Writing With Kids

I love using the writing of others to trigger new writing by students, whether it’s prose or poetry. “Ode to my Socks” by Pablo Neruda is one of my favorites to use. It’s also my favorite when we talk about similes. Start a collection by looking through poetry for children that has a pattern or theme your students can identify and rework to make their own. Examples by past students are always fun to use, too.

When I teach my “Poetry Potluck” class to groups of teachers, we play with words and images. They write poems for the assignments they can later give their students. They learn to be comfortable with the process, and to enjoy the vulnerability of writing with peers, which gives them the confidence to model the process to their students. Wouldn’t those kids be amazed to learn how many of their teachers are too frightened to share their writing? I actually taught a class called “Painless Poetry” to get teachers over that hump.

I’ll tell you much more about that later, as well as post examples of poetry that work well for piggybacking, but here’s one for teachers of younger kids, and it comes from a poet near and dear to me — my son Kaj when he was in second grade…

Beds are for jumping

Pillows are for fighting

Stairs are for dancing

Walls are for writing

What ways can you and your students piggyback on Kaj’s idea, or other poetry? Share the outcome with us…