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An Example of a Teaching Essay - Goddard College's Intranet

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MFA in Creative Writing Program<br />

<strong>An</strong> <strong>Example</strong> <strong>of</strong> a <strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong><br />

Brainstorming Out:<br />

Poetry As Springboard to <strong>Teaching</strong> Kids To Write Well<br />

Ken Damerow<br />

A <strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong><br />

In recent years, I have been experimenting with my own curriculum for creative<br />

writing. The State <strong>of</strong> Michigan’s Language Arts Grade Level Content Expectations for<br />

Forth Grade seemed to me vague and irrelevant: (“Students will write a narrative piece [e.g.,<br />

myth/legend, fantasy, adventure] creating relationships among setting, characters, theme,<br />

and plot...”, etc.) The State’s many writing rubrics developed by college pr<strong>of</strong>essors across<br />

Michigan, are packed full <strong>of</strong> technical words unfriendly to fourth-graders. <strong>An</strong>d in the void<br />

<strong>of</strong> guidelines from my district and with no materials to teach writing as its own subject, I cast<br />

about in bookstores, at conferences, in libraries, and Scholastic book orders for anything that<br />

might help me turn my fourth-graders into writers, creative writers who can do more than<br />

the State requirements <strong>of</strong> writing a grammatically correct sentence or <strong>of</strong> responding critically<br />

to a piece <strong>of</strong> fiction, which in my school is the way writing is typically taught.<br />

I had been teaching writing as its own subject for years, but in looking for ways to<br />

pull the diverse elements <strong>of</strong> my work with fourth-graders and writing together into a unified<br />

whole, I have always come up short. At the end <strong>of</strong> the year students seemed just as<br />

mystified about how to use the State <strong>of</strong> Michigan’s writing rubric to improve their writing as<br />

they were at the beginning. Perhaps they had gleaned a few tricks, but my goal <strong>of</strong> turning<br />

them into good creative writers with, if not a mastery then at least an awareness <strong>of</strong>, good<br />

writing traits seemed barely met even with the best students.<br />

ASO, 12/04


<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

One <strong>of</strong> the diverse elements have tried before is poetry. Some years ago, I happened<br />

across an essay by poet Kenneth Koch who described using adult poetry as a model for<br />

children to imitate. Last year with my class, I dabbled with this idea and was impressed. For<br />

example, in imitation <strong>of</strong> the dramatic scenes in Thomas Lux’s “The Man Into Whose Yard<br />

You Should Not Hit Your Ball”, this poem was written by one <strong>of</strong> my students:<br />

My Boots<br />

My boots click when I walk down the hallway.<br />

Everyone thinks I’m a teacher.<br />

They turn around, shocked to see me and say,<br />

“Oh, I thought you were Mrs. Krouse.”<br />

I smile. “It’s just my boots,” I tell them.<br />

They look relieved.<br />

I love my boots.<br />

-Kelly<br />

Or this as a response to a discussion <strong>of</strong> metaphor in Steven’s “Thirteen Ways <strong>of</strong> Looking at<br />

a Blackbird.”<br />

December Snow<br />

There is snow in December,<br />

that I know.<br />

The cold seeps into my family;<br />

I don’t know if we will break apart like ice.<br />

I am glad that there is snow in December,<br />

but I long for the spring.”<br />

-Zachery<br />

But as pleasing as these poems are, they are the exception. For most students, using<br />

adult poetry placed a burden onto their writing that could not be overcome. Because the<br />

language was so remote, few could apply what they had learned. For example, this poem,<br />

about a magical creature with special powers, was inspired by William Blake’s “Tyger,<br />

Tyger.”<br />

Lollipop, the Stuffed Horse<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

Your top is fluff and your bottom is beans.<br />

Your color is white and is very clean.<br />

You like to visit magical places<br />

Running along wide open spaces.<br />

Your mane is purple and your eyes are green.<br />

You are so beautiful you should be a Queen!<br />

You’re marked like you’ve been splashed with paint.<br />

You are so nice you could be a Saint!<br />

You love to look at shooting stars<br />

While the road is filled with passing cars.<br />

You like to talk to magical trees.<br />

From the foot <strong>of</strong> my bed you wait for me.<br />

I love you and you love me.<br />

You’re the best friend there could be!<br />

My Lollipop<br />

-Abegael<br />

Although an adult model did inspire kids to write, it did not lead in most cases to<br />

