learning community (PLC) meeting about the district writing curriculum, “Explorations in Non-Fiction Writing”3. The response was that I should not teach poetry during writing but should instead seek to incorporate poetry during our reading block as an additional form of text for comparison/contrast, or (you guessed it) as rhyming patterns. While I knew rhyming patterns would have their deserved spot, at the time it was not the answer I wanted to hear. I scoured the Standards for guidance. I also wondered if Ekphrastic poetry could technically be considered response writing to real world, tangible experiences. My findings are the genesis of this unit.

Background

I teach at Keene Elementary school in the Christina School District. Christina has historically been the largest district in New Castle County, Delaware and is actually spread out between the City of Wilmington, Suburban Newark, and the nearby region of Bear.

Our school qualifies as a Title 1 school and has over 70% of our students receiving free or reduced lunch. The majority of our students come from non-traditional households. Many of our families are single parent or even another relative (grandparents, aunt or uncle, older sibling) family. It is not unusual for a family to have transportation and technology issues. We also have a large population of English Language Learners from a variety of cultures: Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern and the Caribbean. Despite challenges, Keene is a close-knit family. One new and unexpected challenge our school is facing is decreased enrollment numbers. For many years we were closed to choice enrollment because we were at, or over, capacity but recently we have experienced staff loss due to lower enrollment. It is unclear why this is occurring and we are exploring ways to address it.

I am dual certified, so I have Special Education students assigned to my room. These students’ IEPs range from Speech Therapy only, to Occupational Therapy, Learning Disabilities, Autism, and Severe Oppositional Disorders. There are also children with 504 Plans for Attention Deficit Disorder. I do have a full time Special Education teacher that pushes in every other day and a para professional who comes in on the interim days. We find ways to motivate and engage these students by providing as many hands-on opportunities as possible. Using a Project-based approach to content helps keep the students invested in their own learning

Location

William B. Keene Elementary School is located in a region known as “Bear” in New Castle County, Delaware. The school address is technically “Newark, Delaware” but our location is far from the bustling college town of that name. Despite the school’s proximity to some of its feeder neighborhoods, its location between a major highway, and a strip of woods, means that all students are either bus riders, or car riders, not walkers. This corridor of the highway has a very transient population and many of our students come and go throughout the K-5 grade span of the school.

Neighbors

In the last few years we have had multiple homicides in the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the school, including one near a bus stop as students were being dropped off. It is not unusual for us to experience security lockdowns due to other local crimes including bank and pharmacy robberies. Our location is also next to the Troop Two State Police Barracks, which is a mixed blessing. We have the benefit of quick security response but we are also in close proximity to the comings and goings of criminals. We were directly impacted by the tragic murder of a Troop 2 officer in the middle of the day, at a convenience store just up the road from the school and next to our students’ neighborhoods. Our students are acutely aware of the gravity of these situations but also

are concerned about their personal safety and that of their loved ones. School and other mass shootings are now happening with such frequency that we cannot afford to be “an ostrich with its head in the sand”.

Rationale

This is my second year teaching first grade. I had not chosen first grade and did not go quietly from my 16-year second grade position. Second grade had been a huge adjustment for me after my first 14 years of teaching spent in Middle School. I had hoped to teach fourth or fifth grade when moving to Elementary but took the only position available. I have adjusted and learned to love it. Because enrollment fluctuates year to year, we needed more first grade classrooms than second, so I was switched. I began campaigning to “get out” immediately, even going so far as to put in transfer requests.

I started this Session of the Delaware Teachers Institute (DTI) with the hope of teaching back in second grade, or higher. I dreamed of the higher-level lessons I could develop on the topic. Despite many “almost” changes, I found myself once again, a first grade teacher. I railed against my fate right up until the week before school started. I was so unhappy that I couldn’t envision further development of my unit. Then something changed in me. We have many new teachers joining our school this year, three of them on my team. I couldn’t bear the idea of poisoning them, dragging them down into the vat of self-pity and negativity that I had been wallowing in for the last year. I’ve always been a “silver lining” person and I had lost that. I decided that I was done with the struggle of it, that I would embrace this school year with enthusiasm and dedication. Teaching has enough challenges; we can easily sabotage ourselves if we get caught in a negative loop. I felt restored, rebooted to an earlier operating system without the corrupting virus I had downloaded. Cue the perfectly timed “Back to School, District Kickoff” Keynote speaker, Bertice Berry. She spoke directly to these issues of mindset, positivity, and unity. I felt that she spoke directly to me. (Many colleagues have shared the same feeling about her address.) She summed up her overall message with the quote “When you walk with purpose, you collide with destiny”4 It was a reminder to hold ourselves to the purpose of touching and enriching young lives daily.

I found myself reflecting on the talk that Ms. Berry gave. She shared stories of her life growing up in Wilmington and the educators who had helped, and who often pushed her onto greater things. She spoke of the books that she had written and shared how continued life experiences moved her to write more. She admitted how prejudices had colored her perception and portrayal of some of her characters which led her to write additional stories to “make amends.” In retrospect, I realized, “That was Ekphrasis”, she had shared her “Artist Statement”. I thought about how that “statement” must have changed over the course of time. Even an artist’s statement is merely a matter of current perception and reflection. But it was her language and word choice that truly drew in her audience. She alternated between formal and colloquial speech patterns. Clearly

purposed, her stories were peppered in vibrant analogies and descriptive phrases. The images painted and emotions engendered were poetic and inspirational. I had originally envisioned a unit that focused on writing artists’ statements as an end goal for my students, but decided instead, that building their ability to visualize and verbalize through language experiences would be a lifetime skill, rather than a unit end goal.

