Making (Poetry) Waves

Yesterday I had my debut session with students at Volta Elementary. Most of them had no prior experience with poetry, but I assured them that wasn’t a problem, adding that they should relax and have fun with the experience.

I covered some ‘basics’ regarding talking about poetry, such as what constitutes lines and stanzas, and asked if anyone knew what personification and metaphor were? After the prelude about myself and the program, we settled in and discussed our first poem, “How Poems Are Made” by Alice Walker. Five students volunteered to read it aloud, which always makes a difference since we could really hear the poet’s language at work, as well as her use of repetition. I asked why she used it here, and we thought it might be to replicate a rhyme-like effect (even though the poem doesn’t rhyme). We also wondered what the poem might mean, though I emphasized that poems can ‘mean’ one or sometimes many things, while some poems can be nonsensical and kind of crazy. That’s what’s amazing about poetry!

For their first foray into poem-ing, they wrote about something you make. Here’s a sample of their awesome efforts.