quality writing. In contrast, the example <strong>of</strong> the teacher teaching in the room next to me<br />

shows what can happen when no model or guidelines are used. She asked her students to<br />

write for fifteen minutes in their Writer’s Notebooks, and the class just sat at their desks<br />

blinking.<br />

Despite the burden <strong>of</strong> the language, I was amazed at how intelligently fourth-graders<br />

discussed the adult models. They were able to understand literary concepts with ease and to<br />

arrive at insightful understandings gleaned from language that was so far removed from their<br />

daily experiences. But I wanted more and sensed a potential in the method. I searched for<br />

other <strong>of</strong> Koch’s experiences with teaching kids to write and found his book, Wishes, Lies,<br />

and Dreams. After reading the book over the summer, I decided to center my teaching<br />

practicum around some <strong>of</strong> his ideas that most intrigued me:<br />

• “The object was to give them experiences which would teach them something<br />

new and indicate new possibilities for their writing.” (3)<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

• “I also needed poems to read to them that would give them ideas, inspire them,<br />

make them want to write.” (4)<br />

• “The idea helped them to find that they could do it, by giving them a form that<br />

would give their poem unity and that was easy and natural for them to use:<br />

beginning every line with ‘I wish.’” (8)<br />

• “Rhyme is wonderful, but children generally aren’t able to use it skillfully enough to<br />

make good poetry. It gets in their way. The effort <strong>of</strong> finding rhymes stops the free<br />

flow <strong>of</strong> their feelings and associations, and poetry gives way to sing-song.” (8)<br />

• “A poetry idea should be easy to understand, it should be immediately interesting,<br />

and it should bring something new into the children’s poems.” (9)<br />

• “In presenting these poetry ideas to the children I encouraged them to take<br />

chances.” (9)<br />

• “Children <strong>of</strong>ten need help in starting to feel free and imaginative about a particular<br />

theme. <strong>Example</strong>s can give them courage.” (10)<br />

• “Most important, I believe, is taking children seriously as poets.” (25)<br />

• “Again on the subject <strong>of</strong> language, the various poetry ideas should be presented in<br />

words children actually use.” (27)<br />

The goal <strong>of</strong> my teaching practicum was to help my students become writers, to<br />

encourage them to write good, high-quality poetry using a wide variety <strong>of</strong> grade level<br />

appropriate published work as models and learning tools. I sought to encourage them to<br />

develop their individual style and voice to enhance creative expression and instill an<br />

enthusiasm about writing and learning to write. Each session began with a focus poem<br />

exhibiting some essential poetical element such as metaphor or contrast. The discussions<br />

centered around two questions: Who’s talking to who about what? to explore meaning and How<br />

does the poet accomplish the meaning, and how does the poem look on the page? to explore language and<br />

structure. I designed these questions in keeping with Koch’s idea <strong>of</strong> presenting “...in words<br />

children actually use...” (27) Students then wrote for fifteen minutes attempting their own<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

version <strong>of</strong> the focus poem on a topic <strong>of</strong> their own choosing. Afterwards, students were<br />

given the option <strong>of</strong> sharing their poem with the group.<br />

A larger goal was to see how the weekly poetry session spilled over into other<br />

writing. I was hoping students would transfer the craft lessons they received on Fridays into<br />

their prose writing during the week. My worry was that as before, the models would seem<br />

too remote from their experience and place a burden on their attempts that could not be<br />

overcome. To avoid this, I decided to use as my models the kid examples illustrated in<br />

Koch’s book.<br />

The first <strong>of</strong> the fifteen sessions were devoted to writing in general with an emphasis<br />

on writing as a process <strong>of</strong> gathering ideas, writing a discovery draft, revising, editing, and<br />

publishing. This initial work, I’ve found over the years, is essential to dispel student anxieties<br />

about such things as spelling correctly in a first draft, writing for the teacher rather than<br />

exploring one’s own interests, writer’s block sparked from trying to get it perfect right away,<br />

etc. By portraying writing as a complex task with many steps, teachers empower students by<br />

legitimating their feelings <strong>of</strong> being overwhelmed by the task and by giving them tools to<br />

break down the task <strong>of</strong> writing into manageable chunks.<br />

The practicum then focused on seven poetical ideas derived from Koch’s book:<br />

