I am On It, On It, On It

My students wrote Praise Poems today. This was the third year for the assignment, and as always, I explained that Praise Poems come from Western Africa and celebrate an individual's identity. They are often call and response, with the audience chanting a chorus between lines.

The formula I give my students is to write six lines and a chorus. The first line is your name, the second about your place of birth or ethnicity, the third about your family, the fourth and fifth compare you to natural elements or entities, and the last chooses a positive, defining quality about you and repeats it three times. The chorus is an expression of what they hope might be said of them by their community, and so it is written in third person.

When teachers of other disciplines talk about teaching English they often express relief and envy– they are glad that they don't have to read all that student writing, but sorry that they don't get the insight into our students that you get from reading all that writing. I was reminded of that this evening when I read the following:

I am D
Life is so messed up
Police have more power than laws.
Life is so messed up
Dad's on the road my mom is at home.
Life is so messed up
I am the strength of an erupting volcano,
Life is so messed up
The speed of a trash bags in the air,
Life is so messed up
But I'm super super bored

To teach this boy every day, you would never have an inkling of any such turmoil and dismay; he seems soooo steady and studious. But since he went ahead and published his feelings, we have a place to start a conversation.

And we will.

The Food of Love

"Can you really play anything on your ukulele?" a friend asked skeptically a few months ago.

I shrugged. "A few things... mostly chords so you can sing the melody." But she had a point; I really could not yet play any recognizable songs. I got my ukulele for Christmas two years ago, and I wanted it so that I could play Happy Birthday to my homeroom students when we had their cakes. Determined at first to teach myself, even that simple song seemed out of reach to begin with.

But this year Heidi arranged for lessons for me, and I have been plugging away and making some progress for sure. Still, that question of "really playing anything" has been a sort of a mental benchmark for me. In my last few lessons we have been focusing on Christmas songs, at my request. I figure if I start now? By December I may be ready. My teacher is so gracious that he even agreed it was a good idea for him to start sharpening his catalog-- "Every year the holidays sneak up on me, and I'm not quite ready for those gigs," he laughed as we labored away on a duet of Holly Jolly Christmas.

It was late last week when it occurred to me to revisit Happy Birthday. I think it was my brother's birthday party on Saturday that reminded me of my original goal, and so I searched up an easy version. To my surprise? I could play it! And while I was not ready for Bill's celebration, I have been diligently practicing for my public debut.

Today was Shakespeare's birthday, and along with mini-cupcakes and sonnets, we celebrated by singing, too. Yep-- I played my first gig for a combined audience of 75 sixth graders.

I think I rocked it. 

Inspiring Poetry

Today the students shared some of the riddle poems they wrote yesterday so that their classmates might guess the answers.

There were some easy ones,

I look like a lion.
I speak like a human.
You can find me in Egypt.
Speaking in riddles
To those who wish to pass me by.
What am I?

(xnihpS)

some very clever ones,

First think of the sound from an animal with a lot of wool,
That would make a basket very full.
Then think of something you say that scares,
And when you hear it you always glare.
Last think of the start of never,
The middle of Denver,
And is nowhere in lover.

Then string them together and wonder this,
What mammal would you never miss

(noobaB)

some lovely ones,

You can never touch me,
but you can see me.
I am in every classroom.
I am at the head of an arrow.
I am in the crust of pizza.
You could say very little without me.
I come in the afternoon of every day,
in the center of every place.
I am the beginning of all things.
I am on every planet.
I am in space.
What am I?

('A' rettel ehT)

and some confusing ones, too.

I wear glasses
I sound very sweet,
but I think of myself as evil, I dont know why.
You'll find me in one of your classes.
I have short hair,
I am very sweet,
i feel as human skin.

Who am i?

That last one had us stumped, and when we asked the poet for the answer, she gave me an exasperated look.

"It's you!"

What Can I Help You With?

We did riddle poems today in English. To start out with, I have a list of 13 classics that the students work together to solve. One of them is from The Hobbit.

Voiceless it cries,
wingless flutters,
toothless bites,
mouthless mutters.

"Ooh! Ooh! I know what it is!" one student whispered with confident excitement. "It's Siri!"

Chosen Few

In Tolerance Club today we had the students take the literacy test that the state of Louisiana administered to people who could not offer proof of a fifth grade education when they tried to register to vote as late as 1964. It consists of 30 questions and had to be completed in ten minutes with 100% accuracy in order to qualify.

When we were finished, we watched this video of Harvard students who also took the test. Their reactions were pretty close to our own.

Not a single one of us made the cut. Although I was pretty confident of my performance, it turned out that I misread the directions for number 12, and without time to go back and check my work my error stood. Oh well. Who needs democracy, anyway?

Letter of the Law

Today's poetry challenge is to write a Cinquain about an animal. Pronounced sin-cane it is a small formal poem written to the following prescription:

The first line has two syllables.
The second line has four syllables.
The third line has six syllables.
The fourth line has eight syllables.
The last line has two syllables.

Though they are just five lines long, the best cinquains tell a small story. Instead of just having descriptive words, they also have something happening, a reaction, and a conclusion or ending. There were a lot of good ones, but one of the kids wrote

Bacon
Crunchy, Chewy
Eating, Munching Crunching
The very best food in the world
Tasty

To which one of his classmates helpfully commented

She asked for an animal...

And the author replied

Bacon was an animal once!

I Believe in Persistence

We have a word study quiz every Monday in my English class. Students have the week before to make sure they have the words from our word wall to study. They know it's their responsibility, but I usually post a picture of the board on Friday afternoon on our online course. Unfortunately, yesterday was pretty hectic, and I left school not only without posting, but also without even taking a photo of the words.

One inventive student who forgot to get the words herself has used the weekend poetry challenge to problem-solve. Along with her poem yesterday she posted the following message:

MS. S! or other fellow classmates. once again i am lost [when i say lost i mean it since i don't have my ipad] i don't have the word study from the board. i only need that. the rest i have. if any of you have them, may you please reply with the word study from the board. if you do i would like that very much. :)

I immediately responded with my apologies and the promise that I would post it if someone had a picture. As of today there were still no takers when I logged in to look at the credo poems the students composed. Meant to be an expression of deeply-held beliefs, hers was a single line:

I believe that if i don't get the word study from the white board i'm going to fail this quiz!