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

Teaching Essay, Ken Damerow
I wish bugs were gone. Bugs, bugs, bugs. I hate bugs. Bugs everywhere that I love.
Bugs are green, red, blue, and yellow, and they make my legs feel like Jell-O. Every
time I stare at a fly, it makes me look like a twit when I chase after it.
I wish Bugs Bunny was small so he could ride on a pink and purple rabbit to go to
Canada.
I wish Kirby could suck up a blue ball to transform into Dash Kirby.
I wish James Bond could ride a donkey to my house.
I wish Patomon rode a zebra-striped antelope to a Texas rodeo.
I wish I had a blue pig that would take me anywhere I wanted with Garfield.
-Mr. Damerow’s 4 th Grade, September 2004
A number of interesting ideas came from the creation of this poem. Although each
line shares a common identity, an identity the students discussed beforehand and voted on,
there are always those students who don’t follow directions. These lines in the poem where
the pattern is interrupted gives the poem an unexpected delight to the reader and indeed
even the rhyme that by itself might sound sing-song, in the context of this poem, satisfies
the ear before returning to the established pattern at the end. I pointed out how this poem
sets up an expectation in the reader but then delights when the poems varies the pattern.
They quickly identified the same technique in the next poem we discussed.
Another idea came from the phrases, “fairy odd parents” and “dump off a bridge.”
After reading the poem to the class for the first time, two hands shot into the air, and both
students who authored these lines immediately told us that they meant fairy god parents and
jump off a bridge, respectively. But several students in the class protested that the mistakes
were better and should remain in the poem. I called this a happy accident and told the
students that this kind of thing happens all the time to even seasoned professionals who are
smart enough to know which is better, the mistake or the original thought. Both students
beamed and agreed to keep the mistakes.
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