• I Wish to get at desires and wants;<br />

• Strange Comparisons to get at simile;<br />

• the Noise Poem to get at sound language;<br />

• the Dream Poem to illustrate the idea that on the page anything can<br />

happen even though it might be impossible in real life;<br />

• the Metaphor Poem to explore metaphor;<br />

• Metaphors Using Of to explore word choice and sentence variety;<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

• I Used to.../But Now... to look at comparisons and contrasts and<br />

change;<br />

• and a culminating Mix-up Poem in which the children are encouraged<br />

to use a combination <strong>of</strong> all the poetical ideas learned thus far.<br />

We began with a collaborative I Wish poem in which each child would write one line<br />

beginning “I wish.” In starting with a collaboration, I was hoping to hook reluctant writers,<br />

to ease their preconceived notions <strong>of</strong> poetry as something remote, something they felt they<br />

couldn’t do. Each student was not responsible for the whole poem but for only one line.<br />

I used a few models from Koch’s book, reading them once myself and then asking<br />

for volunteers to read into the microphone to “get the poem into our ears and into our<br />

minds.” The read aloud also serves the purpose <strong>of</strong> creating a classroom community<br />

centered around the sharing <strong>of</strong> a poem, <strong>of</strong> providing kids the opportunity to practice public<br />

speaking, and <strong>of</strong> providing the teacher an opportunity to teach through modeling that poems<br />

are works <strong>of</strong> art to be seriously considered and highly valued. I then asked the students what<br />

things they noticed about the poem. I asked them, “Who’s talking to who about what?” to<br />

get at meaning and reader response. Then I prompted them to think about language and<br />

structure elements asking how the poet achieves the meaning and how the poem looks on the<br />

page. My goal here was to encourage them to come first to an individual reading <strong>of</strong> the<br />

poem and discus different interpretations and second to identify ways in which poets craft<br />

their work. The first question excited them by encouraging personal connections with the<br />

work while the second taught them to read for craft. These were the insights I was hoping<br />

would spill over into their prose writing.<br />

I continued to be impressed about how students can pick apart poetry and talk about<br />

it intelligently. Koch’s point about using kid language is important, however. I was careful<br />

in not using formal terms like metaphor, assonance, alliteration, etc. as I had done in previous<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

years. Instead, I listened carefully to how students described these things. For instance, one<br />

boy described onomatopoeia and repetition in a roundabout way in the following poem<br />

from Koch’s book:<br />

“Sounds<br />

The hot horse went happity-hoppity down the hill<br />

The great, groovy looking girl bought glittering, gleaming<br />

go-go boots that made the men go ga-ga<br />

The bright and beaming Betty Barber has a blue pencil that<br />

goes bleak-bleak<br />

Mrs. Wendy White did her wash in the wash washy washing<br />

machine.<br />

-Melanie Pophin<br />

He said, “It sounds like it’s really happening, the horse and the washing machine. Saying it<br />

over and over again. You know like pop sounds like a pop and crash sounds like that.”<br />

Only after the second or third time students described poetry traits in this manner<br />

did I <strong>of</strong>fer the formal word by telling them that poets actually have a word for this. Then I<br />

wrote the word on chart paper, titled it “Traits <strong>of</strong> Good Poems,” and included a concise<br />

student description alongside it. We kept a running list on the chart and then when the chart<br />

was full, hung it on the wall for students to check when composing their own poems. Soon,<br />

some students were using the more formal terms, searching the chart for the correct term.<br />

After talking about the poem, students wrote. For the collaboration, they decided<br />

what things every line would have in it so that each line sounded like it belonged to the same<br />

poem. In the I Wish poem, they decided that every line would have a color, a cartoon<br />

character, an animal, and a place. They then wrote for fifteen minutes, writing as many lines<br />

as they could think <strong>of</strong> during the time they were given. Afterwards, I asked them to circle<br />

the line they liked best and collected all <strong>of</strong> the papers to read aloud. I then took suggestions<br />

for a title, wrote them on the board, and tallied the votes. The winner was “Cartoon<br />