A voracious reader, I had grown up inhaling novels that took me to other times and places. I was not a big fan of short stories based on the ones I was exposed to at school; they left me wanting more or uninterested (or in the case of The Lottery5, forever traumatized). So what then about poetry? My background knowledge for poetry is spotty and, sadly, I have zero recollection of any poetry instruction received in my own schooling. What I do have is a small silver book of collected writings that I started in high school. Not much of it is filled, and what is there consists mainly of song lyrics and Blue Mountain greeting card poetry6. I was a lovelorn teenager and I collected the words that spoke to either my relationship status or emotions. Interspersed are some famous pieces by ee cummings, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, plus some lesser known poets. I must have gathered them from a high school anthology because I could not find much information on some of them despite extensive internet searches. Those poems are ones that I have remembered and recalled throughout my life, lines indelibly written on my psyche. And then there are my own poems and writings full of teenage angst and questions, so old at a young age. As I read through them I see growth across the few years that I was actively writing. The strongest lines are the ones full of imagery and less concerned with rhyme. They are caught somewhere between lyric and narrative, not surprising based on the rest of my book’s contents. I can’t help but wonder if some would be improved had I greater knowledge of poetic structures or if (as is the case for much of my personality) I do better when I don’t conform. The reality of that conundrum is that some students will do better with structure while others will thrive with creative freedom, so best to present them opportunities for both.

Learning Objectives

We become better readers when we read. We become better writers when we write. Exploring the arts can expand upon both of those skills. Ekphrastic Poetry can be the ideal medium to experience all three areas, while building positive connections and broadening horizons.

Analyzing poetry and other works of art provides an opportunity for students to address multiple English Language Arts standards from literature to writing, including non-fiction texts, as well as speaking and listening skills. The specific standards addressed are described in the annotated appendix.

Students will be exploring poetry through listening, reading and speaking. They will learn important features of poems that will allow them to understand some common

poetry structures, or forms, as well as free verse. This skill set will assist them in analyzing poetry which they will then apply to other text and art formats. Working with non-fiction texts will be an important part of the process in analyzing word choice, imagery, and even author’s/artist’s purpose.

Content Objectives

This unit is intended to immerse students in experiences with poetic reading and writing, plus artistic experiences, to promote positive engagement and reduce any preconceived notions of difficulty or inability. While I personally work with very young learners, the applications for older students was readily apparent through the experiences of the participants in our seminar. While we all selected a poetry seminar, each of us expressed varying but significant levels of anxiety and ignorance regarding the topic. Despite being veteran teachers, none of us claimed proficiency in our understanding of poetry or an ability to produce it. Our seminar leader David Teague, a published author and poet, led us gently into the genre through open discourse and collaborative writing experiences, and immediate immersion in artwork observations. In the story The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds, a young artist’s perception of her abilities is challenged and grown by the simple act of her teacher making her sign an angry pencil mark which the teacher then displayed in a frame.7 David’s acceptance of our poetic endeavors led us to greater confidence and risk taking. This is the exact approach for this unit.

Content Background

The unit title specifies the skills of visualization and verbalization as its focus. I chose those skills because they are integral to my everyday teaching. The term “visualize” is regularly employed in teacher materials and I use it daily in statements such as “Let’s visualize the setting to help us understand and remember that part of the story better.” or “What types of symbols do you visualize to help you show the information on the map?” On the other hand, I don’t actually say, “Okay, who can verbalize what they noticed just happened in the story?” I usually say “describe,” or “use good details to tell about” in place of verbalize probably because it is not typically used in the varying teacher materials I have had over the years. Somehow it hasn’t become widely used terminology. Despite this, I chose the term verbalize in the title specifically because I love alliteration, the sound of the repeated consonant sounds. It turns out however, that I am not the only one who believes these skills go hand in hand.

In the 1990’s Nanci Bell published a reading comprehension program titled “Visualizing and Verbalizing” with a reprint in 2007. The research based program targets individuals that struggle with weak gestalt imagery.

Gestalt imagery—the ability to create imaged wholes—is a critical factor

in oral and written language comprehension. Despite good decoding,

good vocabulary, and adequate background experiences, many individuals

experience weak gestalt imagery, thus processing “parts” rather than

“wholes,” from verbal stimuli, spoken or written.8

Nanci Bell, Annals of Dyslexia. 41. 246-260

Through a part to whole approach, students are systematically taught to make connections between images and words. It begins with picture-to-picture relationships, progresses to word-picture relationships then upwards to phrases, sentences and eventually paragraphs.9 Her research and the work of others on related concerns have informed the programs and practices of many others in terms of vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. I highly recommend further reading of her materials as noted in the resources section.

