Literacy Speaks Volumes

A poem that tells a story is called a narrative poem. A narrative is a story. A narrative is just like any other story; it has character, plot, setting, and dialogue. But poetry adds other elemenst to storytelling--especially sounds and images. To create musical sounds, poets use rhythm, rhyme, and repeated sounds. Poets also create word pictures with words that appeal to the senses. We call it imagery. This link will take you to a narrative poem by Ted Hughes. Thinking It Over Who are the characters in this poem? What can you tell me about them? Gardens are usually peaceful. Is that true about this garden? How many conflicts do you see in the poem? Explain. How would you describe the beat of this poem? What examples of sounds and images do you hear and see? Writing a Narrative Poem Apply what you already know about writing stories to writing a narrative poem. Try starting with a character or situation. After you've jotted down some ideas, share...

The Earth is a Cart Loaded With Dust , a photo by Melissa Reese Etheridge on Flickr. It is important that students be given the opportunity to write each day. The new Common Core State Standards tell us that students need to be writing for extended periods of time. Corbett Harrison  calls it "Sacred Writing Time" and begins each class period with quiet writing time.  I actually begin my class with twenty-minutes of Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) and then move into twenty-minutes of Silent Sustained Writing (SSW). I like having the students read before they write so that they can use their reading as a "spark" or stimulus (as it's called in the Common Core). My students write in their English Language Arts (ELA) Journals for this time in order to keep their writing and notes organized. All published pieces are written on notebook paper to be handed into me to grade. Seventh grade CCSS 7.3 states that the student will "write narratives to develo...