Great day for poetry... #sol15

Today was a good day in the Reed Group. You never know what you are going to get right before spring break, but we rocked our day! As I have said previously, we are studying poetry. We have talked about several different forms of poetry and what to look for, different poetry terms, and these brave souls have tried their hands at writing poetry. Today we began to shift our focus to analyzing poetry. This is a super hard part of being a fourth grader. I must admit that I was not feeling excitement in my gut at the thought of tackling this mountain. Well, let me tell you what. These wonderful minds really blew me away. They were inferring (deeply, I might add), making connections to articles we had read early in the fall (WHAT!), and talking collaboratively with their peers while defending their opinions about the poet's message. The conversations were rich and full of passion, just like poetry itself. At one point I realized that one of my students who was pretty sure he was going to hate poetry was the one leading the discussion at his table about the reason why the poet decided to write this poem in a shape, rather than stanzas. After I caught my breath, I sat back for a moment and relished in the now. These kiddos didn't need me in their way, they had it under control. They were passionate, yes, but they were respectful of each other and willing to listen. They were quick to defend their thinking, but most of the time willing to at least listen to a differing viewpoint. They were talking about schema and synthesizing their thinking. This time with my students was certainly a great way to get ready for spring break, and I feel like today made a difference!

Sincerely,
Tara Reed