Concrete Poems

While carrying out my field experience last week, I saw awesome writing instruction. My student teacher is currently teaching reading and writing in my field placement classroom. On Thursday, her lesson was teaching students about concrete poems. Students have had some practice with writing poetry. They understand that some poetry does not have to rhyme and that some are expressions and emotions of how people are feeling or what they are thinking. After my student teacher discussed concrete poems and read one aloud to the class, a class discussion as held about how a concrete poem is created. Students loved the fact that a concrete poem was in the shape of something. Students were able to make connections relatively quickly on the relationship between the shape of the poem and the content of the poem.

Following the focus lesson, students were able to create their own concrete poems. They were instructed to first think of a shape of object that their poem would be in the shape of. For some, this was difficult. They wanted to write their poem, then put it in a shape. I thought about the process for writing a concrete poem and I wonder if the steps for creating a concrete poem can be reversed? Could students write their poem before finding an object or drawing their poem in a certain shape? A part of me feels that students might choose an image that may not relate or correspond to their concrete poem if they wrote the poem first. Overall, students thoroughly enjoyed learning about concrete poems and being able to write about whatever was on their mind. I believe the free choice for their concrete poem allowed students to be creative and focus on what interests them or what may be on their mind. Often, I do not see the free choice in writing; however, on that day I saw how excited and creative my second grade students are!

Field Experience/Chapter 12 Thoughts...

Field Experience Response:
The full week in my field experience classroom was awesome. I learned so much more being at the elementary school for a whole week rather than two days. I know I grew as a future teacher as well. Throughout the week I taught four lessons in science on energy of motion, and guided reading each day of the week. I absolutely enjoyed it! Throughout my lessons, I actually experienced planning and putting so much effort into lessons and the lesson turning out totally different than I expected. At first, I thought to myself this is awful, it is nothing like I planned; my teacher will think I’m horrible at this! However, after speaking with my teacher after my lesson, I was reassured that everything went well and students were engaged and got what they were supposed to from the lesson.

While teaching my science lessons I also learned that you may not always know the answer to a child’s question. I was caught really off guard on the last day of my science unit when we were discussing gravity. To begin my mini lesson I asked students what they already knew about gravity or what they thought gravity was. I had one student respond with, “there is no gravity in the sky because things float in the sky and on the ground there is gravity because things stay on the ground.” I thought what a great response so I started discussing how there is no gravity in space and there is gravity on earth. We then discussed what gravity was and I stated that, “gravity pulls objects or things to the ground.” I had one student ask, “If there is gravity on earth, then why does steam stay in the air? Or why do some other things float on earth, like a balloon?” I paused for a minute trying to gather my thoughts. What a great observation, but I was not sure how to answer the question. I simply said, “You know I will have to think about that and get back to you.” I think I should have been more prepared for questions students may have to the statements I make.

Overall, the field experience week was so much fun and a great experience teaching. I cannot wait for more opportunities to teach lessons in my classroom, which will actually begin this week. My teacher has asked me to take over math and her guided reading groups on Thursdays and Fridays from now until the end of the semester. I look forward to growing and learning as I teach second graders!

Response on chapter:
Based on Ray’s chapter 12, I believe it is very important for teachers to find what genres and topics students are interested in before planning for writing workshop for the year. I believe the first week of school during writing should be devoted to learning what students already know, enjoy, and want to learn about throughout the year. Based on these answers, students will be excited and more engaged in the writing workshop and genres of study. Also, “delving deeper” into genres students already know or have learned the year before, can extend their knowledge and learning of the topic as well as new ideas (p. 134). I believe the checklist that Ray gives in the book for selecting units of study are a good guideline to think about the important studies that can be focused on during the year. In my opinion, the most important is finding what students know, are interested in, and what they want to study or understand. Overall, I believe the majority of writing workshop throughout the year should allow students to self-select their writing. By this I mean, self-select their topics and possible genres.