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“I” poems are written in first person point of view – the poet assumes the characteristics of the topic-becoming the person, place, or thing. “I” poems share information about the topic of the poem. “I” poems may rhyme, but rhyme is not necessary.

“I” Poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding  by Linda Kucan

It makes sense! Asking children to apply knowledge learned in writing will help them remember, reflect, and respond with better understanding and comprehension. I feel apprehensive about trying to write poetry myself, although I look forward to trying this strategy with my class of second graders. Scaffolding by using the format for the “I am” poem makes this task seem less daunting. I hope my students will enjoy the invitation to be creative in constructing an “I” poem about what they know (background knowledge) and what they have learned. Too often we rush through our curriculum in order to “cover” everything, but do not take time to allow our young scholars to master, apply, understand, or explore their newfound knowledge.

I also appreciated the quote “We imitate not so much to be like someone else as to learn what she/he has already learned.” (Dunning and Stafford) Imitating authors will help young (and not-so-young J ) writers begin their writing journey.

I enjoyed reading this chapter, Best Practices in Teaching Planning.   I found the ideas and planning strategies practical and helpful.   I feel the program we use, Empowering Writers, only teaches writing for the test.   This  worried me, but I was unsure what or how to do differently.  The program does have some good ideas for writing an interesting story, but I believe it teaches my younger students somewhere in the middle of the writing process.  They need more of a foundation of writing and an opportunity to overcome their fear of putting thoughts on paper. Later, they can add in the “extras” that improve a story.  I realize students must be taught how to plan, and was excited to read some ideas I feel comfortable trying to implement.   For my second graders, I especially liked the W-W-W; WHAT=2; HOW=2 strategy.  This is a basic story plan that we discuss during reading and are questions even my most reluctant writers can think about and answer.   I also want my students to be introduced to and practice other kinds of writing (real life writing- not just narratives).  The three steps of the General Planning Strategy make this seem possible.

side note: I was happy to hear this week in class that just allowing children to write will prepare them for the writing test; that we should not and need not program them for one writing genre. J