Category Archives: Lesson Plans

First Reader

Posted on January 23, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

We experienced a good day today. We are writing fractured fairy tales which are parodies of the originals. Students turn the story around and rewrite it with a twist. One student explained that the boy who cried wolf was visually impaired and was the victim of pranks by the sheep. Another student told the story of the Billy Goats Gruff through the eyes of the troll. Would you like it if someone were clacking around on your roof? The handsome prince dumps the beautiful princess for the maid in Rapunzel so someone did live happily ever after. The kids have fun with this activity and we talk about perspective. What if I were the Big Bad Wolf? We learn to understand that life is revealed through many eyes and experiences.

Billy Collins wrote this poem which I think expresses the way we learn and shape our learning. Occasionally, we need to let go, just be in the moment, and experience learning. I think we did that today.

I can see them standing politely on the wide pages
that I was still learning to turn,
Jane in a blue jumper, Dick with his crayon-brown hair,
playing with a ball or exploring the cosmos
of the backyard, unaware they are the first characters,
the boy and girl who begin fiction.

Beyond the simple illustrations of their neighborhood,
the other protagonists were waiting in a huddle:
frightening Heathcliff, frightened Pip, Nick Adams
carrying a fishing rod, Emma Bovary riding into Rouen.

But I would read about the perfect boy and his sister
even before I would read about Adam and Eve, garden and gate,
and before I heard the name Gutenberg, the type
of their simple talk was moving into my focusing eyes.

It was always Saturday and he and she
were always pointing at something and shouting,
“Look!” pointing at the dog, the bicycle, or at their father
as he pushed a hand mower over the lawn,
waving at aproned mother framed in the kitchen doorway,
pointing toward the sky, pointing at each other.

They wanted us to look but we had looked already
and seen the shaded lawn, the wagon, the postman.
We had seen the dog, walked, watered and fed the animal,
and now it was time to discover the infinite, clicking
permutations of the alphabet’s small and capital letters.
Alphabetical ourselves in the rows of classroom desks,
we were forgetting how to look, learning how to read.

20 Comments

Posted in Education, Lesson Plans, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Billy Collins, creativity, education, First Reader, learning, poetry, school, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

A Note

Posted on January 12, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Well, I made it to the finish line this week and had a good day today. I ran out of steam after lunch, but afternoons have been kind this week. We are writing Fractured Fairy Tales and students get into this activity. I find opportunities to work 1-on-1 with students who need a little extra help. It is a great unit plan and can be modified for different ages.

Wislawa Szymborska wrote this poem. It fits with recent reflections about the extraordinary nature of ordinary life. My father-in-law, Bill, used to ask, “Who has more fun than people? More people do, of course!” I recalled his quirky, wise sayings as I read this poem. It is simple things, often overlooked, that give life its fullest meaning.

Life is the only way
to get covered in leaves,
catch your breath on sand,
rise on wings;

to be a dog,
or stroke its warm fur;

to tell pain
from everything it’s not;

to squeeze inside events,
dawdle in views,
to seek the least of all possible mistakes;

An extraordinary chance
to remember for a moment
a conversation held with the lamp switched off;

and if only once
to stumble on a stone,
end up soaked in one downpour or another,

mislay your keys in the grass;
and to follow a spark on the wind with your eyes;

and to keep on not knowing
something important.

14 Comments

Posted in Humour, Lesson Plans, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged A Note, creativity, education, learning, Mindful Practice, poetry, school, teacher as transformer, Wislawa Szymborska. Bookmark the permalink.

To Look at Any Thing

Posted on January 11, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

It was a busy day. I was alone with the students. Usually, I there is a parent, but today the schedule was unfilled. We were still productive and covered challenging material.

The Grade 7 class is building scenarios and predicting what if learned experience is used in new situations. The Grade 8 class is exploring differences between authority and power. The Grade 9 class is taking and defending positions on the Canadian youth criminal system. Like all good things, learning takes time.

John Moffitt’s poem speaks about a way we learn the world. We should savour it, not consume it.

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
‘I have seen spring in these
Woods,’ will not do—you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between the leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.

15 Comments

Posted in Education, Leadership, Lesson Plans, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, education, John Moffitt, learning, Mindful Practice, poetry, school, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer, To Look at Any Thing. Bookmark the permalink.