Visualization

"Proficient readers spontaneously and purposely create mental images

while and after they read. The images emerge from all five senses as

well as the emotions and are anchored in a reader's prior knowledge."10

Keene and Zimmerman, Mosaic of Thought

Before they are proficient readers, we must start our earliest learners with opportunities to create those mental images from texts read aloud. Front loading students with vocabulary explanations is essential to help them connect what they are hearing to their own real life experiences. Students should share their visualizations through activities such as pair sharing (partner), group sharing, or illustrating their mental images. The more varied the text types and vocabulary we read aloud, the richer the opportunity for more detailed visualizations because we are expanding the students’ schema, or background knowledge.

Verbalization

Back mapping visualization, we need to give words to the images that surround us. Universal understandings of images, and the words they have the power to engender, have existed since cavemen did wall paintings. For further proof, look no further than the modern day meme. Mercurial in nature, internet memes are those quick pictures or gif’s (moving pictures) that are used to illustrate some widely represented joke or commentary that spread like wildfire through social media. Memes are rapidly adapted and mutated to the point of extinction.11 Just as stated in the quote above by Keene and Zimmerman, our understanding of those images is highly dependent on our schema. Because internet memes are often generated and proliferated by the younger generation, they have become almost a language unto themselves. What makes the internet meme a powerful tool for rapid communication is our ability to instantaneously assign meaning to images. We need to capitalize on this ability and utilize images to help students recall and generate

vocabulary and ideas. In the case of students who struggle to do that, we need to explicitly teach strategies to do this while providing multiple opportunities.

Poetry

Our seminar companion book, Backpack Literature, differentiates between poetry and verse. It cites verse as having “rhythm, and often ending in rimes” whereas “poetry appeals to the mind and arouses feelings.”12 Translation: A piece of writing might look like a duck, sound like a duck, but to be poetry, it must actually be a swan. (No offense to ducks.) The significance of this distinction is greater with increased student sophistication. Entry level poetry students should be taught the importance of meaning in a poem but may initially benefit more from lessons on the importance of language in the form of voice, tone, word choice, figurative language, imagery, rhythm and rime.

Poetry Traits

Poetry, like most writing, consists of strong universal traits. These traits are more pronounced when writing is whittled down by sparser word selection, honed to hit carefully selected targets. While prose may contain some elements of these traits, poetry is truly comprised of them.

Voice – who is “telling” the poem and what is their role, akin to point of view.

Tone – what is the “mood” of the poem or what mood does it evoke, such as: Humorous, Reflective or Introspective, Sad, Angry, Amorous, Nostalgic, Patriotic or Religious.

Word Choice – purposeful and precise, often (but not always) economical. Either concrete language discernible through our senses, or abstract concepts.

Figurative Language – comparing one thing to another through use of simile (uses “like” or “as”) or metaphor (describing something directly as something else).

Imagery – while we tend to think of this as what we can visualize, it encompasses descriptions for any concrete experience. Often achieved through figurative language.

Rhythm and Rime – the sound of the language, typically attributed to poetry, often achieved through devices:

Onomatopoeia – sound imitating words such as splash or buzz.

Alliteration/Assonance – repeated consonant/vowel sounds.

Rime or Rhyme – repeated or matching sound patterns (not just spelling patterns).

Meter – patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables that create a “beat”.

Poetry Genres

There are three major genres of poetry:

Lyrical – emotions captured in time.

Dramatic – A dialogue or monologue.

Narrative – a story

Poetry Forms

We tend to think of form as the shape of something. “Form, as a general idea, is the design of a thing as a whole. No poem can escape having some kind of form...”13 Whether traditional or invented, poetry forms are another widely recognized way to help differentiate poetry from standard prose. They range from simple to exceedingly complex.

Poetry forms are considered to be “closed” when they follow a specific pattern usually defined by meter, rime, stanzas, and line length or count. “Open” form or “free verse” has no set pattern.14 Open form poetry often relies on the poet’s inventive use of line breaks and white space to create the desired effect for the reader.

In seminar we discussed four main groupings of poetry: linear, classical, visual, and manipulative. The first two are traditional closed forms, highly regulated by stanza count, rhyming patterns, and word or line repetitions. They are sophisticated forms of poetry and require a higher level of understanding. I have chosen to highlight some forms that I feel may be more accessible for beginner and intermediate students of poetry. Here you will find a general overview and sample forms for the latter two as we discussed in our seminar. These two groupings are representative of both closed and open forms.15 For greater detail and depth, there are many excellent links and references to be found in the Resources section.

Visual:

Haiku – seventeen syllables distributed as 5, 7, 5, in three lines about nature.

Cinquain – twenty-two syllables distributed as 2, 4, 6, 8, 2, in five lines.

Tanka – thirty-one syllables distributed as 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, in five lines. There is

usually a turning point halfway where the poem moves from describing its subject

to describing the response to the subject.

Manipulative:

Erasure/Blackout – words removed (>50%) from existing text to create poem

Acrostic – first letter in each line spells out a word (vertically)

Concrete – physical form of the poem represents the topic.

Experiencing the Arts

The problem with art, much the same as with poetry, is that many people are easily intimidated by anything they think they don’t understand. It’s as if we are afraid that there is some higher-level knowledge that we aren’t privy to, a code we should know but don’t. Encounters with these creative forms then become fraught with fear of failure or exposure as imposters. Education doesn’t necessarily eradicate this mindset, so what does? Art exposure and immersion, early on preferably, but we should take it whenever we can get it.

