School Poetry Workshop: Persona Poems
June is almost here! This week, the Northfield 3rd Grade poets, their teachers, and families, will be celebrating poetry at our annual open house. It's a great time to recognize how hard the students have worked on their poems.
I've shared the poets' haiku and food poems. Today, I am posting the third graders' persona poems. You can read about how to run this workshop at Today's Little Ditty. I often use Shonto Begay's poem "Down Highway 163" as a mentor text for persona poems. This powerful poem brings up social justice and empathy issues, even for young readers. Sharing it together always prompts a fascinating discussion.
Persona Poem Workshop post at Today's Little Ditty.
Persona Poem mentor text, "Down Highway 163" by Shonto Begay.
With this group, we used magazine cut-outs for our writing prompts. The students will make a display of the cut-outs paired with their response poems. I'm looking forward to seeing those at the open house!
Thanks to the Northfield 3rd grade team and families for giving me permission to share students’ persona poems. This writing prompt is a great way to teach voice.
There is great detail in Moyo's poem. Check out her use of narrative elements. This is a poetic story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Poet: Moyo A.
Art Contest
There are butterflies in my stomach.
I’m so nervous.
I feel my heart pounding.
Boom boom boom!
Today is my art contest.
The winner gets to meet
a famous artist.
And I signed up myself!
We arrive at the art gallery.
There is a table and seats all
set up for the artists.
We have half an hour
to draw anything we want.
Your time starts now.
Beep, the timer’s up.
The judges critique our drawings.
I hear the judges murmur.
I smell/taste victory.
“The results are in…
The winner is Moyo!”
“What?”
I see the certificate and confetti.
I’m now in tears of JOY!
My kids love fishing with their grandparents, so Ava's poem spoke to me. I love how she captures the excitement of the catch.
Poet: Ava W.
My Fishing Poem
Dad, could I cast the rod?
“Yes you can.” I cast the rod. Oh, oh.
I got something, so I reeled it in.
O.M.G. I caught a catfish. I think
we know what dinner is going to be.
Yay, the rapids are here. Bounce
up and down we go, down the river.
A huge wave is coming. Come on.
It hits me and not you!
It’s 8:30, we’re heading back.
Part of the persona poetry workshop is to list all of the facts of the image, the things we can see. We use those facts as the foundation for imagining the speaker's thoughts, feelings, and life details. Emily uses details from her magazine cut-out and then jumps into some creative ideas.
Poet: Emily J.
My family is rich.
I have a fancy blue dress and hat
I got for my birthday.
Once I was walking
through the forest, going hiking.
While I was walking, I found
a bottle that said, “Drink me.”
I bent down and picked it up.
The top was still tight so I
knew nobody else had drank it.
I popped the top off
and gulped.
It smelled of pepper.
A spicy taste filled my mouth.
I ran until I found clean water
to drink.
I put that bottle
in the stream to drift away
never to be found.
I love poems that capture energy in their word choice and rhythm. Evan's last line reminds me of a famous poem by e.e. cummings.Poet: Evan L.In the springat the basketball hoopa girl smiling, happily doinga cartwheel, maybe shekicks her dad.It’s spring!Kjell put a lot more work into this poem on revision day, but even the first draft has beautiful poetic moments. Listen to the sounds in the fourth line!Poet: Kjell t.There was a family sohappy as could be. Theywent on a camping trip. Inthe deep heap of forest leaves.They smile. It’s like a sun inthe happy sky.I'll be posting persona poems all week. I hope you'll stop by and visit with these wonderful third grade poets.Check out the previous posts in this School Poetry Workshop series:School Poetry Workshop: Haiku Hike, May 12, 2017School Poetry Workshop: Food and the Five Senses, May 19, 2017School Poetry Workshop: A Second Helping of Food Poems, May 25, 2017