#sol19-May 28, 2019
I am the worst when it comes to fully capturing all the awesome things the students do in our classroom. I wish I was better at photos and video. Today’s missed opportunities included their answer to the question, “What do you like about poetry?” Gah, the sweet answers! “Because I can express my feelings.” “I can write about the same thing in so many different ways.” “I can write about the things I love.” “Last year I usually wrote acrostics, but this year I have been open to new ways to write poetry and I pretty much do not like acrostics anymore because they do not say enough.” “I can experiment with line breaks and totally change the meaning of my poems.” So many more great thoughts! I wish I had recorded them all!
The thing is how can I really document all the wow?! We use Seesaw and it is great- parents get a lot more insight into what their child is doing regularly and we have a poetry share coming up on Thursday. The students have been writing and reading poems for a few weeks now and are excited to share with their parents. Our classroom is pretty well covered with poetry- students have their own poetry notebooks, but some students prefer to draft or publish on loose paper. The carpet is usually where we confer, but when I scan the room I see many conferences going on informally at tables, while students share what they are reading or writing, desperate to share and get feedback. We have tubs of poetry books at the front of the room, so there is a steady stream of students looking for new their next read. Others pull out an iPad to read through the Epic collection I have shared. Two friends are reading aloud quietly, sharing poems for two voices. Another is canvassing the class- she read a poem that included ways to say hello in many languages and now she is out to write her own version using the languages in our classroom. Students walk over to a board to display one of their published poems, but then a quandary- which of their gems will face out? Unfortunately, they have to choose- there is only space for them each to have one- prolific writers are stacking their poems so readers have lots to peruse. Nobody has told them that they have to share their poems, they just want to. M. wrote a poem I have to send to C., who is currently recovering from the flu in the hospital.
Before our time is up we practice our class version of Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s I Wish You More. Each student has written a line and we will share with the parents (and our principal who is leaving at the end of the year because N. thinks we should).
Not bad for a group that was not really excited to hear that we were ending the year with a poetry unit. Sigh! How can I capture it all?!
Ms. Victor Reads 
We can’t “capture it all.” But I don’t think we need to really. It’s the feeling I think. What was it Eleanor Roosevelt said…something like People may forget what you said, but they will not forget how you made them feel. Your students will never forget this poetry unit! Kudos.
As your slice aptly demonstrates, capturing *something* offers a stepping stone on the way to capturing *more*. Thanks for sharing these glimpses into you and your students’ interactions with poetry.