Really cheesy poem

My classmates and I had to do something to synthesize the end of LANG 7802 and talk about reading strategies, so this is what we came up with. I thought I'd post it here for you dear readers to have a good laugh. If you say "what the hay?" that's fine too. It's pretty re-DONK-u-lous. Enjoy.

Twas the Night Before Wednesday

A Collaborative Effort for a LANG 7802 Final Project
by Cheryl, Cheryl, Kari, and Jennifer



Twas the night before Wednesday
And all through the school
Not a teacher was sleeping
They were all thinking about the 6 tools

The anchor charts were hung
In the classroom with care
In hope that their students
Would learn and be able to share

The students were nestled all snug in their desks
And were "MAKING CONNECTIONS" to a story that was being read
I started my lesson by modeling with a book
And I used many sticky notes and showed my students how they worked

"A connection" I said, “will help you better understand this story
So I'll jot down your thoughts and your personal experiences”
At the end of the story when we are all gleaming, I stated again
“Now you understand how connections help us construct meaning!"

More rapid than eagles their QUESTIONS did come
So I said, “This is great” and to the board did I run
“I WONDER,” I wrote in all capital letters
If you children can list all of your thought-provoking questions
“A question alone means you clearly understand
What you’re reading and how much you knew before hand.”

“Make sure you note too, the difference between THICK and THIN
For QUESTIONS do often have more than one spin”
I was excited because they were stopping to think
They realized their thinking could take more than one week
And then, in an instant, I heard it: the proof
“Dear Teacher, I WONDER, what do I DO with all this? Surely it can’t just go POOF.”

As I drew back my chalk to answer the student
I mentioned two more tools, visualizing and inferring
Let’s visualize, I said make a picture in your mind
To really make the author’s words come alive

Close your eyes and let’s think
How did the author describe that cold, snowy day?
Were the flakes heavy and wet, making mittens sopping wet?
Or were they fluffy and dry, all too eager to fly?

Were their feet stinging with cold?
Or sweating from the fun?
Were flakes pelting their cheeks?
Or were they freezing to their lashes?

Don’t forget about inferring
Let us read between the lines
We should make an equation
Add background knowledge and text clues to the nines.

Inferring is like predicting
And drawing conclusions
Why did the author write what he wrote?
“What was his purpose?” I wanted them to note.

My students were imagining
And examining the lines
And soon I knew I had nothing to dread
For images and inferences danced in their head.

I spoke not a word, as I walked into the room,
Melissa said it was important, I asked, “Important to whom?”
She said, “Well to me, it helped me discover
There’s more to the book than what’s on the cover!”

She sprang to her feet and ran to the wall chart
And said “It’s all about facts, questions, responses, now therein lies the art,”
To understand what the author intended to get into my head
I have to determine the importance in text, just like you said!”

The teachers sprang to their cars at the end of the day,
Making sure all the students were on the bus that day.
We heard them exclaim as the drove out of sight,
“Happy reading to all and to all a good night!”






My contribution was the 12 lines of questioning strategy. Pretty sweet.

And then Cheryl's husband chimed in with an unpublishable last verse that I thought was pretty funny as well:

I've done so much work
For this damn reading class
That by the time I walk out of here
You can kiss my sweet (you know what...fill in the blank)

What do you think?