1. North Star of Texas Writing Project
June 21, 2005
Poetry:
Capturing the Image
Jeana Etamé
North Star of Texas Writing Project
Lewisville ISD

2. From Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard
Rationale:
“What is it that allows many people in the United States to accept the view of poetry as a luxury rather than food for all: food for the heart and senses, food of memory and hope?”
- Adrienne Rich, Introduction (xvi)
From Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard

3. Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters
Thought for the Day:
“Mental pictures, or images, are at the heart of poetry, just like emotions.” (21)
Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters

4. Let’s begin… Whole Group Writing: Read-Aloud Student Focus:
Image Details
Think/Pair/Share:
What do you…See? Hear? Feel? Think?

5. Think/Pair/Share:
“…students often need to talk out what they plan to write before beginning to write.” (135)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product

6. Modeling:
“We need to raise our expectations for student writing to a higher literary standard and teach students how to meet them.”
- Nancie Atwell, Lessons That Change Writers

7. - Nancie Atwell, In the Middle
“I take off the top of my head and write out loud in front of [the students]…I show them how I plan, change my mind, confront problems, weigh options, make decisions, use conventions to make my writing sound and look the way I want it to and my readers will need it to, and generally compose my life.” (25)
- Nancie Atwell, In the Middle
As teachers, we are mentors of writing, mediators of writing strategies and models of writers at work. (21)

8. “Teachers encourage children by demonstrating how to develop topics using the ordinary events of daily life and school life. Teachers encourage children to talk about things that interest them, stories they have enjoyed, ideas they might want to share with classmates. Out of these conversations, topics emerge.” (49)
- Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product

9. Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product
“…ELL students at any grade level learn a great deal when they write with classmates and the teacher.” (31)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product

10. Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters
“If you want to create strong images, get in the habit of observing the world so you can create your own pictures using words.” (21)
Ralph Fletcher, Poetry Matters

11. Let’s continue… Whole Group Writing: Read-Aloud Small Group Writing:
Image Photography
Student Focus: Image Details
Pre-writing Activity

12. - Georgia Heard, Awakening the Heart
“Poetry is about recognizing and paying attention to our inner lives – our memories, hopes, doubts, questions, fears, joys – and the image is the hook we find to hang the poem on.” (66)
- Georgia Heard, Awakening the Heart

13. “…the image moistens the poem.”
- Robert Bly, Awakening the Heart (66)

14. - Naomi Nye, Awakening the Heart (66)
“The energy that comes from rubbing one image against another in poems…we’re desperate for that energy.”
- Naomi Nye, Awakening the Heart (66)

15. - Harry Noden, Image Grammar
“When an author lacks a visual eye, his or her writing has no heart and soul: images lie lifeless like cadavers in a morgue.” (2)
- Harry Noden, Image Grammar
Brushstrokes
Show, Don’t Tell
Use Your Senses

16. “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.”
- Mark Twain

17. On your own… Whole Group Writing: Read-Aloud Small Group Writing:
Image Photography
Individual Writing Activity:
Six-Room Poems

18. Six-Room Poem Fold your paper in thirds.
Fold your paper long-ways in half.

19. Six-Room Poem First Room
Think of something you’ve seen outside that is amazing, beautiful and interesting OR
Think of some time long ago that is a special memory
Think of a moment in time that has stayed in your mind like a picture
ACTIVITY: Close your eyes. See your image as clearly as a photograph. Notice the details. Describe it…
Six-Room Poem
Image
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

20. Six-Room Poem Second Room ACTIVITY: Describe the quality of light…
Looking at the same “photograph” in your mind, focus on the quality of light.
Questions to ask yourself…
Is it bright? Cloudy? Dull?
Are there shadows? Colors?
Examples:
Shiny blues, Sparkling red
ACTIVITY: Describe the quality of light…
Image
Light
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

21. Six-Room Poem Third Room ACTIVITY: Describe the sounds you hear…
As you picture your image, what can you hear? Focus on the sounds you hear.
Questions to ask yourself…
Maybe it’s silent. What kind of silence?
Examples:
Rustling of leaves, Pitter-patter of rain, Sweet laughter
ACTIVITY: Describe the sounds you hear…
Image
Light
Sounds
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

