The Unfortunate Exclusion of Mrs. Why

     I adore the question, "Why?"

    "Why?" you may ask.  (Please ask.  Please always ask.)

     Of all members in the 5Ws and an H cohort -- Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How -- "Why" is the W that vaults class discussion into the realm of higher-level thinking.  "Why?" is the question that demands analysis.  For some reason, though, this important query is often excluded from polite Language Arts society.  (Where, for example, was Mrs. Why in A Wrinkle in Time?  Talk about a snub!)  Fortunately, she doesn't have to be excluded from your classroom.  Invite her in -- daily!  The level of classroom discourse will rise each day that Mrs. Why is invited to participate.

(I love you, Madeleine L'Engle, but where the heck is Mrs. Why?)

     The mystery of the missing "Why?" resurfaced this week as I was exploring the Internet for poetry resources -- more specifically, resources for sound devices in poetry.  (National Poetry Month is right around the corner, you know.  And, April 26 is National Poem in Your Pocket Day -- mark your calendar!)

     As I was saying, " . . . Internet resources for sound devices in poetry."  Naturally, I found a TON of worksheets and PowerPoints with questions like these:  "What sound devices can be found in poetry?", "What are the definitions for the those sound devices?", "Where do you see those sound devices in this poem?"  But, who is missing from these questions? 

     So, today, let's assume your students have already learned to name, define, and identify rhythm, rhyme, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia in poetry -- all of which are lower-level thinking skills.  Don't stop there!  All that work is merely the prelude to a deeper analysis beginning with a single question: "Why?"

     I can think of no better poem for demonstrating my point than "Cheers" by Eve Merriam, the queen of sound devices in poetry for children.

“Cheers” by Eve Merriam

The frogs and the serpents each had a football team,

And I heard their cheerleaders in my dream:

“Bilgewater, bilgewater,” called the frog,

“Bilgewater, bilgewater,

Sis, boom, bog!

Roll ‘em off the log,

Slog ‘em in the sog,

Swamp ‘em, swamp ’em,

Muck mire quash!”

“Sisyphus, Sisyphus,” hissed the snake,

“Sibilant, syllabub,

Syllable-loo-ba-lay,

Scylla and Charybdis,

Sumac, asphodel,

How do you spell Success?

With an S-S-S!”

  Begin by reading the poem aloud.  Always begin by reading the poem aloud.  Twice even.  Then start by asking those "Who?, What?, When?, and Where?" questions:

• Where does this poem take place?  A swamp.
• What are some words that let us know that?  bilgewater, bog, log, sog, swamp, muck, mire
• Who is the poem about?  Frogs and serpents
• What's another word for a serpent?  Snake
• What are they doing in this poem?  They're cheering for their football teams.
• Does this poem convey a deep life message?   Obviously, no.

     So why did Eve Merriam write it?    Take a few answers from those daring souls who always have an idea.  But if you discover that your students really don't know yet, explain that, sometimes, poetry is written just for fun!  Sometimes poets -- Eve Merriam, especially -- just love to play around with words and sound!

    In Stanza Two, repetition of the consonant B is obviously alliteration, but why is the letter B repeated?  Why not L or T?  Well, who's cheering in Stanza Two?   Read the stanza aloud once more  and really belch out those words beginning with B as if YOU are a big, ol' bullfrog.

     The letter B is repeated in Stanza Two so that we actually hear the sound of the frogs as they belch out their cheer!
  
     Stanza Three is even better.

• What consonant sound is repeated in the third stanza?  S
• Now apply what you learned from Stanza Two.  Why is the letter S repeated in Stanza 3?

     The letter S is repeated in Stanza Three so that we can actually hear the snakes as they hisssssss out their cheer.  Make sure the kids connect the S sound to the onomatopoetic word "hissed" in Stanza Three.

