Teaching Stanzas

Third graders understand stanzas this way: it's a fancy poetry word for "paragraph."

I tell them "stanza" is an Italian word for "room." When you move among the stanzas of a poem, it's like walking through the different rooms in a house. One of my Northfielders said that the empty line between two stanzas is like the hallway between two rooms! What an insight.

You can find a lesson in using opposites to teach stanzas here (with thanks to Roseanne Singer, who shared the lesson with me.) It features Elizabeth Coatsworth's "Swift Things Are Beautiful."

Ariel came up with this unique take on the opposites poem...

Poet: Ariel U. Real, Mythological The frogs leap into a pond. The crab scuttles away. A tabby cat prances around gracefully. The dragons breathe the fire. The phoenix spreads its wings to take off. A unicorn’s horn shimmers In the moonlight.

I love the final image in her poem.

Rohit's poem reminds me of the list poems in The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. (There's a profile here of the 11th century Japanese author -- a woman!) Poet: Rohit V. Fun & Boring Fun things are: Playing with friends, Watching people play football And score 6 points, Jumping off the trampoline, Going high and airborne. Boring things are: Shopping for furniture, Cleaning my room, Waiting for people Who take a very long time.

Tomorrow, I'll post some delicious and evocative food memory poems.