22. Six-Room Poem Fourth Room ACTIVITY: Write your questions…
Write down any questions you might have about the image.
Questions to ask yourself…
Do you want to know anything else about the image?
Do you wonder something?
Examples:
Why were we in this place in the winter?
Why was I with them?
ACTIVITY: Write your questions…
Six-Room Poem
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

23. Six-Room Poem Fifth Room ACTIVITY: Write your feelings…
Write down any feelings you have about your image.
Questions to ask yourself…
How was I feeling?
How do I feel now?
Example:
I remember being so happy as we played outside together.
ACTIVITY: Write your feelings…
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Feelings
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

24. As you look over all your rooms,
Six-Room Poem
Sixth Room
As you look over all your rooms,
think of one word,
a few words,
a phrase,
a line,
or a sentence that is important to you and/or describes the image entirely.
ACTIVITY: Repeat your word or words three times…
Image
Light
Sounds
Questions
Feelings
Repetition
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

25. Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product
“[poets] create strong images when they use unexpected comparisons, repeat sounds within a line or stanza, imitate sounds, repeat words and phrases, and choose rhyming words.” (409)
Gail Tompkins, Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product

26. How to Make a Poem Awakening the Heart, Georgia Heard Close your eyes.
Don’t peek.
Close them tight,
tight so it’s
dark, dark
till you see something
in sight.
Close your eyes
don’t peek.
Try
and see a poem.
Danielle Pioggia, Grade 3 (125)

27. “We need to look for, listen for, and feel the heartbeats in our students. That’s where the energy is, for us and for them.” (90)
- Donald Graves, Teaching Day by Day

28. A suitable lesson for your classroom?
Elementary Age Students:
Four-Room Poem – Memory; Sound; Feelings; and Now
Middle School Age Students:
Add some rooms to describe image using similes and/or metaphors
Add smells, touch, taste that students can imagine in the images
High School Age Students:
Thirteen-Room Poem – Using Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”
Add a room to weave a favorite line or quote from another poem or book that helps describe the image.
From Georgia Heard’s Awakening the Heart

29. Quest for the Test:
“…reading and writing poetry will give our students more than a good score on a writing test.” (5)
- Georgia Heard, Awakening the Heart

30. 6th grade Language Arts TEKS
4A (W) connect his/her own experiences, information, insights, and ideas with experiences of others through speaking and listening
15C (W) write to inform such as to explain, describe, report, and narrate (1)
15D (W) write to entertain such as to compose humorous poems or short stories (1)
15E (W) select and use voice and style appropriate to audience and purpose (1)
18A-I (W) Writing Processes (1,2,3,4,5,6)
18A (W) generate ideas and plans for writing by using prewriting strategies such as brainstorming, graphic organizers, notes, and logs (1)
18 G (W) refine selected pieces frequently to “publish” for general and specific audiences
24C (W) assess how language, medium, and presentation contribute to the message
R=Reading; W=Writing

31. 6th grade Language Arts TEKS
3C (R/W) analyze the use of aesthetic language for its effects
8B (R) select varied sources such as plays, anthologies, novels, textbooks, poetry, newspapers, manuals, and electronic texts when reading for information or pleasure
9C (R) read for varied purposes such as to be informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the writer’s craft, and to discover models for his/her own writing
10D (R) describe mental images that text descriptions evoke
11A (R) offer observations, make connections, react, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to texts
R=Reading; W=Writing

32. “…[life] is not about the amount of breaths you take but rather the moments that takes your breath away.”
- Will Smith in Hitch

33. Bibliography
Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers, Inc.
______. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth, NH: firsthand.
Fletcher, R. (2002). Poetry matters: writing a poem from the inside out. New York, NY: HarperTrophy.
Graves, D. (2004). Teaching day by day: 180 stories to help you along the way. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Keene, E.O. & Zimmermann, S. (1997). Mosaic of thought: teaching comprehension in a reader’s workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Noden, H. (1999). Image grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Tompkins, G. (1990). Teaching writing: balancing process and product. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.