One of the most amazing experiences of our seminar was our interaction with local artists and art-in-education programs. These interactions helped educate us about local art programs that are making a difference in our area and our schools.

Creative Vision Factory

Our first guest artist was Michael Kalmbach, Director of The Creative Vision Factory (CVF) in Wilmington, Delaware. “CVF is funded by the State of Delaware’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, it is one of several peer-run programs incubated by the sweeping reform of Delaware’s greater mental health system.”16 This organization is responsible for empowering community members to participate in, and even lead extensive community beautification projects. Video links to these projects are also available under Resources; they are short and inspiring. We were fortunate to get to listen to Michael’s passionate vision and experiences first hand.

In addition to completing some large public mural works, CVF partnered with other local community centers to complete public wall mosaics. One of the mosaic walls was for Stubbs, a city elementary school in my school district,17 and another was a center city park wall.18 Both mosaics allowed for children, and others, to create individual tiles. Participants were given triangular tiles that they were able to decorate using a technique known as sgrafitto.

Having had the great experience of taking some clay classes with our school art teacher a few years back, I am familiar with the process used to create the tiles. First the clay is fed through rollers to create a slab, or flat piece. That slab is then cut into smaller pieces, like rolling and cutting cookie dough. Sgrafitto literally means “to scratch” and can be done to any work of clay. One or more layers of color are applied to the clay piece. It is allowed to dry almost all of the way (they call it dried to “leather”) then a design is scratched into the piece. Either the color layer below, or the clay itself shows through as the design.19

In ancient times clay pieces were actually cooked in fires, hence the term “firing.” In that process clay chemically changes from clay (a type of earth) to ceramic (the first man-made material) through a process called vitrification.20 Today firing takes place in a special oven called a kiln and takes hours at very high temperatures.

The decorated pieces are first fired, then glazed (think clear coat), and then fired again to their finish. While not particularly difficult, it is a multi-stepped and time sensitive process. The clay pieces must be done enough in advance to be leather dry but cannot get too dry; they must be made in “as needed” batches due to that limiting window. Then the pieces must be dried completely before their first firing or else may simply shatter during the process. Once cooled they are glazed, then after drying are fired again.21

The Creative Vision Factory produced hundreds of tiles for the school and over a thousand for the city park. The tiles then had to be installed following the planned, quilt-inspired design. Both projects took weeks to complete. This is an amazing level of devotion to producing a public work of art. Children were heavy participants in the actual tile artwork for both projects. They participated in the creation of something lasting and so much bigger than their individual contributions. The beauty of the quilt-inspired design is that it allows the art of the individual to still exist while being part of a bigger art piece. Children also got to interact with members of their community who they may have otherwise seen as hopeless or without value. They got to see these neighbors, and in turn themselves, as experts and artists with something to offer, skills and gifts to share. This is exposure - meaningful, significant, life altering exposure.

Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education

Our second guest artist for Seminar was Nanci Hersh, Executive Director for Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education (DiAE). Nanci introduced herself and then quickly began our first art experience of the evening. We each privately studied a piece of art for 5 minutes then described it to a partner without revisiting or revealing the piece. The partner took notes, then used those notes to write a poetic response. When finished, we each shared our writing with the group, and then the artwork was revealed. It was remarkable to see how the interpreted poetic description reflected the piece. Some of the poetry was closely tied to the actual descriptions, while some was more imaginative. All of them were intriguing and creative. Each time the artwork was revealed there was a lot of excited commentary about the interplay between the art and the written imagery. The word choice of the initial observer set the stage for the listener’s visualization and note taking, and therefore the resulting poem. I am sharing the notes that I took (Figure 1) and the poem created from them (Figure 2) to really give a sense of the process.

Figure 1 Figure 2

The high level of success for that activity was based on the initial instruction. Nanci had us use the following steps.

Guided looking with a line of inquiry:

1. What do you notice?

a. Images

b. Colors

c. Shapes

d. Relationships

e. Textures

2. Note any thoughts or feelings that may come up.

3. Notice something else that you may not have noticed before.22

It was these specific direction that led to such effective word choice on the part of the observer/describer. The listener’s notes and response writing were also guided by those ideas. In relating this experience to my husband as I was writing this unit, he asked, “How did you know the “ate” was for fate and not hate?” I didn’t know how to respond initially. He followed up by asking what else was in the picture that might have told me.23 I struggled to recall any other defining details that I saw, once the print was revealed, that would have swayed it one way or the other (How often I wish I had a photo of that print!). I tried to recall, I think my partner may have intimated “Fate” because I did write the word down or I may have just made that jump myself. I cannot recall if there was a partial view of the first letter that may have been a clue. If not, then could it perhaps have been “Hate” and could the hands clasped have represented “Holding on to Hate”? Mind blown! This is what it is to experience art and better still to experience it in a reflective way with others.

The second exercise was a Gallery Walk which involved viewing five different pieces, in varying mediums, that Nanci created herself.24 We each used a post-it to place a word or phrase next to these pieces. After reviewing the different word banks we were assigned

one of the pieces to create a response. The piece I was assigned was a multi-layered piece in a deep frame that utilized a baby’s onesie. Don’t let the words, “baby’s onesie” allow you to assume pastel, pretty and innocent. The piece was distressed and layered with a lot of strong colors such as reds and blacks. Here is the group generated word bank (Figure 3) and the resulting Tanka poem I wrote (Figure 4). On the word bank page you can see where I wrote the 5, 7, 5, 7, 7, syllable count for the Tanka down the side to help me remember.

