With having our largest group ever this year (12 students), we have had to get creative about how we do certain activities. This often means breaking up into smaller groups, but having another tutor there every week makes this possible! Recently, we took two weeks to write a specific kind of poem called a villanelle.
(^ Above image from: https://elliefleurjohnson.com/2017/12/04/understanding-the-villanelle-form/)
I chose this activity because I had just been to my own local writer’s group where we wrote a villanelle collaboratively (thanks, Olivia!) and I thought this might be an interesting opportunity to do the same thing with my students.
I read them some famous villanelles and then took a line to incorporate from this one by poet W.H. Auden
Each group brainstormed some ideas that would lend to strong imagery and then shared lots of laughter around figuring out rhymes that fit within it. Someone would spit out a line and their group would accept, reject, or rework it until it seemed like it belonged. For middle schoolers, this collaborative effort took a lot of time and patience and was frustrating at times, but it was also so much fun watching us frantically count on our fingers to make sure we had 10 syllables for each line! I love that both poems turned out to be nature related — fireflies and fields.
As leaders, my tutor, Ashley, and I mainly facilitated the students’ ideas, not trying to steer anything in a direction or shoehorn something in, but rather learning with them as a part of the creative process. Here are the results:
Perspectives of Fireflies
Fireflies in the dark forest night glow
Why do they flicker with unearthly light?
If I could tell you I would let you know
Where’d they go when the world was white with snow
Did Winter miss their warm, engulfing light?
Fireflies in the dark forest night glow
Spring winds call them with their inviting blow
Do flowers push up to call them with might?
If I could tell you I would let you know
Lazy summer nights tell them where to go
Do their hearts burn with great envy or spite?
Fireflies in the dark forest night glow
They dance under the stars with their wee toes
When the leaves fall do they dance or do they fight?
If I could tell you I would let you know
They swim in the slippery white moonbow
Running with silvery, sparkly sprites
Fireflies in the dark forest night glow
If I could tell you I would let you know
(Currently Untitled)
The vast field where the wildflowers grow
Asters, goldenrod whisper with the wind
“…If I could tell you I would let you know”
The creek is low as it hums its solo
The long stalks of velvety clover bend
The vast field where the wildflowers crow
The sparrow sings, its white wingtips it shows
The dandelion sways, its seeds it sends
“…If I could tell you, I would let you know”
The lone oak, its branches spread, its leaves blow
The crickets sing a song that never ends
The vast field where the wildflowers flow
13 The creamy clouds drift across the sky, slow
14 The orange sunset and the horizon blend
15 “…If I could tell you, I’d let you know…”
16 Horses whinny, feeling free, letting go
17 Sweet silence and secrets they will not lend
18 The vast field where wildflowers sow
19 “…If I could tell you, I’d let you know”
Maple Key Tutoring 