Do Now: THINK/SHARE WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
After our quick attendance check, we started off the lesson with a class discussion. This was a think and share discussion, meaning we didn’t have to write anything down-we just thought of what to say and said it out loud to our fellow classmates. This was the prompt:
Consider your free-time outside of school, when you’re (hopefully) not procrastinating. What do you like to do & how do you like to spend your time when you’re not studying or working on assignments (Ex. Listen to music, watch T.V, Draw, etc…)?
For example, if you are a gamer, what type of games do you like to play? FPS? RPG? Simulation? FIFA? ETC! Do you play online with a guild/clan or a certain group of friends? Or, do you prefer to play alone taking in the soundtrack, graphics, and story? What is it that you enjoy about gaming; if you’re a gamer?
I was the first one to answer. I talked about how I enjoyed watching sports in my free time-I am a massive soccer and hockey fan, and sports like those do a good job of revealing my stress that can build up throughout the day. In addition, I mentioned how I enjoy reading and listening to 70s music in my free time, as those things make me feel happy. I concluded that doing activities like I do in your free time is a good way to spend your time while also having fun.
Of course, I wasn’t the only one to answer. Jonathan said that in his free time, he talks with friends about school and the latest news. Julianna mentioned that she used to and still does play instruments in her free time. That is a beneficial way to spend your free time, as you have fun while learning something new. Annie also brought up the idea of reading books, as did other students. The recurring theme throughout everyone’s answers, however, was that people had a variety of activities to do in their free time. Some suggested reading books, others brought up the idea of playing video games(which I also do!).
Word Pool Poetry
Following the Do Now Class Discussion, we began our main portion of the lesson. We started off by discussing what a word pool is. However, we looked at the definition of a word pool in a very unique way-instead of reading a definition, Ms. Peterson gave us a passage from Poemcrazy, by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, which we spirit-red. The portion was called “collecting words and creating a wordpool”, and that portion is written below:
“I have a strong gathering instinct. I collect boxes, hats, rusty flattened bottle caps for collages and creek-worn sticks to color with my hoard of Berol prismacolor pencils. When I was a kid I’d lie in bed imagining I was a squirrel who lived in a hollow tree, foraging for acorns, twigs and whatever it takes to make squirrel furniture.
Most of us have collections. I ask people all the time in workshops, Do you collect anything? Stamps? Shells? ’57 Chevys? Raccoons? Money? Leopards? Meteorites? Wisecracks? What a coincidence, I collect them, too. Hats, coins, cougars, old Studebakers. That is, I collect the words. Pith helmet, fragment, Frigidaire, quarrel, loveseat, lily. I gather them into my journal.
The great thing about collecting words is they’re free; you can borrow them, trade them in or toss them out. I’m trading in (and literally composting) some of my other collections—driftwood, acorns and bits of colored Easter egg shell—for words. Words are lightweight, unbreakable, portable, and they’re everywhere. You can even make them up. Frebrent, bezoncular, zurber. Someone made up the word padiddle.A word can trigger or inspire a poem, and words in a stack or thin list can make up poems.
Because I always carry my journal with me, I’m likely to jot down words on trains, in the car, at boring meetings (where I appear to be taking notes), on hikes and in bed.
I take words from everywhere. I might steal steel, spelled both ways. Unscrupulous. I’ll toss in iron, metal and magnolias. Whatever flies into my mind. Haystack, surge, sidewinder. A sound, splash. A color, magenta. Here’s a chair. Velvet. Plush.
Dylan Thomas loved the words he heard and saw around him in Wales. “When I experience anything,” he once said, “I experience it as a thing and a word at the same time, both equally amazing.” Writing one ballad, he said, was like carrying around an armload of words to a table upstairs and wondering if he’d get there in time.
Words stand for feelings, ideas, mountains, bees. Listen to the sound of words. I line up words I like to hear, Nasturtiums buzz blue grass catnip catalpa catalog.
I borrow words from poems, books and conversations. Politely. Take polite. If I’m in a classroom, I just start chalking them onto the board. I don’t worry about spelling or meaning. Curdle. Cantankerous. Linoleum. Limousine. Listen. Malevolent. Sukulilli, the Maidu Indian word for silly. Magnet cat oven taste tilt titter.
I call gathering words this way creating a wordpool….
When I’m playing with words, I don’t worry about sounding dumb or crazy. And I don’t worry about whether or not I’m writing “a poem.” Word pool. World pool, wild pool, whipoorwill, swing. Words taken out of the laborious structures (like this sentence) where we normally place them take on a spinning life of their own.”
After we read the passage, Ms. Peterson pointed out the pronunciation of two words: unscrupulous and laborious. Following that, we watched a pretty funny video of Daniel Radcliffe on the Tonight Show rapping a song called“Alphabet Aerobics”. The 3 minute and 37 second video involved Radcliffe rapping words, which, while together probably wouldn’t make sense when said normally, sounded very good in a song. I believe that the main idea of the video was to lead up into our understanding what a wordpool is, and how a wordpool can consist of pretty much any word.
TEAM WORD CHALLENGE
We were able to find synonyms for 20/26 letters-we couldn’t find one for K, O, Q, X, Y, and Z. While we didn’t win, as Alyssa’s group got 22 letters and the 25 points, we were able to get the 2nd place 15 points, as was Jonathan’s team, who also came up with 20 letters. In 3rd place came Andrew’s group-they got 19 letters and the 5 points. This activity was very fun but also stressful, as Eleanor, Niko, Annie, Sofia, and I were working really hard to think of words that could be used for the activity. However, I think my group did very well!
