We are so excited about this project! (And the prospect of really focusing on the blog since school is well underway!!) This past spring we won a grant from our local Junior League (thanks ladies!). Our project is called "Seeing the Blue Between" taken from the book by the same title, edited by Paul B. Janeckzo. The grant allowed us to purchase a copy of the book for each of our 7th graders. We are spending a week on each poet... studying their advice to young poets, digging into their poems, noticing how they use words, talking and reading poems to each other, finding other poems by the same poet, and discovering who we are as poets.
On Mondays we read the poet bio found in the back of the book, read their advice, and read their poem(s). Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Thursdays are spent rereading the poems with talking partners (which is a fantastic tool to build fluency). We are finding that some poems lend themselves to certain mini-lessons that address grammar, some spark ideas for writer's notebooks, while others are simply enjoyed for the week. The plan is to wrap the project up this spring with a visiting poet. The details of that are still in the works, but we should know within the next few weeks who our visiting poet will be. We've participated in visiting author projects the past several years, but never with a poet. We would love to hear about some successful poet visits you may have had!
Our Friday posts will be devoted to sharing how the week went with our poetry and the blue our students helped to discover.
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