Figure 3 Figure 4

Heading into both of these exercises I felt nervous about the “on-demand” nature of producing written pieces, especially something that was poetic. For the first one I felt that the writing flowed pretty readily and I was fairly pleased with my work (that is until my husband’s questions sent me down the rabbit hole wondering if I had totally missed something!). But I panicked on the second exercise. This was the actual work of the artist standing before me, what did it mean? Two things saved me from paralysis. The first was the word bank generated by the collective group which freed me from full responsibility for the interpretation. The second was the Tanka. I wasn’t proficient in that form of poetry but another teacher had written one for the first partnered exercise and I was impressed how she had said so much, with so little. The form of the poem gave me direction and helped with my word choice. So despite my initial writing worries, I was able to create a poem that I felt confident presenting to the rest of the group. I went on to write the Tanka at the beginning of this unit from that experience.

The importance of these exercises with Nanci was that they provided authentic immersion in art and poetry. Our ability to effectively verbalize our observations through vivid word choice is significantly impacted by our comfort level with the subject, activity, and the other participants. If that is true for educated adults, it is ten times so, for our students. When we engage in these experiences it makes us far better prepared to present them to our students. We are far more effective as empathic educators, especially when it comes to the areas of aesthetics, creativity, personal response, self-expression, reflection and risk taking.

Art and Writing Programs

Having our students participate in the kinds of experiences described above is crucial to their well-rounded development. Even more ideal is the opportunity these types of community-based programs provide for side-by-side growth for the teachers and students. While The Creative Vision Factory and Delaware Institute for Arts in Education programs I have described are located here in my home state, they are not the only ones available locally, nationally, or even internationally.

A Google search for “Arts in Education Programs” or “Community Art Programs” & Your State’s Name will reveal many options in your area. You could specify a city name in place of your state name for even more specific programs. Another overlooked art and writing resource is higher education programs. Local universities and colleges often have art and writing programs, or are aware of community resources, that can be accessed by schools. These programs can often provide artist-in-residence experiences.

Schools can take advantage of the higher-level schools (elementary, middle, high) within their own schools or districts. Upper grades can assist, or partner with younger grades within their districts. Many times there are high school students searching for volunteer hours or service projects that might be interested in working with other students on creative projects. Whether it is implementing programs, or simply providing teacher supports, other individuals can bolster aesthetic education experiences in our schools.

Classroom Activities

With the objectives of exposure and immersion, the classroom activities need to be hands on and exciting for the students. They need to be given opportunities to work with a wide variety of texts and art forms. Here are a few examples of classroom activities I have used, or will be using, that are designed to meet those objectives.

Front-Loading Activities

Poetry Readings and Viewings

Frequent sharing of poems on a daily or weekly basis helps students become familiar with the rhythms and rhymes of poetry. Adding displays of poetry posters or using a smartboard to display poetry helps the students understand the use of white space, line breaks, and patterns. The wider the examples, the more opportunities for the students to make a connection or have an “Ah ha” moment. Be sure to include any specific examples of forms that you plan to teach and label them as such, highlighting their defining features. Don’t forget to provide informational and non-fiction poetry examples. We have poems in our math, social studies and science programs that I print out and “diagram” with the students in a guided lesson.

As students begin to write or dictate their own poems be sure to include opportunities for them to share and “publish”. For guidance in utilizing student models in the elementary classroom, reference Regie Routman’s Kids’ Poems series which are available by grade level.25

Poetry Forms

Explicitly teach poetry forms that are appropriate for your students. I chose to focus on teaching my students acrostic, concrete, haiku, tanka, and free form. Provide them with many examples and “diagram” them. Model your thought processes when doing the diagram and then use it to generate another example of your own or a group example.

Poetry Scaffolding

Rhyming

Meet your students where they are. My first graders are still unsure what makes a word rhyme. Some of them aren’t able to auditorily discriminate rhymes, or verbally provide words that rhyme, much less identify them in print. We use our word work time to identify word families to help establish a basis for rhyme. We orally practice changing the onset (beginning) of a word while keeping the rime (ending) which results in their basic understanding of rhyme. The one caveat is that this needs to be done orally rather than in writing because students run the risk of becoming confused when words that rhyme can follow different spelling patterns. Introduce more complex rhymes and near rhymes when they are ready to move on. Utilize printed formats where students can circle, underline or highlight the rhymes first as a group, then with partners and independently.

Rhythm

Physical experiences

Multisensory approaches to teaching poetry help students build multiple connections to the content. We use a great internet resource called GoNoodle for daily movement and brain breaks. The students are highly motivated to participate, and the bulk of the site’s content is free, one needs to simply set up an account. One of the activities is called “Clap It Out”26 and shows kids how to clap out multi-syllable words. The students are remarkably good at following the video and seem to transfer the skill readily to new words. I catch them singing the song and then clapping other words to see where they fit. It also provides them with a shared experience that they call upon when helping one another. Whether using this particular activity or any other clapping out games, students are involving multiple modalities to internalize the patterns. Be sure to utilize this technique when examining poems as a whole class, even if they are not syllable dependent forms.

