Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Poem Written with Carson Middle School Sixth-Graders

Today I video conferenced with Carson Middle School's wonderful and creative sixth-graders. We talked about Ridiculous Poetry (writing funny poems), and how to make mundane activities (like walking) into interesting, humorous poetry ideas through exaggeration. We also discussed what makes things funny. Their responses included:

Randomness
Humor
Weird Animals
Made-up words
Finally, we put our learning into practice with an activity that exaggerated a real-life event/activity we dreaded. When asked for examples of dreaded activities, one student said, "Walking." When I asked, "Oh, like walking the dog," he responded matter-of-factly, "No, just walking in general."

Here's the poem we wrote together:

Walking is so difficult,

It’s really very hard,
Your legs hurt so bad,
they might fall off in the yard.

There’s always a chance
That you’ll step on a stick
Get it lodged in your shoe,
And get permanently sick;
Walking is slow, unbearably slow,
It takes so much time out of my day,
It makes me so tired that right now
I just want to hit the hay.
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:59 PM

    I am from Carson and I did the video conference. I just love the way you come up with your ideas! Great job!
    -Megan

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am from Carson and I did the video conference. I just love the way you come up with your ideas (like going to your fridge and getting an eggplant) ! Great job!
    Megan

    ReplyDelete
  3. I watched this video and it inspired me to write a poem for the first time since I was in high school (I'm 26 now). I also posted it on my facebook page...


    Getting schooled by a twelve year old girl,
    would be enough to make some hurl.
    Their revulsion is highly misplaced,
    it's their own fault for being disgraced.
    This fortunate opportunity to learn,
    is too often abjectly spurned.
    I find this humbling situation,
    a glorious factor for hesitation.
    A hesitation causing reconsideration,
    of what should be personal validation.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi ! Adora,

    I am from California. I'm 11 years old. I love the way you teach ! You are a great teacher. You totally captured my mind. I also love to write humorous poems.

    ReplyDelete