Future Poets Find and Project Their Voices

Anna Gregory works with Monticello sixth grade student Christine Dover on a writing assignment.

Anna Gregory’s sixth grade English Language Arts students are developing into poets, readers, writers and critical thinkers.The classroom reflects a richness of teaching and learning. Posters feature the work of literary greats while others clearly and concisely train a student in stylistic techniques.

Classical music plays softly during silent reading time. Students bring a book from home or select one from display shelves with contemporary classics and novels beloved by previous generations. A Smart Board and laptops are used to support learning, engage students, and keep them on task.During a recent fast-paced, 90- minute class, sixth graders read silently, wrote a 10-minute quick response to the reading, then read and discussed a poem about professional basketball player Allen Iverson.

After being assigned a partner, students wrote a poem about the middle school bully character in the short story they read.The class culminated with recitation. Students projected their voices and read with expression, but more impressively, their poems reflected a nuanced understanding of the character and the stylistic techniques students had discussed earlier.

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Volume 3, Issue 5, Posted 2:35 PM, 04.16.2010