Auditory experiences

Other ways to scaffold students understanding of rhythm in poetry are by echo reading pieces in such a way that you emphasize the rhythms. This too can involve clapping or tapping out the beats. Listening to others read poetry provides students with exposure besides just the teacher’s interpretation. Invite older students or community volunteers in to read poetry to your class. Three wonderful books I have selected to share with my students are Poetry Speaks to Children by Elise Paschen, Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat by Nikki Giovanni, and The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination by Mary Ann Hoberman. These books are part of a series known as “Poetry Speaks” which provides students with an audio version of the poems in addition to the text. Many of the poems are read by the actual authors and are frequently accompanied by reflections on their works. The series has books that range across all grade levels. The internet is also a good resource for recorded readings of poetry provided the site is carefully previewed.

That audio experience can then be turned over to the students. They can record their own poetry readings in audio or video format. They can try reading the same poem in different ways to see which way they prefer, or how it may affect their understanding of the poem. Have them record choral and partnered readings of poetry. As they write their own pieces, they may select ones to also perform and record. There are opportunities for compare/contrast activities based on how different readers interpret and perform a poem.

Immersion Activities

Sensory-based Imagery Descriptions

Keeping in mind that imagery can involve all senses, provide students with experiences that engage as many as possible. Here are a few of my tried and true. Be sure to check on all allergies prior to exposing students to these different items. Substitute accordingly or have students with allergies bring in their own item to use. Be aware that some substances can affect air passages and do not require physical contact to cause a problem.

Apples (1-2 days)

Provide students with different varieties of apples, having them share what they already know or think about different types. I like to include Asian pears just to mix things up a bit as to what constitutes “an apple”. Have them write down observations for each sense (holding off on taste initially) and draw a picture of the whole apple. Move on to slicing the apples and having students sample one at a time, taking notes as they do so. Notes can be organized in a data table or chart (integrating math and science). Encourage students to use words that capture the sounds like crunch or snap when they bite into it. Write a group poem using contributions from individuals. Play around with different poem forms and purposes. You could write a comparison/contrast poem using one or more of the types. Students can be encouraged to generate their own. Suggested forms: acrostic, concrete, haiku, tanka, free form.

Pumpkins (3-5 days)

Much like the apples activity, I strive to provide different types of pumpkins, as well as sizes. There is a tremendous amount of math and science work that we do with these including predicting seed counts, studying life cycle and documenting physical traits. We use the same type of data table to collect descriptions immediately following the small group activity of cleaning out the pumpkin. This time we rely heavily on those tactile descriptions (so much fun!). We go on to count seeds in different groupings after they dry and eventually cook and eat them. Descriptive writing or poems can be generated from any aspect of this project. Any of the above poem forms work here too. Writing topics can be based on the mathematics, life cycle, or the actual physical experiences. This year my students produced this group poem in free form. It doesn’t completely rhyme or follow a syllable count, however you can see where we tried to keep a pattern with word count and the number of lines in a stanza.

Pumpkins by Mrs. Frasher’s Firsts 2018

Six pumpkins Messy handfuls It felt funny

Orange and white Separate seeds Watery, slippery

Short and tall Slimy, weird Gummy, mushy

Lines on their shapes Goopy guts Hard to clean

Smooth but bumpy Cold and sticky Pulling seeds was tricky.

Popcorn (Health alert – can be airborne allergen! Send note home prior to activity)

Again, a sensory experience but this one I start unseen. I use a mindfulness activity to simultaneously prime yet focus their senses. (Highly recommend Flow activities on GoNoodle27) Pre-load and set microwave with a bag of microwave popcorn and with the students sitting quietly hit the start. This could also be done with popcorn kernels on an induction burner using a pan the traditional way, or even an air popper. While it is popping, distribute a graphic organizer that will allow students to take notes for each of their 5 senses. Distribute samples and have students write describing words for each category. It is best to leave taste for last, using it as impetus to generate words for each of the other categories first. Multiple poetry and writing forms are appropriate. This year our class generated this piece using a popcorn picture I drew (Figure 5).

Figure 5

Image descriptions

Calendar Pictures

I have collected old calendars since my student teaching days. They are typically quality photos or drawings with a wide range of subjects. Calendars are sometimes given away as promotional materials for local banks and businesses though not as much as they used to be. Family members and friends would donate their used calendars to my classroom, too. I have used them as story starters, examples of settings, dialogue prompts, vocabulary examples, sequencing and matching activities, geographic tasks and so on. They were perfect for my class to begin their Ekphrastic foray. In lieu of calendar images you could use art prints or free images from the internet. Many museums have online galleries for their art, too.

I begin by displaying the calendar image using the smartboard. I then ask students to write down (or dictate) words that came to mind, what details could they see in the picture, what did they imagine was happening in the picture, what would it be like to be in the scene that was shown. The more we do this activity, the better they are getting at describing their imagined parts. These improved results can also be attributed to my now using the more specific “Guided Looking with a Line of Inquiry” questions provided by Nanci Hersh and described in the above section on Delaware Institute for Arts in Education.

In response to a photo of snow covered trees my one student wrote:

Lots of trees covered with snow

Maybe some evergreens, a few animals.

We are in a line, Ms. Frasher showing us evergreens

Have a snowball, get a hiking stick, I packed food

And I love trees.

