Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard explores poetry in elementary and middle school. Many students, regardless of grade or ability level, struggle with writing poetry. Even for adults, finding your author's voice and craft is extremely difficult. However, there are ways in which you can begin navigating through the ‘unknown’ of writing poetry. One of these strategies is called ‘Six-room Image- poem’ in which an individual writes about a ‘room’ or place that has caught their attention. Similar to a visual prompt, this prompt comes from within your own memories and pulls on what you, as a writer, have already experienced within your life.
Now, of course I will model and show how I used the Six-room Image-poem strategy to create my own poem, but I want to initially dive into the implications of using this strategy. Initially when I first came across this strategy, it reminded me of the book Mentor Texts written by Lynne Dorfman. Dorfman’s book details the different strategies that teachers can use to help students narrow the focus of their writing. As a teacher, this information is extremely valuable. However, as an adult that always struggles with narrowing their focus, this information is priceless. From elementary writing tests to SATs, I struggled with narrowing my writing focus. While writing, my brain always went 239849384923 miles per hour. So, when writing poetry, I definitely always needed the extra focus. For a project, I created mini-lessons that helped students narrow the focus of their narrative writing using Dorfman’s book, now I have Heard’s book to help students narrow the focus of their poetry.
There are many ways in which I would implement this into my classroom, but I would implement this strategy in a mini-lesson format. Similar to the Your Turn Lessons inspired by Mentor Texts, the mini-lesson I would create would follow this format.
The following example is how I would implement this strategy in my classroom.
(The teacher think-aloud is in red. )
Hook: We are going to take a minute to close our eyes and visualize a place that brings your imagination to life. Are you ready?
Have students put their head down on their desks or find a comfortable spot in the classroom away from their peers. Turn on some soft, serene music that will help you students relax.
I want you to imagine that you are in a jungle. You have just finished exploring for the day and sweat drips off of your forehead. You walk slowly as your feet ache below you. But, you continue walking on. With each step you hear the leaves from the tree-tops crunch below your every step. You hear something in the distance. You walk slowly forward and take in your surroundings. You glance up through the tree tops and squint your eyes; the sun is bright, hot, and demanding. You smell the fresh water that is lurking in the distance. So, you continue on. Now, as you continue walking you can hear the water moving in the stream. You walk forward, bringing your hands up to the branches blocking your view. The anticipation is killing you. And then you see……
Have your students walk back to their seats, if they moved around the classroom. It’s time to begin brainstorming.
Brainstorm: Now that we have visualized a jungle and had an amazing experience we are going to begin working on a strategy called Six-room Image-poem. This strategy will help you narrow the focus of your poetry.
Before modeling the strategy, call students attention to the whiteboard/smartboard in your classroom. Make a list of descriptive words that would help describe the visualization that you students saw.
Make the following list:
What did you visualize?
Running water
The hot sunshine
Ants
Jungle Animals
The moving water
Sounds of animals
Movement
Am I alone?
Heat
Sweat
Model: All of these words that we used to describe what we visualized can help us while we practice the strategy for this week. I am going to model the strategy then you will practice and I will guide you through your visualization.
Each box that I write in is it’s own ‘room’ that helps me focus on different elements of what I visualized. When I am in a specific room, I only think about the topic of that room. I don’t think about other elements of my story. For example, when I am thinking about light, in the light room, I am not thinking about sounds or questions. I shut myself off from other rooms .
I use questions to guide my thinking. Each room has its own questions that pushes me to think outside of the box. I go through each box, one by one, never skipping ahead.
Image (Room #1): Think of something beautiful or amazing-- what do you think about when you close your eyes? Think about all of the little details? Where are you; Who are you with; what are you wearing; what are you doing; what do you see; what do you hear. Take a moment to listen to the music and think about where your mind might take you.
Light (Room #2): Focus on the same place or image. What is the light like? Is it bright or dark? Sunny or cloudy? Are there shadows?
Sound (Room #3): Focus on the sounds of where you are. What do you hear? Rain? Water? Leaves? Silence?
Questions (Room #4): What questions do you have about your visualization?
Feelings (Room #5): How do you feel about what you are seeing?
Repeating Words (Room #6):Are any words or phrases repeating?
Shared/Guided Writing: Students need a writing utensil and a paper that is sectioned off into six boxes. Have students label each book Room 1-6. Now it is your turn to visualize your own place that brings you peace. Make sure you are your pencil and paper. Please do not work ahead. We need to stay together as a class. Ask students the guiding questions that correspond with the room that they are in. Walk around the room and make sure that students aren’t moving around. They need to stay in their room until it is time to switch.
Independent Writing: Once students are done, they are able to add more details in the correct boxes. Next allow students to have the opportunity to write a poem based on their poem ‘rooms’. Students should also be allowed to draw a picture. Have students continue to develop their poetry and meeting with students during the writing workshop.
Poetry Snapshot:
I want to share a snapshot from my writer's notebook from this week. I was inspired by Heard's book to create an observational poem. I wrote about a car accident that I had. This is an extremely sensitive topic, so I'm making myself vulnerable here.
It is titled: A Dented Tree and is styled after a poem in Firefly July titled A Red Wheelbarrow.
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