You Shall Above All Things

Posted on December 28, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

When I teach poetry, I always include ee cummings. I include him for several reasons. First, he was a pretty good poet. Second. junior high students worry too much about style and conventions. Third, he was a rebel and junior high students like rebels. Fourth, and I doubt it is last, he had something important to say like all good rebels.

I am not sure our schedule. We leave within the hour and will be on the road most of tomorrow. If I do not find my way back to the Internet, I wish you all a good New Year.

you shall above all things be glad and young.

For if you`re young, whatever life you wear

it will become you;and if you are glad

whatever`s living will yourself become.

Girlboys may nothing more than boygirls need;

i can entirely her only love

whose any mystery makes every man`s

flesh put space;and his mind take off time

that you should every think, may god forbid

and(in his mercy)your true lover spare:

for that way knowledge lies,the foetal grave

called progress,and negation`s dead undoom.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing

then teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

21 Comments

Posted in Education, Lesson Plans, Mindful Life, Poetry and tagged creativity, education, ee cummings, Mindful Practice, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Why Write Poetry

Posted on August 31, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Yesterday, I read a haiku written by someone who appeared to not enjoy writing haiku. Despite this, the person wrote an interesting, amusing, and thought-provoking poem.

I am not sure this is verbatim but it goes somewhat like this:

Here are five syllables

And here I write seven more!

Are you happy now?

The person who presented this poem indicated that despite having written haiku they were unsure why teachers wanted them written. I think there are good reasons, but I could be wrong.

1. Poetry calls for the best possible word choices. Most poetry is simultaneously spare and spacious. The spareness is in the number of words; the fewer the better. The space allows the reader room for interpretation. What did the poet mean? What senses are invoked through the word choice.

Words chosen

Describe my moment.

No two experiences identical

A jungle of meaning revealed.

Each sense sameness different

Worlds bridged.

2. Students learn about figures of speech and their importance in expressing what we want to say. We can compare unlike things and make sense of a complex world.

3. I tell students who struggle with reading and writing poetry is an alternative way of expressing themselves. I use ee cummings as a model so they overcome their worries about grammar, spelling, and capitalization.

i dig ee cummings

no punctuation

no capitols

won’t worry about spellin either

no sweat

aint no problem

i write poetry

4. I enjoy poetry. I always have. I remember a poem, The Elevator, I memorized in Grade 4. I think it Walter de la Mare wrote it. My friend memorized a poem called Douglas Fir, because his name was Douglas. What my enjoyment means, is I bring enthusiasm to the process.

I believe we need to tell students what they are learning and the reasons they are important. But, then it might just be me.

9 Comments

Posted in Education, Haiku, Lesson Plans, Progressive Education, Reflective Moments, Writing and tagged blogging, creativity, education, haiku, Progressive Education, reading and writing poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Captains of Society

Posted on July 28, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I mentioned when I posted Angry Young Poet there was a second poem I shared from my youth with my students. I softened this one a bit, as it had an angry voice. I know this version sounds pretty harsh, but it is gentler. A recent conversation reminded me how I marginalize voices of those already marginalized. A professor commented he was told by an affluent person that another less fortunate person was a non-entity and the worth of human was measured in material worth. I know this might be isolated, but it troubling and I was reminded of this poem.

Captains of Society

Shallow, superficial, arrogant

Single ambition

Greatness in the eyes of others

Only those with resources can apply

The rest

Forgotten

Pay a high price, but…

It’s their fault

They own their misery.

A cheque to charity

Assuages my conscience

What about the despair?

Don’t care

I claim I do

Donations in good faith, but

It’s a tax receipt

I can really claim, but…

Done on the backs of others

Get the staff to donate time

Not mine.

Increase taxes

Not mine!

No way!

It’s wrong!

Tax others!

What is work?

I create jobs

It’s a spectator sport

This work, which

I manage from afar.

Drive luxury wheels

Shout

Curse

What’s the hold up?

Who’s blocking my way?

The ‘75 Ford station wagon

Engine shot

Dead broke!

Is it their home?

Throw a party

Drink

Eat

Be merry

No concern for homeless

A romantic notion this ‘hobo jungle’

Not my world

What’s wrong?

It’s not my fault

I gave at the office.

After all.

Throw money at problems

It might help

Don’t

Stop, see, care

If it really helps

Denying, refusing, unfeeling

I pay for a clear conscience

After all.

The misery

In surround sound…

Is out of sight;

Out of mind

4 Comments

Posted in Lesson Plans, Poetry, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

An Angry Young Poet

Posted on July 19, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Each year, I spend time on poetry with the students. Two years ago, a student asked if I wrote poetry in junior high school and I was able to say, “Yes!”. He asked me to share with them. I found them in a small lock box I keep at home and shared several with the class.

