7 ways to Savor April's Poetic Sensory Explosion

Mother Nature must be in an incredibly perverse mood this April, because she is continuing to hold the Mid-Atlantic region captive under dismal, gray skies and chilled from February-Early March temperatures.  And did I mention precipitation? When it is not misting or raining - lots and lots of rain - the weather-wand lady is emptying buckets of wintery mix on our heads.

We are three days into April and fifteen anemic sunrises from the first day of Spring. Did she lose her calendar? Does she not realize that April is National Poetry Month, a time for students to blossom from the power of vibrant verses instead of wallowing in wells of weariness?

Obviously Mother Nature was never privy to the power of poetry… but we teachers are. This month we can feed our students with sunshine and the wonders of manipulating words by Showing Them poems from the masters of couplets, the geniuses of free verse, and the experts on scansion, Helping Them practice creating word pictures of their sensory reactions and their emotions, and by Letting Them move from novice poets to prodigies.

Take students on poetic journeys - even those who are veterans of this literary genre - by encouraging them to be active observers of the world around them, not passive spectators. Remind them that the same path, on any given day, can ignite a WOW! perspective instead of an apathetic blindness. Turn their days into Sensory Explosions- the foundation for poetry.

Remind them to keep a pencil and paper handy at all times this month, or to jot down notes on their phones before they lose the thought, memory, mental picture, etc.

Show Them:

1. Turn the walls of your classrooms into art galleries. Pin/tape up photographs, pictures from sites like pixabay, morguefile, the Public Domain or found through a Google search.  Ask students to add to the art show with their own (appropriate) images.

A.   For a bellringer or warm-up, ask each student to focus for 15 seconds on a picture that hooks him/her, and then to write down the first ten words that come to mind in their journals. 

B.    Have them write a paragraph about the people, place and or things in the image in prose form. When they are done, explain they need to cross out unnecessary words and turn the core thoughts/emotions into a poem.

They should date their entries and note the picture they chose.

Help Them:

2.  Play 2-3 minutes of music-rock, country, classical, jazz, rap, etc., and then ask the class to jot down how the music made them feel, and to describe the images rolling through their minds as they listened.

3. Ask them to listen to the words flowing around them in the cafeteria, the halls, other classes, walking through a crowd anywhere, and to jot down their general reactions to the various conversations, as well as specific emotions that they experienced as they heard them. 

4. Wrap various items with strong aromas in brown paper bags. Number each bag. Tie the opening closed, but allow a small opening so students can smell the scent. When they have finished, have them describe each aroma that remains in their minds. 

5.  Explain to the students that they need to be aware of the texture of objects as they move through their days- the smooth chill of the wall tiles in the hall, the grittiness of the floor by their back packs, the silkiness of the blooming tulip leaves, or the heat of the hood of their car after it sat in the sun for seven hours. Remind them to take  notes immediately so they capture their original emotion(s).

6. Encourage them to be aware of the textures and tastes of the food they eat and the drinks they consume - hot, room temperature, or cold. Bring in, or ask students to bring in: a bag of pretzels, a bag of chocolate chips, a bag of lemon drops, and a can of cocoa( with straws broken into pieces they can use to dip into the container instead of their fingers). Have them experiment with their tongues' taste buds: sweet on the tip, salty on the sides, sour behind the salty, and bitter in the back., and write down their reactions

Let Them:

After each activity, ask students to compose a poem in a format of their choice. Give them a due date for each exercise, and mention each of them will share one of their poems in class, but they can choose the activity that led to the piece they will read.

For 21 more ideas to make April a cool and not a cruel month, download this brand new FREE product: Poetry: 21 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month (Poetry-21-Ways-to-Celebrate-National-Poetry-Month).

Enjoy a (Sunny) Teach It Now April Day Every Day.

   Connie

Kick off fall studies with H.G. Bissinger's 'Friday Night Lights'

Classroom Colleagues,

This is a revised post about H.G. Bissinger's iconic book about high school football, Friday Night Lights. I originally posted it a few years ago on this site, but wanted to update it because it is such a terrific way to hook students' fall football psyches into reading as it fuels many an analytic discussion about Academics vs. Athletics and other societal issues.