Wishes.”<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

Cartoon Wishes<br />

I wish that my friend had a kitty and Sponge Bob from the Pacific, but that he would<br />

be blue.<br />

I wish Yogi Bear could ride a black lion all the way across the universe.<br />

I wish Sponge Bob could ride a tiger’s chopper with Pawlser to my house and give<br />

me that chopper and an orange country chopper helmet.<br />

I wish Dora the Explorer could find a purple monkey in a church.<br />

I wish Bugs Bunny could play with an orange basketball with a monkey on a baseball<br />

diamond.<br />

I wish Tweedy Bird could hop with a blue bunny to China.<br />

I wish my house was purple if it had a bird on it, and it was a blue jay.<br />

I wish I had two pink and green fairy odd parents so they can po<strong>of</strong> me an elephant<br />

to step on people.<br />

I wish Patrick would ride a pink whale with yellow spots.<br />

I wish Marvin the Martian could ride on a dolphin into Lake Michigan.<br />

I wish Marik Ishtar would team up with me, and we beat everybody in the world and<br />

wear black, purple, and gold and rode tigers.<br />

I wish Pooh bear would ride on a turquoise dog to the sun.<br />

I wish Asia would turn Tweedy Bird into a red leech.<br />

I wish Bugs Bunny was blue and could ride a bull.<br />

I wish Bugs Bunny and all the bunnies a green Christmas in Heaven.<br />

I wish Sponge Bob a white Christmas with a whale.<br />

I wish Timmy Tuner can ride a pink starfish all the way down south.<br />

I wish Yu-Gi-Oh would come to my house on a woodchuck that is orange and give<br />

me a little beaver, and they would dump <strong>of</strong>f a bridge.<br />

8


<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

I wish bugs were gone. Bugs, bugs, bugs. I hate bugs. Bugs everywhere that I love.<br />

Bugs are green, red, blue, and yellow, and they make my legs feel like Jell-O. Every<br />

time I stare at a fly, it makes me look like a twit when I chase after it.<br />

I wish Bugs Bunny was small so he could ride on a pink and purple rabbit to go to<br />

Canada.<br />

I wish Kirby could suck up a blue ball to transform into Dash Kirby.<br />

I wish James Bond could ride a donkey to my house.<br />

I wish Patomon rode a zebra-striped antelope to a Texas rodeo.<br />

I wish I had a blue pig that would take me anywhere I wanted with Garfield.<br />

-Mr. Damerow’s 4 th Grade, September 2004<br />

A number <strong>of</strong> interesting ideas came from the creation <strong>of</strong> this poem. Although each<br />

line shares a common identity, an identity the students discussed beforehand and voted on,<br />

there are always those students who don’t follow directions. These lines in the poem where<br />

the pattern is interrupted gives the poem an unexpected delight to the reader and indeed<br />

even the rhyme that by itself might sound sing-song, in the context <strong>of</strong> this poem, satisfies<br />

the ear before returning to the established pattern at the end. I pointed out how this poem<br />

sets up an expectation in the reader but then delights when the poems varies the pattern.<br />

They quickly identified the same technique in the next poem we discussed.<br />

<strong>An</strong>other idea came from the phrases, “fairy odd parents” and “dump <strong>of</strong>f a bridge.”<br />

After reading the poem to the class for the first time, two hands shot into the air, and both<br />

students who authored these lines immediately told us that they meant fairy god parents and<br />

jump <strong>of</strong>f a bridge, respectively. But several students in the class protested that the mistakes<br />

were better and should remain in the poem. I called this a happy accident and told the<br />

students that this kind <strong>of</strong> thing happens all the time to even seasoned pr<strong>of</strong>essionals who are<br />

smart enough to know which is better, the mistake or the original thought. Both students<br />

beamed and agreed to keep the mistakes.<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

The kids were delighted with this poem, and this delight set the tone for rest <strong>of</strong> the<br />

practicum. They were eager for the next session when they could start their own poems. In<br />

fact, many <strong>of</strong> them asked if they could write poetry for homework. I didn’t dissuade them.<br />

The next poems we tackled were Noises, Dreams, Comparisons Using Of, and I<br />

Used to/But Now. I followed the same format <strong>of</strong> introducing the focus with a model,<br />

discussing meaning and structure, and then asking the students to have a go at their own,<br />

individual poem. The Noise poems ranged from the literal to the inspired. Most students<br />

ignored my request to think <strong>of</strong> a sound and then try to compare it to something that sounds<br />

like it but is, at the same time, unexpected. Here’s a typical example from Sarah:<br />

