6Traits Digest #135 - Thursday, February 3, 2000 A poem for all occasions by "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> Another Great Book by "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> Another good book by "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> re: nice example of voice from Washington post by---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: A poem for all occasions From: "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 18:24:18 -0700 http://members.home.net/henriksent Or at least a lot of them! Many theme poems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Another Great Book From: "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 18:24:21 -0700 _Why the Banana Split_ I bought this on a whim from a recent book order. Wow! It's great! The lettuce heads out. The frogs catch a train and make tracks. The basketball players travel out of town. The banana not only splits, it peels out and slips away! You have to share this book with your students, whatever the grade level. Challenge the older ones to write books like this. Have fun with the younger ones, and talk about word choice and double meanings. Even though I had to explain some of them to my students, they enjoyed it = tremendously. Next time we read it, no explanations will be necessary. Illustrations very like Lane Smith, who did Stinky Cheeseman = illustrations. Susan Nixon 2nd Grade Phoenix, AZ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Another good book From: "Susan Nixon" <susan@desertskyone.com> Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2000 18:24:09 -0700 This one was in Spanish, and I don't remember the title, just the idea of it. It's letters written from one story character to another, but not quite like the Jolly Postman. The one we translated was from the first little pig to Peter Rabbit. It explains how he's always wanted his own home, what he did to get it, how his brothers are coming along on their homes, and contains an invitation to an open house. It's great! So . . . I was thinking how great it would be to have the students write from different character points of view, such as Brer Rabbit to Brer Fox, or Brer Wolf to Mr. Man. There's a wealth of writing possibilities here! And it doesn't have to be confined to picture books. I don't remember names, since it's been 6 years since I used the book with 5th graders, but why not have the boy in Bridge to Terabithia write a letter to the girl who died? Would it be a thank you for the things she taught him, a report of how he's carrying on with the younger children, a lament of loss? What a lot of great writing possibilities, and 6 Traits, too! Voice just hollers to be used. =3D) Susan Nixon 2nd grade Phoenix, AZ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: re: nice example of voice from Washington post From: Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2000 21:19:49 EST There, now, I hope this isAnnA better than what I tried to send a few = minutes ago.Ann/MD/5th Poet's Choice By Rita Dove Sunday, January 30, 2000; Page X12 "It is difficult/ to get news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack/ of what is found there." William Carlos Williams -- country doctor and poet of "The Red Wheelbarrow" fame -- wrote those lines. He knew that health is not merely a matter of passing a physical exam: We can think ourselves in top shape and still suffer from malnutrition of the spirit. Poetry, that briefest yet most intense of communications, can be a direct transfusion of hope or calm or compassion -- a sort of I.V. for the soul. A poem can remind us to stop and breathe, just for a moment, and take in the world we walk through. Here's one that does just that, in a subversively sly way -- by eschewing the very construction of language we take for granted -- punctuation, sentence structure, even the very basic expectation of a beginning, middle and end: Silent Poem backroad leafmold stonewall chipmunk underbrush grapevine woodchuck shadblow woodsmoke cowbarn honeysuckle woodpile sawhorse bucksaw outhouse wellsweep backdoor flagstone bulkhead buttermilk candlestick ragrug firedog brownbread hilltop outcrop cowbell buttercup whetstone thunderstorm pitchfork steeplebrush gristmill millstone cornmeal waterwheel watercress buckwheat firefly jewelweed gravestone groundpine windbreak bedrock weathercock snowfall starlight cockcrow Come to think of it, this poem does tell a story. Approaching from the back road, we gradually take in the old farmstead -- we smell the smoke and go inside to pour the buttermilk as we listen to the cows coming in from the meadow; toward evening there is snowfall though the sky is studded with stars: one of those crystalline winter nights whose spell is broken only by the sound of the rooster crowing at dawn. Robert Francis (1911-1987) spent most of his life near Amherst, Mass.; making do with minimal financial reserves, he carved out a solitary existence reflected in the calm equanimity and thrift of his poems. But wherever one happens to live, in snow or not, one can appreciate the very "thingness" of this poem: and how quiet is made of solid things, like rocks and branches -- like words. It's a kind of magic to create silence out of words. Robert Francis was a master sorcerer. "The Collected Poems of Robert Francis, 1936-1976," published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 1976, and copyrighted by the author in 1976.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- End of 6Traits Digest -- To unsubscribe, send any message at all to: 6Traits-off@. Archive of past digests is at: http://6Traits.Cyberspaces.net/archive/?_NO_DATETIME