-Bennett B. 2018

It is clear where the student moved from just a basic description of the picture, to imagined interaction with the scene.

Picture Walks

We often instruct students to take “picture walks” when first encountering new textbooks or anthologies. We use the technique to engage students in the possibilities of stories or information to come, to create predictions, or to make connections. We can take these activities a step further when we commit our observations to writing. I often use a RAN chart28 which stands for Reading and Analyzing Nonfiction that takes the traditional KWL chart a step farther. One of the major distinctions of this graphic organizer is its categorization of “What we think we know” details, into either “Confirmed”, or

“Misconception” so students can recognize when they have made adjustments to their schema. Finally, the strategy has students identify “New Learning” and “New Questions”29 By generating very descriptive words for what they are seeing, students continue practicing verbalizing their thoughts and observations. They can also start to sort out when they are making statements based on their schema, emotions, or evidence.

Gallery Walks

Works of art can be selected from free internet resources initially to help students work on specific word choice. Students must be explicitly taught to avoid words such as: good, nice, pretty, and cool. We model choosing words that are specifically tied to the image or artwork at hand, rather than general comments. This is true for describing the work and also the students’ feelings about the work. Once students show some consistently specific word choice then the works of art can become more sophisticated or personal. We can do gallery walks to observe posted school artwork, and they can share their personal art work, too. When it is time to have students share their art work, start by modeling that process with a piece of art of your own. Willingness to take the risk to open your personal art to the commentary of others encourages students to do the same.

Exposure Activities

Engaging with Experts

I am meeting with the Directors of Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education to set up an artist in residence experience for this spring. If unable to set up the residency for this spring, I will instead apply for one of the many grant opportunities to take my students to local art museums. Most museums offer some type of grant or subsidy for schools, particularly those that qualify for federal funding such as Title I. Search these opportunities out to find ones that will engage and challenge your own students.

Conclusion

Engaging with art and poetry provides students with meaningful practice in visualization and verbalization. Developing those particular skills will expand their schema and improve their analytical skills, as well. The objective is to provide exposure and immersion into poetry and art from the masters to personal kid writing.

Resources

RhymeBrain Rhyming Dictionary. Easy to Read on Your Phone. Accessed January 2019. http://rhymebrain.com/en.

Type a word and find a rhyme and other suggestions

Poetry Archive. Accessed January 2019. https://www.childrenspoetryarchive.org/explore/browsepoems.

Recorded poetry readings.

"10 Ways to Use Poetry in Your Classroom." Reading Rockets. April 09, 2018. Accessed January 2019. http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-ways-use-poetry-your-classroom.

Lesson suggestions.

Art, Philadelphia Museum of. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Accessed January 2019. http://www.philamuseum.org/booklets/12_70_160_1.html.

Booklet from the museum “Looking to Write, Writing to Look brings together twenty-five remarkable works of art from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collections and uses them as inspiration for an array of writing activities for K–12 students.”

Bell, Nanci. "Gestalt Imagery: A Critical Factor in Language Comprehension." Annals of Dyslexia 41, no. 1 (1991): 246-60. Accessed January 2018. doi:10.1007/bf02648089.

Excellent article providing the research behind the author's Visualizing and Verbalizing Reading Intervention program.

Bell, Nanci. Visualizing and Verbalizing. San Luis Obispo, CA: Gander Pub., 2003.

Reading and writing intervention curriculum. Part whole approach to help strengthen gestalt imagery.

"Best Practices for Finding Poems to Share in the Classroom." Poets.org. August 16, 2017. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/best-practices-finding-poems-share-classroom.

Guidelines for how to select online poetry for the classroom

"Ekphrasis, N." Ether, N.: Oxford English Dictionary. Accessed January 2019. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/59412.

Definition of Ekphrasis.

Giovanni, Nikki, Tony Medina, Willie Perdomo, and Michele Scott. Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2008.

Poetry for rhythm. Student favorite. Has CD.

"GoNoodle." GoNoodle. Accessed January 2019. https://app.gonoodle.com/.

Website for kids’ movement activities and brain breaks. Used for syllabification activity and mindfulness.

Graham, Robert. How Dirt Changed Human Life: The Impact of the Ceramic Process. Yale National Initiative. How Dirt Changed Human Life: The Impact of the Ceramic Process. January 2016. Accessed January 2018. https://www.dti.udel.edu/content-sub-

site/Documents/2016-units/R. Graham - How Dirt Changed Human Life The impact of the Ceramic Process - Unit.pdf.

Delaware Teachers Institute Curriculum unit for Ancient Inventions.

Hoberman, Mary Ann., Linda Winston, and Barbara Fortin. The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination. Napperville, IL: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2009.

Beautiful poems and accompanying CD

Hopkins, Lee Bennett., and Virginia Halstead. Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2003.

Content related poems.

Kalmbach, Michael. "About." Thecreativevisionfactory.org. November 22, 2016. Accessed January 2019. https://thecreativevisionfactory.org/about.

Program overview of The Creative Vision Factory

Kennedy, X. J., Dana Gioia, and Dan Stone. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Boston: Pearson, 2018.

Excellent guide to not just poetry but all forms of writing.

Lewis, J. Patrick. National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry: More than 200 Poems with Photographs That Float, Zoom, and Bloom! Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2015.