Noise Poem<br />

A bird chirping<br />

sounds like<br />

whistling.<br />

Slamming a book sounds<br />

like a door<br />

slamming.<br />

At first glance, the comparisons seem common, and indeed they are. However, I<br />

became excited when I considered the juxtaposition <strong>of</strong> the images and the meaning that<br />

follows when taken together. The welcoming image <strong>of</strong> the bird, the noise <strong>of</strong> openness and<br />

the opening <strong>of</strong> a book suggesting possibility and wonder against shutting out those<br />

possibilities like a closing door. Also, this poet is experimenting with line and the shape <strong>of</strong><br />

the words on the page. The simplicity and the elegance are amazing. I never could have<br />

inspired this student to such a depth <strong>of</strong> quality using my old teaching methods, rubrics and<br />

focus correction areas for grammar.<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

Perhaps the poet is unaware <strong>of</strong> the ultimate meaning a reader will place on his or her<br />

poems. Take the following example, which again seems like the poet ignored my request to<br />

make wild comparisons:<br />

The sneezing<br />

sounds like<br />

a chirping bird.<br />

A jack hammer<br />

sounds like<br />

two rocks hitting<br />

together<br />

-Matt<br />

When we discussed his poem in class, Matt seemed unaware that he has chosen<br />

something human to compare to something natural in both stanzas. However, he titled this<br />

piece “Sounds <strong>of</strong> Nature.” I’m sure he was unaware <strong>of</strong> the irony <strong>of</strong> putting the sound <strong>of</strong> a<br />

jackhammer in a poem titled “Sounds <strong>of</strong> Nature,” but it hardly matters. The poem speaks<br />

for itself regardless <strong>of</strong> the poet’s awareness <strong>of</strong> what makes it work.<br />

Some students took the form <strong>of</strong> the Noise poem far beyond my request for wildness:<br />

Sound Sensation<br />

Reading a book is nothing but silence.<br />

Elastic is like a snap <strong>of</strong> your fingers.<br />

Slamming a book closed is like two trains colliding.<br />

Hammering a nail is like hitting a rock on a stone.<br />

Asking an 8-ball a question is like a city’s commotion.<br />

Zipping a zipper is like an elephant’s call.<br />

Sharpening a knife is like clapping your hands.<br />

A car backfiring is like a rocket lifting <strong>of</strong>f.<br />

Explosives are like pop rocks.<br />

Writing is like the ticking <strong>of</strong> a clock.<br />

A classroom is like buzzing with excitement.<br />

Erasing is like a bird chirping in the sky.<br />

Screaming is like brainstorming out.<br />

-Alexandra<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

The issue <strong>of</strong> awareness again comes up in this poem as well as revision. For her final copy<br />

<strong>of</strong> this poem, Alex included the following lines at the end: “Screaming is like brainstorming<br />

out loud/Listening to talking is like listening to anything. Looking is nothing but silence.”<br />

However, she put a line through the last lines <strong>of</strong> the poem from the word loud all the way to<br />

the end. This shows evidence <strong>of</strong> revision unprompted by me, revision that improved the<br />

unity <strong>of</strong> the poem by dropping a vague ending in favor <strong>of</strong> a stronger finish. There were<br />

other times during the school day, specifically when we wrote prose, when students heard<br />

me talk about revision but never in the context <strong>of</strong> poetry. This was astonishing since getting<br />

kids to revise their work has always been one <strong>of</strong> the hardest tasks I’ve faced as a teacher <strong>of</strong><br />

writing.<br />

This desire to revise was an exciting surprise. There was something in the way I<br />

structured my poetry lessons with the children that inspired Alex to want to do her best<br />

work, to put forth her best effort. I can attribute it to an activity I have introduced this year:<br />

Sharing Around the Room. In addition to using kid poems as models, using language easily<br />

understood by kids, and focusing on poems illustrating a particular trait <strong>of</strong> poetry, Sharing<br />

Around the Room forges a sense <strong>of</strong> community and audience and boosts the excitement and<br />

enthusiasm <strong>of</strong> the class. The idea <strong>of</strong> Sharing Around the Room came to me from Mary<br />

Bigler, a Pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> Education at Eastern Michigan University. Her daughter and two <strong>of</strong><br />

her daughter’s friends who graduated from the same school district in mid-Michigan, are<br />

accomplished, award-winning authors who struck national success while still in their teens.<br />

After discovering that all three <strong>of</strong> these brilliant young writers were in the same third-grade<br />

class together, Mary called each independently to ask them what helped them to become<br />

such successful writers. All three attributed their success to their third-grade teacher who<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

allowed her students to share their work with their classmates everyday. Mary’s daughter<br />

believes she attained her sense <strong>of</strong> audience from her experiences in third-grade.<br />

