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Lessons
Cool Similes
In this fundamental first lesson, students are introduced to the transformative power of unusual comparisons. In every writing lesson that follows this one, students are encouraged to enhance their descriptions with fresh, imaginative similes using concrete, sensory details.
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Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jack-in-the-Pulpit Series
In this lesson, students interrogate a Powerpoint presentation of Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jack-in-the-Pulpit painting series. The series contains 5 paintings of the same flower; each painting is a version or revision slightly more abstract than the last. Students are asked to list what they “see” in each of the paintings. This is a really fun exercise as the students are filled with “oohs” and “ahs” when each new image appears on the screen.
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“This is Just to Say” - William Carlos Williams
Students wrote their own letters of apology after reading William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say.”
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“Aqui. Ahora” Field Trip
Students attended the “Aqui. Ahora. Here. Now.: Writing from Santa Ana High” exhibit at the Old Orange County Courthouse. The exhibit featured photography of Santa Ana by Santa Ana High School Seniors. Students were asked to write the story of the photograph.
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Changes
Students were read poems by Neruda about seasonal change and talked about what changes have effected their own lives.
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Using Anaphora in Poetry
Students read a selection from Joe Brainard’s book-length poem _I Remember_ and discussed the poetic technique of anaphora. They then wrote poems using htis technique.
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Four Directions
This lesson is inspired by Califoronian Native American art, poetry and dance in which each of the four winds, or four directions, has a different influence on the individual’s experience. Students write their impressions of the world from a central point facing each of the four directions.
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The Truth of the Deer - George Oppen
Students are given “Psalm” by George Oppen and asked to create their own truth about another wild animal.
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I Remember When I Couldn’t…
I Remember When I Couldn’t lesson. 4th grade.
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Concrete Nature Poem
TBA
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Family Memory Poem
TBA
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After Lorca
In this introductory lesson, third grade students listen to a reading of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Sleepwalker’s Ballad” and “Romance Sonambulo” in both English and Spanish, allowing the rich, imagistic language to set the tone for their own poems written in this dramatic style. These response poems are remarkable demonstrations of comprehension and engaged imagination.
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Song of Amergin, 500AD
"I am” poems are a staple in English Language Arts classrooms. Our “I am” lesson traces the form back to the Irish Book of Invasions and to what Robert Graves considers to be the first poem written in English. Amergin’s Song is a powerful chant sang by a warrior chief to countrymen and women to hearten them against foreign attacks and invasions. Students listen to a reading of this chant, study the metaphors, learn a bit of history and geography, and in response, write their own songs full of glorious, empowering metaphor.
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The Eyes of Discovery
Students were read excerpts from John Bakeless’ “The Eyes of Discovery” in order to help them imagine what the “new world” might have looked like before the first Europeans arrived. Students also analyzed “Hiawatha: a poem,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for authenticity and as a post-contact representation of Native American life.
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Rain
After a month of record-breaking rain in Southern California, undergraduate tutors created a lesson plan, including handouts, for the third grade classes to facilitate their descriptions of the recent storms.
The Fourth grade lesson included Francis Ponge’s “Rain” and “Vegetation” in both French and English.
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“So Much Depends” William Carlos Williams
Students read “XXII” by William Carlos Williams and discussed the use of images in poems. They were then asked to write their own poems using powerful images to express meaning.
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Writing Makes Me Feel - Neruda
Students read Pablo Neruda’s “Forget About Me” from On the Blue Shore of Silence: Poems of the Sea in both Spanish and English. They then wrote their own poems with the first line “Writing makes me feel” using vocabulary and ideas from the Neruda poem.
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