poetry

Literacy Links – Volume 103

book list, literacy links, phonics, poetry, professional resources, reading
My bulletin board of tools and ideas to accompany my Pot of Gold and Teach: From A to Zine about poetry.

At the beginning of April, I published the Pot of Gold portfolio of resources (digital one-page, bulletin board, zine, and podcast). The focus this month: POETRY! I’m not exaggerating when I say that poetry saved my sanity during the first year of the Pandemic. Usually a voracious reader, I could NOT read books. I couldn’t concentrate. I had to reread a page eight times. I eventually lost interest because it was such a frustrating experience. This was not good for me. Reading is such a big part of my identity, and I felt lost without books in my life. Determined one day, I decided to try poetry based on Jason Reynolds’s wisdom. I have lots of poems and anthologies that I’ve collected over time, so every day I would read one. Then I started reading several poems. By June, I was successfully reading novels in verse. Poetry didn’t have “pages in the form of pitbulls”. It allowed my brain to focus on the intentional words on the page and also emote beyond the worry and empathy that consumed me. If I hadn’t grabbed hold to the poetry life saver back in April 2020, I might still be struggling to keep my head above water.

testify
by Eve L. Ewing

i stand before you to say
that today i walked home
& caught the light through
the fence & it was so golden
i wanted to cry & i lifted
my right hand to say thank
you god for the sun thank
you god for a chain link fence
& all the shoes that fit into
the chain link fence so that
we might get lifted god thank
you & i just wanted to dance
& it feels good to have food
in your belly & it feels good
to be home even when home
is the space between metal
shapes & still we are golden
& a man who wore the walk
of hard grounds & lost days
came toward me in the street
& said ‘girl what a beautiful
day’ & i said yes, testify
& i walked on & from some
place a horn rose, an organ,
a voice, a chorus, here to tell
you that we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead we are not dead we are
not dead we are not dead
we are not dead we are not
dead
yet

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 102

coaching, literacy links, poetry, reading, writing
The final slide from my 45-minute session, “Making the Most of the BAS”

On Valentine’s Day, I led a 45-minute session of professional learning on “Making the Most of the BAS” for the K-5 teachers in my school. The BAS takes time and getting it done can feel so final and complete, but it’s really just the beginning! The amount and variety of information we learn from the assessment can be analyzed even more to fine tune instructional decisions! Analyze their miscues to see what visual information they’re using and not using to make phonics goals. Consider the Six Dimensions of Fluency from Fountas and Pinnell to choose precise teaching prompts from the Prompting Guides. Review the comprehension conversation to narrow down if they need to work on thinking within the text, beyond the text, or about the text and focus on those sections in the Continuum. When we spend time examining a student’s BAS, we’re doing strong work for ourselves AND our students!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 101

phonics, poetry, professional resources, reading, vocabulary
World Read Aloud Day resources for my school!

February 2, 2022 is the 13th annual World Read Aloud Day! In the Before, my colleague and fellow reading enthusiast planned a day of read aloud activities. This year’s offerings are going to be a lot more passive. Our school is just coming off of a very draining week, and asking teachers to do *another* thing didn’t feel right. But I will be sharing some digital resources that teachers could add to their day at their discretion. Happy reading!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 96

early literacy, literacy links, poetry, professional resources, racial justice, reading, writing

This summer, I’m participating in some summer work focused on Cultivating Genius by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad. Our second Zoom discussion is next week, so I’m putting together my thoughts based on the assigned reading. I love this reflection question so much: How does this lesson help students see themselves or others? I used Canva to make a visual reminder for myself (And others! Choose your OWN colors!) to guide my lesson planning. Adding this prompt to my teaching brain will bring Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s idea of mirrors and windows to my classrooms.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 91 *Poetry Edition*

book list, literacy links, poetry
The library of poetry picture books at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, aka my version of heaven.

Two summers ago, in The Before, I attended the Summer Poetry Institute hosted by The Poetry Foundation (PoFo) in Chicago. It was a glorious week of being immersed in poetic forms and devices. I learned and learned and learned and wrote and wrote and wrote. I’m embarrassed to admit that I learned a new-to-me literary term: ars poetica, which means poems about poetry. My upcoming poetry display’s theme is going to be ars poetica, and I can’t wait to unveil it this week.

If you love or are intrigued by poetry, I urge you to consider any events hosted by PoFo. I might just change your life.

Here is this week’s roundup of POETRY links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 90

book list, literacy links, online learning, poetry, professional resources, writing
KV Digital Library theatre collection for our new theatre!

Our beloved post office transformed into a theatre recently! To help build students’ background knowledge, we watched a video of a backstage tour of a theatre and I’ve been reading at least one picture book a week about theatre. We’ve been so inspired we even wrote our very first play about our shared reading text, Gossie. I’ll be sure to promote its opening day show! 🙂

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 82

literacy links, poetry, professional resources, reading
Next week’s theme is Special People in Our Lives!

Now that teachers are wrapping up their Writer’s Workshop launches, they are gearing up for their first standards-based units on personal narratives. This is exactly why next week’s theme is SPECIAL PEOPLE. I especially love the background knowledge resources: a special StoryCorps video and some of my favorite picture books. In fact, one of the books, You Hold Me Up, IS a poem, so I created a copycat template. My week at the Poetry Foundations Summer 2019 Institute is where I discovered the other poem, “Abuelito Who” by Sandra Cisneros, and the strategy of creating templates for poems. A very special poem, indeed.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 81

literacy links, online learning, poetry, professional resources, writing
Next week’s theme is autumn!

Since it is the most gorgeous time of year in New England right now, I decided that next week’s theme will be AUTUMN! To get students in the writing mood, I *highly* recommend taking them OUTSIDE for a nature observation walk. Check out the poems I selected and my resources and ideas for teaching them by clicking on the image or link above. Happy poem writing!

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 80

literacy links, poetry, professional resources, writing
Conferring Notes portal for the second grade support team.

This year, I’m pumped to support the second grade team! I spend my days helping students at home with their remote learning, so I created digital conferring sheets to record their strengths and goals. After filling one out, I share it with the teacher for their records. I’m hoping it will provide some consistency and formative assessment info to help teachers make instructional decisions.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment:

Literacy Links – Volume 79

book clubs, creating, literacy links, poetry, professional resources, writing

I just posted a new poetry collection on my door! This week’s theme is IDENTITY. I’d originally thought the next theme would be feelings, but I realized kids should share their selves before their feelings. 🙂 I’m hoping to change my poems every week this year. The single week of remote learning threw off my plan.

Here is this week’s roundup of literacy links if you’re looking for some quick inspiration, tips, and refreshment: