My students write reader responses each week to whatever book they are reading. At the beginning of the year, I placed some questions in their binders to prompt these responses. I find that week after week, they select the same questions to answer.
A few weeks ago, I read Dana Murphy’s post on Two Writing Teachers about reader responses. She wrote about three different strategies she teaches her students, lifting a line, character maps, and visual note-taking. I posted these ideas on our class blog and have discussed each strategy with my students.
I love the connections I can make with authors online. I follow Nikki Grimes on Facebook, so I saw a post about her talk on Booktalk Nation (which, sadly, I had to miss) along with the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Words with Wings. The book arrived last week. Vannisa is a fan of verse novels and picked it up immediately. She decided to lift a line to write her own poem about the main character. When I talked to Vannisa about her poem, she told me she was interested in how the character herself was also just words on the page.
I know a girl
who waits and listens.For her daydreams,
she awaits.Who comes from
a family
that doesn’t
daydream.Waiting
for words
to take her
high into the sky
or her mind.Tell her to stop,
she won’tWho comes from
wordsLocked
in her mind.No one even knocks
on the door
for a visit.Who comes from
a book.
Thank you for sharing this. The student’s response is fascinating.
Oh, I love this! What a beautiful, poetic response!
I thought so, too. She is definitely under the influence of Nikki’s voice.
Love this Margaret! And so the flight of inspiration continues….
Vannisa made this assignment a personal and special one -such a lovely poem.
I love the student response from the lifted line. It is beautiful!
Beautifully done, Margaret. I love that she loved the book and the character enough to write again. She might send this to Nikki Grimes?
Nikki Grimes commented on my Facebook post. Vannisa is so proud. She is a blossoming writer!
I ordered this book this week. Now that I have seen your students response, I am even more anxious to read the book. She is a wonderful writer!
Vannisa has every reason to be proud! Her poem shows such perception and compassion. Thank you for sharing her lovely poem.
Lifting a line, from the line lifter:
Who comes from
words
I come from words
and you come from the punctuation
at the end of my words
where we can both pause for a second
to think about what I meant to say
when I was writing words
and you were reading them.
— Kevin
What a wonderful response! I’ll share it with Vannisa who feels famous and funny that strangers are reading her poem.
[…] form of praise for a beginning student writer. My student, Vannesa wrote a poem posted on my blog here. Kevin, aka Dogtrax, wrote this poem in […]