| During the writing workshop portion of the seventh grade English program, students spend between five and six weeks learning about, reading, and generating their own free verse poetry and also a personal essay. Prior to the units on poetry and essays, students spend several weeks making daily entries in their writing notebooks on topics of their choosing. The self generated topics that go into students' notebooks often become the foundations for poems during the free verse unit. |  |
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As part of the poetry curriculum, students learn about the structure (and lack of structure) that goes into a free verse poem. They become aware of the importance of a poem's sound as well as it's appearance on a page. They discover the significance of line breaks in a piece. Classes discuss poetic devices such as voice, metaphor, simile, imagery, alliteration, consonance, assonance, and rhythm. Students are expected to incorporate the knowledge they gain from these discussions into their own work. |
| In addition to the poetry portion of the writing workshop, students also create personal essays. In a personal essay, a writer explores a topic of her choosing, and she does so through personal narratives. As a genre, personal essay differs from autobiographical writing in that the principle focus of the writer is not the writer herself. Rather, the writer uses her own personal stories to illustrate or investigate a topic outside of herself. For example, a writer may explore the topic of a family's needing to relocate by writing about her own life experiences surrounding a family move. In her personal essay, the writer's messages and opinions are expressed through her stories. |
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By the end of the writing workshop, students create a portfolio of their own work. Included in the portfolio are several examples of their favorite free verse poems as well as their personal essays. Oftentimes, students will chose to include other writing they have done during the workshop that does not fall under either of the above genres simply because the work is something they are proud of. Writing workshop is an opportunity for students to experiment, draft, redraft, confer, edit, revise, and perfect their writing. The writing process is just as critical as the product that results. |
Created by Samantha Peltz, Middle School English teacher, Germantown Academy, December 1998