Imagery
Following the team word challenge, we moved on to images in a wordpool. Again, we didn’t look at a direct definition, but rather, we read an excerpt from a text. We were also asked to annotate words and phrases that stood out to us. This was the prompt that we had to spirit read:
… Image is the root word of imagination. It’s from Latin imago, “picture,” how you see things. Images carry feelings. Saying, “I’m angry,” or “I’m sad,” has little impact. Creating images, I can make you feel how I feel.
When I read the words of a young student named Cari—“I’m a rose in the shape of a heart / with nineteen days of nothing / but the pouncing of shoes on my dead petals”—I experience desperation through her image. Cari doesn’t even have to name the feeling—nineteen days, a pale green sky, a pouch of seed held against a sower’s heart.Writing poems using images can create an experience allowing others to feel what we feel. Perhaps more important, poems can put us in touch with our own often buried or unexpected feelings.
Shoua discovered her frustration by using the image of a man shooting pool,
I hear bang, click, shoosh
feeling like the white ball
that does all the work.
Tori used images from a landscape to indicate hopelessness,
the clouds collapsed,
they’re touching the ground
trying to come alive,
but they can’t.
Sometimes word tickets magically fit with the images in the paintings. One of Tori’s words was jingle. It helped her convey her developing feeling of hope,
the glowing water shows shadow
till we all hear
the jingle of dawn.
Images we create in our poem can not only help us discover our feelings, but can help us begin to
transform them.
The three phrases that I highlighted in the text were the ones that mostly stood out to me. For me, the phrase, “Images we create in our poem can not only help us discover our feelings, but can help us begin to transform them,” really stood out to me. This clarified the meaning of images when talking about feelings, and that images can shape your feelings. In addition, the phrase, “Image is the root word of imagination. It’s from Latin imago, “picture,” how you see things. Images carry feelings. Saying, “I’m angry,” or “I’m sad,” has little impact. Creating images, I can make you feel how I feel,” did a fantastic job of defining how crucial images are to your imagination.
Image Challenge
It was time for another challenge! While this one did not involve team points, it was still very fun to do. After we went into our respective breakout rooms, the first thing we had to do was to choose 1 picture from the previous slide with your team. There were 10 options:Spiderman, a carnival, a cat, a sleeping emoji, puppies in a basket, a PS5, Disneyland, cupcakes, a Starbucks, and a seagull. Our group, after some debate, chose the cat over the Starbucks, as the cat promoted more emotions. Following that, we had to answer two questions briefly. The first question was to try to write a description that captures what the picture is and how it makes us feel. This was my answer:
Our group chose the cat. In the picture, we see that the cat is walking towards someone in a grass field next to a violet. The cat makes me happy, as it is a very cute animal which brings me joy. I always liked cats, as I consider them to be very peaceful creatures.
After that, we had to answer the second prompt, which was: Where can you find creative inspiration that you can personally use to create your own form of poetry? This is what our group came up with:
I can find creative inspiration that I can personally use to create your own form of poetry through real world scenarios as well as fictional ones. The best way you can experience emotions is through real world scenarios, while fictional ones, which you get from reading books and watching movies, give you a new outlook on the world.
While my answers were simple, I think they got the idea. I described what the picture was, how it made me feel, and answered the questions. A lot of my peers had very similar ideas when talking about their own pictures. Joel mentioned how the Spiderman picture reminded him about both New York and the old Spiderman movies with Tobey Maguire. Another classmate mentioned the Starbucks coffee, which some of us thought was a bit funny. This was a very fun activity for sure!
HOMEWORK
And so the lesson ended! However, Ms. Peterson wouldn’t let us go just yet! The entire lesson was about a word pool, and so, inevitably, would be our homework. For homework, we had to create a word pool of 30 words and/or images. This would help serve as a source of inspiration when it’s time to create our own poetry. We then had to add our attachment to Google Classroom. My words and/or images chosen all had a sort of connection to me.
Reflection
Looking back on this lesson, I can safely say that it was a whole lot of fun! At the beginning, we shared some information about ourselves which I enjoyed, as it helped me build a closer connection with my classmates. After that, we read some excerpts from texts which helped us understand the basic meaning of what a word pool is. Following that, we took part in some very fun team building activities in which we earned points and summarized the main ideas of the lesson. The main takeaway I got from this lesson was knowing what a word pool was. And looking back, it is very simple to understand what it is! A word pool is simply a collection of words that you can use to inspire you when writing a poem or story. I found it very interesting that there is no limit to what or how many words can be included in a word pool. I found 2 reasons as to why I learned this. The clear and obvious one is to help me when I will be doing future assignments, especially the upcoming poem anthology project. However, I think there is another meaning-the opening of your imagination. For both the wordpool and the images, Ms. Peterson and the classmates mentioned one crucial thing-imagination. The wordpool and the images can all build up your imagination and inspire you to think further about the topic-especially when you will write the poem. I look forward to using what I have learned in future classes when I will need to use words and/or images to create poems. I also know that a wordpool will definitely be used by me when I will be writing future assignments, but I will also use it when I am purely thinking about activities to talk and write about for myself. While this was a very short lesson, it was a very enjoyable one, and I know that I learned a lot from it. The activities and challenges were very fun, and Ms. Peterson’s remarks were very knowledgeable and certainly inspired me and my classmates. And so my thoughts end, as does this blog. Thank you for reading!
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