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