Sharing Around the Room was the method Mary’s daughter’s third-grade teacher<br />

used and is very simple to implement in the classroom. Every day after students have<br />

written, I ask who would like to share their work with their classmates. Hands go up, and I<br />

ask each student in turn to describe what they’d like to share. Alex might say, “I have my<br />

Noise Poem.” <strong>An</strong>other student might share an alien story, another a letter to the principal<br />

about how much fun he is having in Mr. Damerow’s poetry class. (I swear I did not put him<br />

up to it!) I then tell the class that if they would like to hear Alex read her poem, she’ll be in<br />

such and such a corner <strong>of</strong> the room. After all the authors are standing in their particular<br />

area, the remaining students choose a group to hear the author share their work. It has<br />

become a favorite part <strong>of</strong> the day. I encourage listeners to share their reactions with the<br />

authors after they read. Authors receive a sense <strong>of</strong> audience and a desire to revise based on<br />

the reactions <strong>of</strong> their peers.<br />

I’m also finding another spillover effect from their poetry work into their prose<br />

writing, a pleasant discovery since quality prose has been so difficult to get from them. <strong>An</strong><br />

example is “Catastrophe After Catastrophe” by Haley. This story is the product <strong>of</strong> a unit<br />

study on the steps <strong>of</strong> the writing process. I always give my students free rein on the first<br />

writing project <strong>of</strong> the year as far as genre and subject. Some write stories, some poems,<br />

some personal narratives. Beyond the poetry lessons, I taught nothing <strong>of</strong> craft but spoke<br />

only <strong>of</strong> generating seeds for writing, writing a discovery draft, revising, editing, and<br />

publishing.<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

Catastrophe After Catastrophe<br />

Abby used to be the daughter <strong>of</strong> the richest man in the world. She was Bill<br />

Gates’ daughter. But her family was robbed by the unknown and were never that<br />

rich again.<br />

When Abby was rich, one <strong>of</strong> her favorite things to do was shop. The local<br />

Boise Mall was her refuge. Boise is the capital <strong>of</strong> Idaho. With that much money in<br />

her wallet, $2,000 was the least she ever spent on a regular day. She especially loved<br />

to shop at the Gap.<br />

In June 2004, the Gates family lived in a measly rundown shack just west <strong>of</strong><br />

downtown Boise. They could just get by with one loaf <strong>of</strong> bread every two days or so<br />

and water from a stream nearby. But, as you would probably think, Abby needed to<br />

shop at the Gap. She passed the time by laying around and twiddling her thumbs.<br />

Bill Gates, Abby’s father, was out rummaging through garbage when a man<br />

that looked very wealthy stepped up to him and said, “I am Mr. Wilfred R. Jenkins,<br />

the IV. I understand you have been robbed recently. I can help you. But it is going<br />

to involve some negotiating.”<br />

By this time, Mr. Gates was beginning to grow interested. He answered<br />

immediately, “Please, do go on, sir. My family and I are definitely up to some<br />

negotiating.”<br />

“Alright then, listen closely. I will pay you $1,000 each month. But, as you<br />

may have guessed, you do have your part in this. You must pay me back each year.”<br />

Bill thought hard for a moment, then decided, “Yes...I guess we’ll do it. If<br />

fact, let’s start right now!”<br />

The wealthy man reached in his pocket, fiddled with it a while, and gave Mr.<br />

Gates $1,000 in cash. Without a thank you, Mr. Gates hurried into the house.<br />

One year later (June 13, 2005), Mr. Jenkins knocked casually on the door <strong>of</strong><br />

the Gates’ new home. Gloria, the wife <strong>of</strong> Bill, opened the fancy new door.<br />

“Oh hello!’ she said cheerfully. “Let me get Bill for you. Bill! Oh Bill! The<br />

renter is here to see you! One moment please.”<br />

Then Bill stepped into the doorway, fully dressed in tux and tie. The sound<br />

<strong>of</strong> ticking that had been going on stopped. A bomb went <strong>of</strong>f and they all blew up<br />

and died!<br />

Obviously, Haley knew much about writing even before she entered my classroom.<br />

However, the turn <strong>of</strong> the wild phrase, robbed by the unknown, as well as the amount <strong>of</strong> detail<br />

which came up from the poetry lessons, and the concern for making sure the reader knows<br />

whose talking to who about what all seem to have spilled over from the poetry, and Haley<br />

confirmed this when asked. Also, the way the story ends is atypical for fourth-graders who<br />

would have normally written something like and a bomb killed them all. But Haley has the<br />