Gorgeous photographs that inspired a variety of responses in different poetry forms.

Lupert, Rick. Ekphrastia Gone Wild: Poems Inspired by Art. Van Nyus, CA: Rick Lupert/Aint Got No Press, 2013.

Ekphrastic poetry for the Teacher or older students.

"Nature Poetry: From A Poet's Glossary." Poets.org. June 27, 2016. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poetry-glossary.

Not the most extensive glossary out there but succinct.

Paschen, Elise, Judith DuFour. Love, Wendy Rasmussen, and Paula Zinngrabe. Wendland. Poetry Speaks to Children. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2015.

Excellent children's poetry and CD.

"Poems about Night." Poets.org. April 21, 2016. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/how-i-teach-poetry-schools.

Article on teaching a few specific poetry forms that emphasizes the use of student generated examples. Mentions lunes.

"Poetry Activity Kit 2013." Scribd. Accessed January 2019. https://www.scribd.com/document/128649625/Poetry-Activity-Kit-2013.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Poetry activity kit.

"Poets.org." Poets.org. January 18, 2019. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poets.org/.

Use the “Log In” link to create a user profile which will then allow you to create an anthology of the poems you select on the website. This allows you quick and easy access in the classroom. You can also elect to receive certain poetry subscriptions such as Teach this Poem”

"Portfolio." Nanci Hersh Artist. Accessed January 2019. https://www.nancihersh.com/portfolio.

Artwork of the Executive Director, Delaware Integrated Arts in Education.

"Preparing America's Students for Success." Common Core State Standards Initiative. Accessed January 2019. http://www.corestandards.org/.

Common Core State Standards

Reynolds, Peter H. The Dot. Walker Books, 204.

Inspirational story about pushing past insecurities regarding talent or skills.

"RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus." RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus. Accessed January 2019. https://www.rhymezone.com/.

Rhyme generator extraordinaire. Not only finds rhymes but will generate a multitude of other related parts of speech, lyrics, poems, definitions, examples in context and more. Then there is an advanced search component! It is also available as an App for iPhone and Android.

Routman, Regie. Kids Poems. Teaching First Graders to Love Writing Poetry. New York: Scholastic, 2000.

One book in a series of grade level offerings. Excellent for advice on using students' own poetry for models.

Sierra, Judy, Jose Aruego, and Ariane Dewey. Antarctic Antics: A Book of Penguin Poems. San Diego: Harcourt, 2003.

Poems used in conjunction with penguin poetry found in our math Bridges curriculum. Also available on Amazon Prime Video in a musical animated format.

Stead, Tony, and Linda Hoyt. Explorations in Nonfiction Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann/Firsthand, 2012.

Nonfiction curriculum series used for RAN chart and other poetry analysis activities.

"The Mosaic Wall at Helen Chambers Park." YouTube. May 11, 2018. Accessed January 2019. https://youtu.be/fzg7Kf9ul7c.

Produced in conjunction with the University of Delaware. The Creative Vision Factory's Wilmington Community Art project.

"The Mosaic Wall at Stubbs Elementary." YouTube. May 11, 2018. Accessed January 2019. https://youtu.be/h2L4rpf6zzU.

Creative Vision Factory's Mosaic Community Art Project at Elementary School. Video produced in conjunction with University of Delaware.

"The Poetry of Superstition and Supposition." Poets.org. November 23, 2015. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poems-kids.

Poems for kids, with many for younger children.

Verde, Susan, and Peter Reynolds. Museum. Abrams, 2013.

Lovely story detailing a very personal response when a child visits an art museum.

"Welcome to Poetry4kids.com." Poetry4kids. Accessed January 2019. https://www.poetry4kids.com/.

Children’s poetry. Ken Nesbitt’s page with grade level differentiation. Kid friendly, too.

"Write Rhymes." Write Rhymes - The Interactive Rhyming Dictionary. Accessed January 2019. http://writerhymes.com/.

Lets you highlight word to find rhymes by # of syllables – very Suess-ish

Zimmerman, Susan, and Ellin Oliver Keene. Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop. Heinemann, 1997.

The importance of visualization.

Appendix: Implementing District Standards

Enduring Understandings

Comprehension and Written Expression can be significantly improved through the skills of visualization and verbalization. Learning fundamentals of poetry can provide a unique opportunity to interact with language to improve these skills, from a phonetic level to a figurative level. Students’ connection to poetry can be enhanced through the interaction of art and poetry known as Ekphrasis.

Essential Questions

Standards Addressed

While Grade 1 standards are specifically listed, similar standards exist at all grade levels due to the spiraling nature of content standards.

Key Ideas and Details: These standards are met when multiple poetry forms, including studying content area poetry

Craft and Structure: Excellent tie in to imagery, word choice, dialogue, and point of view. Also speaks to compare/contrast between fiction and nonfiction.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: Particularly addressed through the shared readings of poems

Phonological Awareness: Important in the frontloading activities particularly for onset and rime, and syllabification for rhythm and rhyme.

Production and Distribution of Writing: Shared writing experiences, and recorded poetry readings.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge: This is where the poetry would function as response writing.

Comprehension and Collaboration: The overall reflective nature of poetry and art analysis and sharing.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: The ultimate objective of poetry, and any writing.

Notes