     Rhythm, while artfully applied in "Cheers," can be tricky for modern students because the poem harkens back to a time before spandex and glittery eye-shadow, back to the days when cheerleaders looked like this:

"Roll ‘em off the log,

Slog ‘em in the sog,

Swamp ‘em, swamp ’em,

Muck mire quash!”

     Can't you just hear those old-time "yell leaders"?  No?  Well, if you can't, your students surely can't either.  What better opportunity to get those kids up out of their desks to devise some old-fashioned moves for this old-fashioned cheer!  And if they're totally wrong, who's to say?

     Once you've settled everyone back into their desks, it's time to pose the lesson's final, "Why?"

• Why did Merriam want to create that particular rhythm in her poem, "Cheers"?

     Merriam wants the reader to hear the actual sounds of a football game, so the rhythm of Stanzas Two and Three imitates the rhythm of an old fashioned cheer.

     As National Poetry Month draws near, pull out some old friends -- "Cheers," "The Highwayman," "Casey at the Bat" -- but, this year, ask them a brand new question:  Why?

     You'll be happy you did.

Want to try something new with poetry this year?  Dig into Feasting at the Poetry Buffet.

     

Meeting Ourselves (and Other Strangers) in Books

      As so often happens on Twitter, I stumbled last week across the most intriguing tidbit: 

     This miniature biography of Ona Judge was just one among 28 stories of extraordinary black women highlighted throughout Black History Month by author Jason Reynolds.  Never before had I heard this woman's name, much less the saga of her audacious, improbable, permanent escape from enslavement under George and Martha Washington.  And, like many Americans, I'd never before been so blatantly confronted with the reality of slave ownership among our nation's Founding Fathers. 

     As a white woman in modern America, I would be hard-pressed to imagine a life more alien to mine than that of Ona Judge.  Yet, in the aftermath of that one tweet, hers became a story I needed to know.  Fortunately, just moments after wondering online about the outcome of Ona's escape, Erica Armstrong Dunbar appeared with the answer:

     Turns out, Dr. Dunbar is the author of Never Caught, a Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.  (Don't you just love the Internet?)

     We read a lot these days about the importance of children seeing people like themselves in the books they read.  That is so important.  Books are the first, best place for kids to learn they are not alone in an overwhelming world.  (Thank you, A Wrinkle in Time.)  But the joyful synchronicity of this online exchange compels me to reaffirm the equal importance of kids -- and grownups -- reading books that are filled with people with whom they have little, if anything, in common.

     I have a very specific fourth-grade memory of reading The Song of Bernadette, Franz Werfel's novel about St. Bernadette Soubirous and her visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France. Galvanized to action by a looming book report deadline, I found it amidst my mother's collection of Reader's Digest abridged books.  Who could have predicted this chance encounter would spark a life-long interest in the Catholic faith to which I eventually would convert?  Given that my great-grandfather helped found our local Lutheran church, that's quite a testament to the life-changing power of friendships formed in a book.

     Occasionally, as a reading teacher, I've been led by my students to books I would never have given the time of day.  Books like this:

     As a ballet-dancing, impressionist art-loving, life-long inveterate bookworm, never would I have picked this book for myself!  I was actually somewhat flabbergasted to see it presented in the hands of a demure little sixth grade girl.  But somehow Jackie spoke to her, and together we worked our way through the events of his uncommon life, marveling over his athletic prowess and at the intelligence and grace with which he overcame the mighty challenges as America's first African American in the MLB.   My life was enriched by his story, one I would eventually impart to all three of my sport-obsessed sons.

     So thank you to @jasonreynolds83 for leading me to Ona Judge (as well as to the Ghost who was haunted by his past). 

Click here for an amazing book trailer you will want to use in your class!

     And, thank you, Erica Amstrong Dunbar, for guiding me through Ona's life in your wonderful book that I've just begun to read.  

@ericaadunbar

     Thank you, writers everywhere.  Your stories, both real and imagined, can teach us about ourselves and others;  they can teach us about ourselves through others. 

Up next:  The Sustained Reader Examines The Unfortunate Exclusion of Mrs. Why