Students transform into poets
Writer in Residence, Georgia Popoff, visits schools

OCT.—From learning about synonyms to imagery and stanzas, Middletown students are delving into the world of poetry this school year.

Monhagen Middle School (MMS) students got to try their hand at poetry recently with the help of Georgia Popoff, Writer in Residence. As part of the Arts in Education (AIE) programming, established in 2006, professional artists, like Popoff, are visiting schools to bring age-appropriate arts activities to students. Activities promote literacy and student achievement, and are integrated into curriculum and linked to specific New York State standards.

Popoff got right to work with sixth through eighth graders during her week-long visit at the school. In Mrs. Martindale’s sixth grade class, students rolled up their sleeves and created a poem from w word puzzle pieces as a class. After collecting puzzle pieces from around the room, students arranged the pieces into a sentence. From there, the class looked up words they weren’t familiar with, like nudge, in the dictionary. Working together, they then rearranged the sentence from prose format into a poem made up of lines and stanzas.

Then the revision began. Students learned the five stages of writing—revision is one of them — from Popoff during a previous lesson in the week and got right to work. “Poems are like recipes,” she reminded students. “Sometimes you need to change a flavor or add one,” Popoff said.

By reading the poem out loud and working together, students “changed the flavor” of their poem a few times before they were satisfied. And they didn’t stop there. Students admired their work for a moment, and then began picking up the puzzles pieces with excitement and were ready to create another masterpiece.

“The exciting element of this activity is that teachers can use it in the classroom from kindergarten through middle school and have an engaging experience.  The students see the patterns of words and how they move from single words isolated from each other, into a sentence, and then take on the form of poetry.  It is active as well so students get to move around the classroom as they cooperate to complete the puzzle, which is sort of like a finger puzzle, you can keep changing and moving the pieces until you settle into an acceptable image,” said Popoff. “It also teaches elements of revision and editing, which are vital to strong writing skills.  This activity is deceptively simple and the kids keep showing me more ways to expand upon it for many lessons.  I also love sharing this with the teachers I am working with so they can try it with future classes.”

Students use persona poetry in response to racism and oppression
Popoff also worked with other MMS classes, including Mrs. Carlson’s seventh grade class. During the week students discussed the topics of racism and oppression, and discussed current events that revolved around the topics. After group conversation and lessons on persona poetry, students divided into groups to collaborate by sharing their research and creating reflective responses through discussion.  Then they took out their pencils and got to writing. Each group wrote a first draft of a persona poem, which later will be revised with the help of their teacher, where students assumed the persona of a person of a different race or ethnicity who has experienced extreme oppression. The exercise helped students empathize with those who face racism or oppression in our society today.