Tuesday, October 29, 2013

"Jack", a poem by George

Candle inside
epic face,
sitting orange,
smiling pumpkin


George has been spending a lot of time on the IXL website, practicing math skills. He still, when queried, chose "horrible" as a descriptor word for math, but his protests are less spirited now and he settles down more quickly.

George is currently reading Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor and is mesmerized by the idea that something as mundane to him as a photo could change the course of history. (He also is appalled at what small children endured but did note that they did not suffer instruction in horrible math.)

In creative writing I've finally convinced George that he can write a poem that does not rhyme and the world will not end as a result (see: OCD). This has been a challenging process, to put it mildly. Here is the process we used today.

First, I let George choose an image (minor negotiation). Here is the one on which we agreed.


Next, George wrote a description of what he saw.

 The pumpkin is smiling and orange. It is sitting next to an epic face printout and has a candle inside.

Next, George wrote each word with four or more letters on an index card, one word per card.

Then he played with different orders and layouts of the cards on a flat surface (he preferred the floor to a table) until he had something he liked. He decided not to use two eligible words: "next" and "printout".

Finally he rewrote the poem and titled it. I love it madly.

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