Narrative Poetry -Tells Its Own Story

Last month I wrote about working with Grade three and four students at Ardeer South Primary School who began investigating narrative poetry. Our inquiry started with sharing poems by Michael Rosen (Chocolate Cake) and Steven Herrick (First Day At School). We looked closely at the text structures and features of this writing form. 

During our study we closely examined poetic elements such as line breaks and white space. We began by working In pairs reconstructing a Michael Rosen poem (from the book, Quick Let's Get Out of Here) which I had earlier deconstructed. The task was somewhat like unscrambling a jigsaw. 

This exercise drew attention to the decisions poets must make when presenting words across a page. Lots of talk, and collaboration ensued as these young poets magically restored the poem to a more familiar layout. Follow up discussion revealed that these writers were developing an awareness of the need for a difference in text layout to a traditional narrative.  

We discussed different line lengths and the students could see how such variety adds to the visual appeal of the poem. We also discussed how line length influenced the rhythm of the reading. The reading of narrative poetry was ongoing in this process of inquiry. The teachers had done a great job in gathering a broad collection of narrative poems. Immersion and discovery were well catered for in this shared classroom. The scaffolding was now in place.

Moving forward, many of these young poets used their own narrative stories as inspiration for creating poetry in subsequent lessons. Others created new stories.  With the support of their teachers, students worked through the process of drafting, revising and editing their poems in preparation for publishing. They polished their poetic pearls!

I now present some samples of the student poems:

MOTORBIKES

When Lama and I went to the park

We were riding our motorbikes

How cool!

Lama was not confident in riding my bike

She was a little scared

She’s a girl, someone said

Ha, ha, girls are scared

So I showed her what to do

Watch me Lama, this is how it’s done

After watching me for a while

Lama thought she might give it a go

She got on her bike

I followed her on my Harley

And we raced

YAYYYYY!

She can ride now

Joe

MY SLEEPY DAD

My Dad is so sleepy

After dinner

Every day at six pm

He goes

To sleep

He snores like this-

Grrrr!

When he takes us to school

We arrive late

It’s so terrible

Sometimes he

Sleeps for a whole day

My Mum said to my Dad

Go and walk and get some fresh air

He says, NO

I’m sleepy

Shayla

WORK

 I love weekends

I just feel…Free!

No one is holding me back

Except for mum

She makes me do all the work

It’s just…WRONG

The eldest does the WORK

Not the youngest

 I’m already ten

BUT that doesn’t mean I have to do

ALL THE WORK

There are a million things to accomplish

I should be the one with more time on my hands!

But no. There is never time

Although I feel empty

Work is probably good for me

So I go, MUM, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

She is thinking of going to

The supermarket

So, we go to the supermarket

Buy EVERYTHING|

Arrive home

Then relax…

Mai

LITTLE SISTERS

I have two little sisters

BUT

Most of the time

They can be pests

They are

Nice around my friends

But at home

When no one is about

They are naughty

Sometimes

I want to put

Them In a box

And sell

Them

Caitlin

MY SILLY DOG, LUCKY

My silly dog plays tricks

Every time I say STAY

He GOES

Every single night he is so silly

He ate two giant flies once

-And a little rat

I don’t know why

My dog is so silly

And why he eats flies

I don’t know why

I play games with my dog

I call him Evil Dog

And pretend if I look at him

He will hook me

And I will die

He is terrible!

Did you know my dog

Is scared of cats?

It’s a secret

Woof, woof, woof

Troy

MY BIG SISTER

My big sister, Amelia

Showed me how to cook

Cupcakes

Yumy, yummy

Cupcakes

I love my big sister

My big sister, Amelia

Sometimes she makes me angry, but I know

She still loves me

Sophie

MY DOG’S MISTAKE

It was a rainy day out there

Belting down with anger

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Thunder and lightning scared my dog

Scared my dog sick it did

So, I let my dog inside and then

He got excited and kept jumping on the chairs

He even jumped on the big sofa

I got mad and kicked him outside

And tried not to let him in no matter what

But then he started to cry

-So, I let him in again

He started to run around like crazy

He smashed my computer

I got so mad

I locked him in my empty shed

He couldn’t get wet

He was happy

And I got to have a peaceful rest

A little annoyed my computer was broken

Angela

MY STRANGE DREAM

It’s time to go to bed…

Just before I crawl into bed

I hit my head

Owwww!

That’s annoying!

I hate going to bed. I just want to stay up a little bit more

But, I’m not allowed to

I can’t believe my sister goes to sleep just like that.

Why can’t I go to sleep like she does?

Wwwoooowww, now my room is twisting

And floating

And my toy robot is talking to me saying,

You’re a weirdo

You’re a weirdo

And zombies are trying to bite me

And I can see a video of my dog Shelly biting mt favourite shoes

Nooo Shelly!

Don’t do that

Now my sister is scratching Shelly’s belly and giving her my favourite to chew

That hat cost me a fortune

(It only cost me $20 actually –but it’s still my favourite)

I’m totally freaked out now

My worst horror movie is turning itself on

I’m totally freaked out

I start kicking my legs out, don’t ask me why

All of a sudden, I wake up

Thanks goodness, it was all a dream

How am I going to get to sleep now?

Eliya