The Playdough-Poetry Connection

 

 

 

 

What do you think of when you hear the word revision? For most writers, revision signals that you’ve already completed at least one draft of a piece of writing and now it’s for pruning and polishing the work to get it ready for publication. To many of my college students, it seems to mean a painful process that the teacher recommends to get a better grade. And to the fourth graders I just finished working with in a poetry residency, it seems to mean recopying a piece of writing and fixing spelling errors.  But as I’ve grown in my writing skills over the years, revision has come to mean something very different to me. Revision means I’ve already done the hard work of thinking up an idea and committing it to paper.  Getting the first draft is much more likely to scare me then revising what I’ve already written. But I’m a seasoned writer with lots of revision experience tucked into my writer’s backpack.  How could I teach this skill to fourth graders?

I knew my best bet for finding teaching resources was to do a web search, and I found a wonderful, hands-on activity on the blog Teaching Authors: Six Teaching Authors Who Also Teach Writing.  As I read through the post entitled “Revision! A LINGO Poem! Poetry Friday! and a Play Dough Exercise!” by April Halprin Wayland , I knew I’d found my lesson.  But even April’s well-structured lesson needed a bit of revision for the group that I had in mind.  Here’s a description of the lesson I did at Swansfield Elementary in Columbia, Maryland, as part of a five week poetry residency in the fourth grade sponsored by the PTA and funded through a grant from the Howard County Arts Council.  While I thought the playdough activity would be fabulous, I realized that the teachers might need a heads-up, so I sent an email the day before telling them what to expect.

When I walked into the room carrying a plastic tub of small Play-Doh cans, the kids were immediately excited. After I assured everyone that they would indeed get to make something with the playdough, I wrote the word “Revision” on the board.  Then I broke it down into the prefix “re” and the root “vision” to explain that  revision is the act of seeing a piece of writing in a new way and making it better.  The students were used to seeing me wear my purple poetry glasses—to help me see the world with different eyes—so it was not a big leap for them to imagine seeing a piece of writing in a new light.  We had constantly revised as we worked on our group poems—changing words, selecting phrases, and deciding what to keep and what to set aside. But what did playdough have to do with writing poetry? Let me recap the lesson and you’ll find out.

 

Here’s what you need:

• construction paper for a smooth and clean work surface
• one can of Play-Doh for each child
• a writing sample to revise as a demonstration
• drafts of  student work to revise

 

1. Each child places a piece of construction paper on the desk to provide a work surface and to keep the desk clean.
2. Classroom helpers pass out the cans of playdough. It’s nice if you have enough cans for each child to select two colors, but the students seemed very happy having one can to work with.
3. Direct the students to make a sculpture of anything they want. Most students made animals, food, or people.
4. Tell the children that since they are creating a piece of art, it needs to have a title and when they finish the sculpture, they write the title on the artist’s mat. I allowed about 12-15 minutes for this portion of the activity. Most students seemed to need this much time.
5. Next, the students take a gallery walk around the classroom to observe everyone’s sculptures.  They consider the question, “What inspires me?” as a way to cue themselves to think about revision. I allowed about 5-6 minutes for this portion of the lesson.
6. Once they complete the gallery walk and sit down, students are directed to make one change to their sculpture, any change that they can imagine (except to squish up the work and begin again). Then there are to make a note about what they changed.
7. Select several students to present their sculptures to the whole class using the title of the work and then describing the one change they made.
8. Demonstrate your revision process on a poem that the class drafted together; discuss why you chose to make certain changes.
9. Allow the students to revise a draft from a previous lesson.

 

The room buzzed with possibility and excitement as the children tore open the jars of playdough and began squishing it around.  The process was the same in every class—some students got to work immediately and had a definite result in mind while others just held the playdough and said they didn’t know what to do. I advised them to “Just roll, pinch, and squeeze it until an idea comes to you. Let the dough guide your imagination.”  Within a few minutes, everyone was completely absorbed in the activity and quietly lost in the world of possibility.  The gallery walk provided a space for the students to admire everyone’s work before revising their own and  sharing with each other.  Due to the time constraints imposed by a 45 minute session, I had to limit the sharing and moved on to demonstrating the writing component of the playdough-poetry connection.

For my revision process, I selected the previous week’s class-poem on telling a fairy tale in a different voice.  The students had co-written a poem based on the story of Aladdin and told the tale in the voice of the genie. During that lesson, we had worked on the poetic devise of repetition, including sounds, words, and phrases. Additionally, many students wrote their draft poems in a paragraph format, so I showed them how to make the poem look pretty on the page–an idea that my friend Grace Cavalieri shared with me—a much simpler concept than explaining formal linebreaks and very visual—which connected nicely to the playdough session.