I mentioned in Culture of Peace Sam Intrator. He suggested teachers expose adolescent students complex, existential questions of life as they move through those formative years. I wrote my poems in about 1969. It was a time when identity was increasingly rooted in the global nature of the world, not just immediate community and family. War, even in Canada, entered our homes via television. I found voice in poetry and expressed an abhorrence to institutional and government approved murder. What set me apart from my peers, was I took no sides. Each was equally wrong in my mind. Mr. McKenzie, an innovative English teacher, encouraged that in us-find our voices.

I shared the following poem with my students. I concede it is not exactly the original, as it was pretty angry. I hope the original message is still there. Students asked for more poems and I complied. These past few months I rediscovered my poet’s voice. It is a gentler voice, I hope.

Win or Lose: What Difference Does it Make?

One game

If it is one

No fun to lose

No great thing to win.

War!

Hollow

Men, women, children gone

In no time

Woe! The vanquished losers;

No winner

Each, vanquished in every sense.

Divided

In ruins

Rebuilding

On countless graves

Rudderless.

Without pride

Beggaring citizens

Values of others

Resenting conquerors

What does war bring?

No jobs

No hospitals

No schools

No homes, but the streets

Destruction everywhere.

What does war bring?

Death of innocence

Loss even in victory

Comrades fallen

But see an enemy vanquished.

Killing

Proving nothing

What fools

Going on forever

Will we learn?

We must

I pray

For human survival.

Take care and have a great 20th of July, 2012.

8 Comments

Posted in Education, Lesson Plans, Mindful Life, Poetry, Progressive Education, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged adolescent students, education, literature, mindfulness, poetry, Progressive Education, Sam Intrator, war. Bookmark the permalink.

Culture of Peace

Posted on July 17, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Each child has a voice

In a secure space

Voices are revealed.

I am reading Tuned in and fired up: How teaching can inspire real learning in the classroom by Sam Intrator. It is the published version of his doctoral dissertation so I read it out of a twofold interest: as a teacher and as someone getting ready for the dissertation process. Sam asks teachers to consider the following question: “What engages children in learning?” That was the focus of his study and he found an innovative teacher, Mr. Quinn, who lived up to the challenge.

Mr. Quinn was studying Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, but found the students were not enjoying the early part of the book. He took them outside to the ball diamond, had them select a small patch of ground, and spread out from their classmates. Mr. Quinn asked students to observe, collect data, and write about a 1 foot by 1 foot (30 cm by 30 cm) patch of grass. They were to try see the world as a poet-scientist and find their way to describe their small ecosystem. Despite initial grumbling, the students became engaged and wrote poetry, reflective journals, and connected that patch to their lives in many ways. For many, it was the highlight of their learning that year.

In Grade 8 Social Studies, I found an activity in the Teacher Resource Manual called A Culture of Peace. This activity engages students and brings out even the voice of those who generally choose not speak up. This is one of those activities with no right or wrong answer.

First we discuss a Culture of War, which by the standards of the day should be easy to do, but an interesting thing happens. About 10-15 minutes into this discussion, students run out of descriptors for a culture of war or they repeat what has already been said. I record comments on the whiteboard and say, “It is time for a change of pace. What are some descriptors for a Culture of Peace?” I fill up a whiteboard with student responses. They are so engaged they know when they are duplicating previous responses. They are listening intently to each other. The shy, reluctant students engage in the conversation, because they feel no risk of being wrong.

The first time we did this we had to stop after an hour because we were borrowing another classroom and the teacher needed it back. When we walked out of the classroom to return to our classroom, one of the boys turned to a friend and said, “I could do this all day.” As a teacher, I felt like I was on Cloud 9. I look forward to this activity each year. The students and I become engaged in our learning.

Question: What was one learning experience that engaged you fully and made learning worthwhile and so memorable to be vividly recalled years later?

6 Comments

Posted in Education, Lesson Plans, Poetry, Progressive Education and tagged cannery row, creativity, education, John Steinbeck, poetry, Sam Intrator, teacher as transformer, transformative education. Bookmark the permalink.

