May 2011 - Johnston Community School District

6 th Grade Geek ProjectNews from Summit Middle SchoolSubmitted by Jessie Todd, ELP TeacherThis spring, students in Ms. Nystrom's and Ms. Mueller's literacy classes embarked on a unique biography researchproject, assisted by Mrs. Todd. Borrowing from the Geek the Library, a community awareness campaign designedto highlight the vital role of public libraries, students discussed the impact that libraries have on their education.The students explored the definition of the word Geek and how it has changed over the years from an unfashionableor socially inept person to a more positive meaning. The students then explored their personal passions and identifiedGEEKS that shared their passions. After selecting their favorite GEEK, they spent time researching. The next step wasto write and publish a sestina poem that celebrated their GEEK’s accomplishments. The sestina is a challengingform of poetry in which rather than simply rhyming, the actual line-ending words are repeated in successive stanzas ina designated rotating order. A sestina consists of six 6-line stanzas, concluding with a 3-line "envoi‖ which incorporatesall the line-ending words, some hidden inside the lines. The final task was to dress in character and pose for a personalGEEK poster that is now being displayed in their community common area.The students really enjoyed this activity and felt it was not only fun, but educational. Here is how Jillian Gabbysummed up this activity, ―We found our inner geek by researching things we love.‖ Elizabeth Boeschen stated, ―Thepoems were challenging but the posters were geekalicious.‖Wolfgang Amadeus MozartA Sestina by Brooke ThackerI, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,Am giving this testament of my life in music,Living with early fame.While strains of sound in my head beg, “Write,Write!” To hear the notesI nside, but at times lack the ability to turn them into soundsworthy to perform.From an early age, my father had meperform.He would say, “Mozart!Play!” And I would string together the notesInto a lacework of music.I began to writeMy own, dealing with ever-rising fame.But with fameComes the need to preform,To write,To create. All the notes cry» Motzart!Free us! Turn us into music!»All the sounds, those notes.Scribbling down the notesTo bow to the ever growing fame,The urge for music,The rush to convey them before I must preform.The signs all proclain 'MozartWill be appearing, playing what he writes!'Whenever I can writeI do, and I free those notesFrom where in my head they blow like sand. Whispersof «Mozart!Release us! Add to your fame!»And when I release them and preformI think what a challenge it is to live with the musicAll of that music,That pleads, haunts me until I writePreform,And liberate those notes.Mounting the stress, the fame.All the perople begging for Mozart.So, I, Mozart, freer of music,Have declined in fame, and yet I write.Though I compose, I do not preform. But I still free thoseeuphonious notes.11