The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. ~Herbert Spencer
Best. Day. Ever.
Everyday in the month of April my ELA class begins with a mentor poem. We read the poem. We notice things about the poem. We imitate the poem. We share our results. Eventually, the students will create their own poetry anthologies and choose a poem to read or recite to the class.
I have been doing this unit for several years now with a few changes to the poems I present to the class. I usually get some of my best writing during this month. I am not sure if by April, my students are just better writers or the poetry form is less threatening, but I don’t get too much resistance.
Today, our mentor poem was “Foul Shot” by Edwin A. Hoey. It is filled with action and suspense. The classroom protocol is that I put a mystery amount of minutes on the timer, and the students are free to remain at their desks or move around the room to work. When the timer when off today after about 10 minutes there was a rousing sigh followed immediately by voices begging for more time. Who am I to stand in the way of creativity? I gave them more time to write.
As if that wasn’t enough joy for one day, our next activity was reading a text set about Wild Horses. The students worked with partners to read the articles, create a claim, and list evidence they could use in an argument essay. They only had to develop an outline, not write the essay.
As I meandered around the room, I heard lots of good conversations about what should be done with the wild horses that can no longer sustain themselves on the lands where they roam. So what’s the big deal?
When the class was dismissed and was walking to their next class they were arguing their claims!
Can’t get better than that!