Haiku Haven

Posted on June 16, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Each year, we learn about Haiku in our classroom. I was fortunate this year. We began the process during the fall when the Harvest Moon was in full glory. Driving to work in the morning, the Moon would be sitting above the horizon or in the evening it appeared as a rich, orange orb almost asking me to reach and touch it. I also drove through the Rockies just before the school year began and Mount Robson was in full majesty with a tiny wisp of cloud.

It had been several years since I heard a student say, “Poetry is stupid. My dad says it is a waste of time” or words to that effect. This year I heard it. I even had one parent tell me it was a waste of time. I calmly pointed out writing out poetry, in general, is the practice of choosing the right word and Haiku takes this one step further, at least I think it does. What I left unsaid, but is worthy of saying, poetry is always present, is part of being mindful, and being in the world.

Those mornings and evenings I observed the moon I found words pressing forward and asked to be shared. I wrote these on the whiteboard as an exercise of being mindful and present.

Majestically,

Touching endless sky above

Roots firmly grounded.

Greetings and adieu

Sun and Moon sharing the sky

Guides my morning drive.

Enjoy Saturday.

1 Comment

Posted in Education, Lesson Plans, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, Rocky Mountains, stewardship, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

Beginning of the Year Poetry

Posted on June 14, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I wanted something a little different for the beginning of the year. We had new students and sometimes new students find it difficult those first few days to introduce themselves and share something about themselves with others who are better established. We are an alternative school environment. Some students have been with us since Grade 1 and are now in junior high. Without realizing it, returnees form groups and new students are slightly intimidated by the tightness that has formed despite everyone’s best efforts. I tried a poetry activity and it worked very well.

1. I used a Kahlil Gibran quote from The Prophet:

“Say not, “I have found the truth,” but rather, “I have found a truth.”
Say not, “I have found the path of the soul.” Say rather, “I have met the soul walking upon my path.”
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself like a lotus of countless petals.”

The quote served as a conversational anchor. I read it out loud a couple of times. Students re-read it, highlighted words or questions that emerged, discussed their reflective findings in pairs, and finally we shared with the group. What did this passage mean? What was the theme? We talked about self-knowledge and truths. I refer to Parker Palmer in my classroom so students had discussed the idea of holding one’s own truth while respecting the truths of others.

2. Students prepared a small poster. I asked them to include two poems, some pictures of activities they enjoyed, some quotes they thought helped describe who they were, and their name proudly displayed in the centre of the poster.

3. Initially, I wanted a free verse poem and a cinquain poem. The former was too abstract for some students so changed allowing some flexibility with another formula poem i.e cinquain, diamond, or acrostic. This helped considerably. Even though I teach in a multi-grade setting, with three junior high grades, this struggle with abstraction was not based on grade level only. There were some older children who struggle with the free verse and younger children who did not.

4. Each child put their poster about who they were on the bulletin board and it has remained there all year. An interesting note is, when corners of posters have come loose on the bulletin board, students take time to tack them back up carefully even if it is not their poster.

For those unfamiliar with the pattern poems I referenced above, here are some instructions and examples.

How to Write a Cinquain

There are two methods:

Line 1 – a one word title
Line 2 – a 2 word phrase that describes your title or you can just use two words
Line 3 – a 3 word phrase that describes an action about your title or just actions words
Line 4 – a 4 word phrase that describes a feeling about your topic or just feeling words
Line 5 – one word that refers back to your title

Line 1 – two syllables
Line 2 – four syllables
Line 3 – six syllables
Line 4 – eight syllables
Line 5 – two syllables

Example

Ivon

Mr. P

teach, learn, enjoy

It is my calling

Teacher

How to Write a Diamond Poem

Method

Line 1 – a one word noun
Line 2 – 2 adjectives that describe the noun
Line 3 – 3 verbs that the noun does
Line 4 – 4 things (nouns) that the top noun and the bottom noun has
Line 5 – 3 verbs that the bottom noun does
Line 6 – 2 adjectives that the describes the bottom noun
Line 7 – a one word noun that is opposite the top noun

Example

cat
furry, silky
sleeping, purring, meowing
tail,   fur,    tongue,   collar
barking, playing, licking
friendly, big
dog

How to Write Acrostic Poems?

Acrostic is an easy poetry formats to use with young writers.

It can be about any subject, written in different ways, but the simplest form is to put the letters that spell your subject down the side of your page. When you have done this then you go back to each letter and think of a word , phrase or sentence that starts with that letter and describes your subject, and give out your hidden message that’s contained in this format, that can run forwards, or backwards.

Example

I ngenious

V irtue

O mniscient (or so students think)

N octurnal