“I can't wait for high school football to start
'Cause Friday Night Lights will get to play a part.
This is the book that students will cheer

When teachers choose it to begin the school year.”

 (adapted from the song, “I’ve Been Waiting All Day For Sunday Night” sung by Carrie Underwood

and set to the tune "I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett.)

Okay, okay, my colleagues, I know many of you would love to find a page-turning nonfiction read that could roll right into the first literature study of your autumn term. But if you could find a book that will engage your students and jumpstart discussions of contemporary issues such as gender, race and class, I bet you would give a cheer. A 24-page unit plan coinciding with this book and that offers you the gift of time at the always hectic beginning of the school year might cause a sigh of relief, too.

from en.wikipedia.org

Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is the perfect match. Let me explain how my scoffing at a book about high school football turned into a decade and a half of, "Just say 'Yes! to the book" enthusiasm.

A while back, my husband, Tim, and I were driving through Virginia on the clogged, as usual, Route 95. We were on our way to Hatteras Island's on North Carolina's Outer Banks.

To keep me from groaning about the lines of traffic, Tim began to enthuse over a book about Texas high school football.  Trying to hook my teacher brain, he explained that this book was not just a paean to football, but was a social commentary on how so many towns allow high school football to dominate their whole lives. The author, H.G. Bissinger chose Odessa Texas's Permian High School's 1988 football season to focus his study. 

Tim iterated a list of issues the author develops in the book, such as the special treatment of athletes, athletics over academics, racism,  gender, class, entitlement, etc. He offered anecdotes about how the black football players were considered equal on the field but separate off of it, and how some of the girls felt that  their sole purpose was to take care of their football players with gifts of food and pigskin-themed decorated homes. He regaled me with stories about little kids who wore jerseys with their favorite high school and not pro team player, and how athletes weren't expected to accomplish much at all academically.

Yada, Yada, Yada. I was not impressed and fell asleep.

Fast forward to a week later, our last day on the beach. As I lounged on the deck eyeing the ocean for dolphins, my husband's and son's animated conversation about the book, which my son had devoured in two days, wiggled its way into my sun-drunk  attention span. Soon, I found myself caught on the Football Express. This time, though, after just a few pages, instead of itching to get off, I bought a reading round-trip ticket.

Starting right then, and during the 6-hour drive home the next day, I read. After filling the washer with salt and sand encrusted clothes, I read.  As my husband slept and my dog snored, I read.

By the next day, I had finished H.G. Bissinger's iconic classic and was ready to subscribe to the Odessa American newspaper so I could follow the Permian Panthers' football season that fall. 

The first thing Monday morning, I explained my desire to teach this book to the local HR manager for a national chain bookstore. She contacted whoever she needed to, and within the hour, I was the ecstatic recipient of two softcover class sets of Friday Night Lights-50 books in all! Next, I swung by the high school and begged, pleaded and generally pestered the principal until he gave me the thumbs up to teach it that fall.

The rest of the summer, I developed my Literature - Friday Night Lights Unit Plan. This complete unit plan includes: Common Core standards which you can easily adapt to your state's benchmarks, the grade level and time frame, assessments, and detailed daily plans as well as writing journal openers, essay topics, chapter by chapter discussion questions, a project, a review sheet and a test. Ten analyzing the elements of literature activities go hand in hand with the lessons and follow Bloom's Taxonomy.

Reading this book along with viewing the movie is sure to generate some terrific analytic discussions.

Make a touchdown with your students this fall and Download this 4.0 rated 24-page plan Literature - Friday Night Lights Unit Plan, from 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literature-Friday-Night-Lights-Unit-Plan-1558 ($).Before you know it, your students and you will be under the spell of Bissinger's football fever and will be singing,

“I can't wait for this fall's school term to start
When Friday Night Lights will win my students' hearts.
This is the book that they will certainly cheer,

'Cause it speaks in such depth to all that they hold dear.”

Enjoy a Teach it Now Day Every Day.