While I had to move on to the next class before the students completed their revisions, I felt that the goal of the lesson had been achieved-to show that revision is something all artists do and that it provides an opportunity to make changes to something that is already good.  Happy revising! And if you get stuck for some inspiration, you can always count on playdough.

 

Resource: See the April Halprin Wayland’s version of the lesson here:

“Revision! A LINGO Poem! Poetry Friday! and a Play Dough Exercise!”

on the blog Teaching Authors: Six Teaching Authors Who Also Teach Writing. 

The blog originally ran on September 9, 2011.

Play-Doh image courtesy of: http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/56b8aa77-0b48-4971-a222-dfddb7266154.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Washington Review of Books by Grace Cavalieri

Grace reviews many wonderful and provocative books in her most recent posting. For anyone who is concerned about the rising tide of sexual assault–in dating relationships, on college campuses, in the military, and  in marriage–this review will encourage you to add Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence to your list of must-have poetry books.  The poetry is suitable for use in a women’s studies course, a domestic violence center, or a counseling center as well as a personal library.

http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/features/may-exemplars-poetry-reviews

Poetry Reading at Baltimore’s Fun-a-Day  I start at 4:32.

Here I am reading my poem, “Mirror, Mirror,” at the Fun-a-Day event coordinated by my good friend, Kris Willet of Artful Treasures.  Enjoy!

Tweetspeak Poetry

My good friend and awesome poet, Laura Shovan, has an amazing poetry and teaching blog called Author Amok. Take a look at the piece I wrote for the April 29, 2013 edition and find out what Tweetspeak Poetry is all about.

Writing for Healing: A Poet Reflects

 

We can only approach the gods through poetry, and if the disease is the disguise of the gods, then our medicine will be full of art and image. ~ Thomas Moore

 

Poetry provides an instinctive vehicle for people in pain.  Even people who would never dream of themselves as writers will often place their fears, hopes, and confusions into the safe container of a poem.  Maybe they will never share it with anyone else, and that is as it should be.  The purpose of therapeutic writing is to help each person make sense of the particular suffering they are experiencing in the moment.  Poetry, journaling, and visual arts offer a safe and nurturing place to explore the mysteries of an illness or a tragic event. 

From our earliest times, we have communicated to each other through stories, which serve as a uniquely human way of making sense of the world.  Sharing stories helps us to form connections with those around us through the use of a familiar structure involving a character, a problem, and a resolution.  Stories help us to make sense of our pain and our suffering, especially when we are sick.  Dr. Thomas K. Houston, lead author of a study examining the effects of storytelling on patients with high blood pressure, has this to say about sharing one’s story, “The magic of stories lies in the relatedness they foster.”

Remarkably, many people who sit down to write the story of their illness find in that process a new insight or way of dealing with things that they had not previously known.  I have sat with people many times who break into a smile and loose the hunched shoulders of fear as they write their way to a resolution. 

Stories can take many forms-oral, poetic, and visual.  In my approach to working with people I have often helped them to open the door to self-expression through using collages, especially if they are resistant to writing.  Even though many people eventually find release in writing, there is often an initial opposition if you ask people to share their thoughts in a story or a poem.  Yet if you offer people some art materials and then ask them to choose some words to express what is happening for them in the collage, the writing will flow more easily.  Another way I work with people is to share a simple poem with them that is both easy to understand and has some relationship to their lives in the present moment.   The following lines by poet John Fox serve as an illustration:

When someone deeply listens to you

it is like holding out a dented cup

you’ve had since childhood

and watching it fill up with cold, fresh, water.

When it balances on top of the brim,

you are understood.

When it overflows and touches your skin,

you are loved.

After sharing this poem and talking about how it relates to the person, I would explore their own story with them in as much depth as they feel comfortable sharing and then lead them to some images or materials that call to them at the moment.  If we were using the above poem, I might ask what kinds of things fill their cup right now or what they could put in their cup that would be most useful to them in dealing with their situation.  Then I would encourage them to explore their story either in words, pictures, or a poem.  When given permission to express themselves in whatever way calls to them, they often surprise both of us by writing something very poetic.  We come full-circle to the poem being an instinctive way to respond to life’s pain and challenges.  In sharing their story with someone, the person often gains renewed strength to deal with the uncertainties facing them.  Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, explains the power of writing in this way, “Through healing words, one “[metabolizes] the injury into art.” For this reason, she claims that “writing is medicine….Writing allows us to rewrite our lives.”  

