Date:  July 11, 2008

Presenter:  Pamela Doerr

Topic:  Pond Poetry

Objective: Outdoor Observational Writing

Scribe:  Michelle Shaw

Pamela’s Teaching Background:  Pamela used to teach junior high, but she currently teaches 4th grade.  She incorporates a lot of science into her activities.  Going outside is a great connection for everyone.  Dig into the grass, and experience what’s there.  Dirt, squirrels, insects…Her school is a nature school, and they are encouraged to take their kids outside.  Students forget about everything else when they have the opportunity to connect with nature.  They have a pond with a floating dock, and she took her students out there to sit for 45 minutes without talking.  What happens?  The needy kids connect, and they are more willing to share with one another.

Pond Poetry Lesson:

Make a chart for See, Hear, Smell, and Feel.  Students are told to focus on observing the way they experience these four senses when they are outside, they make the chart and write about them when they come back inside.  Then they discuss this as a class. 

We simulated being outside by watching a YouTube Video of a pond.  We needed to focus on experiencing the senses of see, hear, smell and feel as we watched the video.  When we got done, we recorded our experiences on the chart.  We discussed what we experienced with a partner, and then we each wrote one sense that we found interesting after discussing with our partners.  Then we recorded this on the chart on the board.

“How many of you found it difficult to relax and really go there?  We need to be able to do that more, don’t we?”

Create another chart that has the 5 W’s (Big W): 

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

Why?

Using the chart that is displayed at the front of the class, choose details to add to the Big W Chart.  Do this independently.  Then students can share their poetry with the class. 

Choice:  you can do it with the class or on your own.

Final Product:  Make a scroll out of dead sticks (not live—they get to search for these outside), and paper.  The sticks have to be flat.  Each student has another student edit the work.  They gave this to their fathers for Father’s Day.

We concluded by hearing an excerpt from Last Child in the Woods taken from chapter 1.  How do we define nature?  It actually means to be born.  “We are born with that wonder.”  Nature offers healing, and it can inspire us to be creative.

Discussion and Ideas: 

Will you share the excerpt with parents? 

Why don’t we take our students outside more?  We are afraid to lose their attention.  How about taking them outside in the winter? 

It would be interesting to take students to the same place at different points throughout the year so they can record the changes that have taken place. 

Pamela uses her journal as a science writing journal. 

Have students go to a window to look at nature. 

Go outside and touch dirt.  Immerse yourself in nature. In one class, students read the book, Until They Bring the Streetcars Back, and then they went on a field trip to see all the places that were written about in the book.  One of the students who wasn’t engaged in school at all became an active participant when he was allowed to be out in nature.

If you can get parents to come in, it’s a great experience for them to share with the students.

Bring in flowers or other things from nature. 

Read Into the Wild.  You discover that it is a daily struggle to find food and survive.  Students need to think about that when they are out in nature.

Awakening the Heart:  You look for different things in each room.  You think about how to see the light, and you are given the opportunity to experience other senses.  Then you write a poem.

References:

www.nclicoalition.org -- No Child Left Inside Coalition

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

Moon Journals by Joni Chancer and Gina Rester-Zodrow