Noise poem on her mind as she tells us about the ticking and then the blowing up and then<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

the dying. Haley’s story also has some <strong>of</strong> the elements (the tone, the mystery and quirkiness)<br />

<strong>of</strong> Lemony Snicket’s A Series <strong>of</strong> Unfortunate Events, which I have been reading to the class<br />

in the afternoons. Perhaps, she is also using this as her model.<br />

I am very happy with the results <strong>of</strong> this practicum experience. Spillover is happening<br />

and the poetry discussions are generating a common language about writing that I am able to<br />

access in the general writing lessons. When I ask them to add some noise here in their drafts<br />

or to think <strong>of</strong> a metaphor there, they immediately know what I am talking about. Some<br />

students this year walk through their school day thinking about writing. They carry their<br />

Writers Notebook back and forth between school and home, home and soccer or dance<br />

with an eye trained on writing down what they find interesting, gathering fodder for what<br />

they might one day soon form into a good piece <strong>of</strong> writing. On the way to the busses last<br />

month, one <strong>of</strong> my girls responded to the principal’s questions <strong>of</strong> Whose your teacher? and How’s<br />

Mr. Damerow doing? This student unabashedly said, Mr. Damerow’s teaching how to be a writer!<br />

The student evaluations tend to support this. Twenty-two out <strong>of</strong> twenty-three<br />

students responded they have fun in my class. Eighteen out <strong>of</strong> twenty-three say they love<br />

poetry. The one item in retrospect I wished I would have included is I learn a lot in Mr.<br />

Damerow’s class. Item 6, Mr. Damerow makes me think <strong>of</strong> things I never thought <strong>of</strong> before, was<br />

disappointing, and I think it may have been difficult for kids to understand. Most nine and<br />

ten-year-olds when asked if they knew something you just taught them will invariably tell you<br />

yes, they knew that already. But if you ask the question before the teaching, you will find<br />

they don’t know much. Like revision, metacognition is very difficult to teach kids to do well.<br />

Displaying and publishing student work has proven challenging and is the one area<br />

that hasn’t worked out as well as I would have liked. Given all my other teaching<br />

responsibilities throughout the week, displaying and publishing their work in the local<br />

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<strong>Teaching</strong> <strong>Essay</strong>, Ken Damerow<br />

newspaper has been a low priority. The wonderful poems have been sent home asking for<br />

parental permission for publication and are now stacked up on my desk waiting for me to<br />

type them up and send them downtown. Time is the biggest flaw in education. But they will<br />

be sent, in a trickle, as I have time. The few that have thus far been published for all the<br />

county to read and enjoy, have stimulated my class to renew their efforts toward their poetry<br />

with enthusiasm and determination.<br />

Now that the teaching practicum has ended, we do a poetry lesson every Friday.<br />

Friday is poetry day in Mr. Damerow’s class. Last week, when I said to my class, “Well, it’s<br />

Friday and on Friday we do some poetry,” my class cheered. Even though the formal<br />

requirements <strong>of</strong> my teaching practicum have ended, I have much more to learn and apply<br />

from this experience. My mind has been churning, thinking <strong>of</strong> ways to apply the teaching<br />

methods that are working so well with poetry to prose: dumping the vague, seemingly<br />

irrelevant State <strong>of</strong> Michigan English Language Arts Grade Level Content Expectations for<br />

Fourth Grade using short models that illustrate some aspect <strong>of</strong> good prose writing; focusing<br />

their work on one, small trait at a time; sustaining their efforts through publishing and<br />

community forging. Working with rubrics is the State <strong>of</strong> Michigan’s <strong>of</strong>ficial best-methods<br />

practice in the area <strong>of</strong> teaching kids prose writing, but I have my doubts. My kids have<br />

always done well on the annual MEAP English Language Assessment in January. However,<br />

when they leave my class in June, are they better creative writers? The months <strong>of</strong> focused<br />

test preparation teaches them good writing qualities only within the framework <strong>of</strong> the<br />

standardized test they must pass. But they never cheer in response to such writing.<br />

References<br />

1. Koch, Kenneth. Wishes, Lies, and Dreams. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1970.<br />

2. Michigan Department <strong>of</strong> Education. Fourth Grade English Language Arts Grade Level<br />

Content Expectations. http://www.michigan.gov/mde, 2004.<br />

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