This girl is on fire…….

I  LOVE the lyrics in this song and find the lyrics so inspiring. It’s intresting that the images Keys chose revolve around her daily life with kids and family, day-dremaing, and alone-time.

My questions:

How do I harness my internal fire to ignite the work I want to do?

What does it mean to have such a passion that you are on fire?

What comes to your mind when you think of being on fire?

Enjoy this wonderful, uplifting song.

Improv in the Classroom: Creating a Safe Place for Exploration

What do you think of when you hear someone talking about improv? For me, the first thing that comes to mind is the hilarious scenes from Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the TV show with Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady.  After watching the show for a number of seasons, I thought I knew what improv was—making up songs like Wayne Brady and being funny without much preparation. So how did I come to see improv as a way to create a positive climate in my classroom? It all started with a class at Everyman Theater where I encountered three life-changing rules.

Rule #1: Say “Yes, and…”

A couple of years ago I took an improv class with a talented Baltimore actor named Bruce Nelson.  Bruce began the class by going over the rules of improv — the first and most important rule is to say “Yes, and…” Simple enough. Whatever your partner says or does, you must say yes, and then build on it. Why is this rule number one? Because in improv, you are relying on your colleagues to help you create a story where there is none. If you throw out a line or a question and your partner says no, the scene flounders.  In the professional writing classroom, a student may be brainstorming around a problem and come to me with a solution that I think is problematic. If I say “Yes, but…,” and proceed to list my concerns, even though I avoided an outright no, the student may feel the hurdles are too high to jump and decide to forego the project or shut down some interesting research avenues.

On the other hand, if I say “Yes, and…” to the idea, the student feels validated and sees an open window of possibility to consider. Using “and” in a comment is expansive; it serves as a both a validation and an invitation. Using “and” also helps the instructor to keep an open mind when dealing with topics which may seem strange at first.

Ruel #2: Make everyone else look good

In improv, you are working as a team, and in order to be successful, you have to help your colleagues. If a colleague flounders, you can assist with a prop or a line to get them started. This rule helps to foster solid teams and build positive group interactions. In the classroom, this rule works a similar kind of magic. If everyone in the class feels they have something to contribute, they are more likely to volunteer and to take risks. They know your classroom is a safe place, a place where people will pick them up if they fall. This rule can also serve as an effective team-building  tool to share with students. Every team has members with a variety of strengths. If you can encourage students to assign tasks based on strength rather than in an arbitrary fashion, you can help them to build a strong team that knows how to capitalize on gifts and minimize flaws or weaknesses. Who doesn’t bless the day some colleague did this for them?

Rule #3: Keep the energy going

You are in a scene and it’s moving along really well. Then you get a fabulous idea and begin moving in an unexpected direction, thinking everyone else will follow. But, no one is prepared or even has a clue as to your direction, so the scene loses focus and stalls. Why? You couldn’t maintain the flow of energy. In class, perhaps someone comes in with a new approach to class discussions or a suggestion for a different format for the next paper. A few other people are excited as well. As the teacher, you recognize this may be a bigger project than they are ready for. And despite your hesitation, you decide to capitalize on the positive energy in the room, the delight on the students’ faces, and the promises of great results. In the end, you are glad you jumped in despite being afraid of the waves. Your students learned a valuable lesson as well: enthusiasm plus initiative and teamwork can accomplish surprising things.

Rule #4: Celebrate mistakes

One of the oddest and most enjoyable improv games I ever played was called “Trying to Fail.” We all stood in a circle and had to answer whatever questions the leader called out. If we got a wrong answer, everyone clapped for us. The goal was to be outside the circle before anyone else. First challenge: each person had to name three car models from the 1940s. Needless, to say, it was a short round with lots of failure. But the lesson? We all celebrated each other’s mistakes. More importantly, we had fun. The latest brain research tells us that in order to create, we have to make new connections with what we already know. This happens best when the person is relaxed and feels safe. By looking at mistakes as tools for opportunity, we can help our students grow in their willingness to explore new territory. By helping them to ask what they learned rather than to correct their mistakes, we help them gain confidence and empower them to venture into the unfamiliar with confidence.

There are no Wayne Brady moments of catchy tunes in my classroom, and no one falls over chairs and pretends they are acrobats, but I hope my students feel freer to explore and take risks because I know a little bit about how to say “yes, and” to the many possibilities each class offers.