Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Reading aloud



Reading aloud
Originally uploaded by juliecinci.

Just a reminder: read aloud to your kids. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. You don’t even need to read a novel, if that feels too big this morning. Picture books, poetry, children’s magazines, the Bible or religious text of your family… Reading aloud centers your home and helps your children develop an ear for good writing. And you’ll make memories for a lifetime.

An aside
Caitrin snapped this photo as I was reading Watership Down to the kids on Friday. She’d steeped tea, Jacob lit candles and I made brownies. Interestingly, Johannah (17) and Noah (19) and various friends all stopped by at different points in the day. The brownies sat on the table in a little tin and every person who walked through the room ate one. One of Noah’s friends remarked: “Mrs. Bogart, you always have good food at your house.” Starving college students make the best guests, don’t they?

Posted in Brave Writer Philosophy, General, Poetry | 3 Comments »

Tuesday Teatime: Lemon Scones

I love the idea of keeping poetry books in the kitchen! The following description of teatime comes from one of our new Brave Writer instructors: Christine Gable (first classes to be taught in winter quarter). Thanks Christine!
—

After reading several Revolutionary War history stories with my kids, I was glancing through some suggested activities in Learning Through History Magazine. I read the ideas out loud and my daughter jumped on one immediately: A tea party like we did before! After all, what better way to celebrate the Boston Tea Party than to make buttery scones with tea?! Jenny enthusiastically dug right in and had a ball mixing and measuring by hand–she even made miniature scones for each of our pets, 3 cats and 2 fish.

With the busy summer, it’s been months since we’ve had a teatime together. To make it easier, I recently pulled together some poetry books that I now keep on a shelf in the kitchen–now when we have tea together we can each choose one. It helps to have something by Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein to keep my son (13) interested too. Julie, thanks so much for inspiring these special times: What a delicious way to enjoy poetry, history and time together.

Lemon Scones

1 ¾ cup flour (whole wheat or white)
3 T. sugar
2 ½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
1 T. lemon zest
1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 T. lemon juice

Heat oven to 400ºF. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon. Cut butter into flour mixture by hand or with a fork. Stir in egg and lemon juice and add additional tablespoon or two of flour if necessary (so dough is not sticky). Turn onto wooden board and knead about 10 times. Cut or shape into 6 to 8 diamonds or triangles. Place on greased baking sheet and bake 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes 6-8 scones.

Thanks,
Christine

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Poetry

You can’t write poetry on the computer. ~Quentin Tarantino

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition. ~Eli Khamarov, The Shadow Zone

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
~Mark Strand, “Eating Poetry,” Reasons for Moving, 1968

Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. ~W.B. Yeats

“Therefore” is a word the poet must not know. ~André Gide

It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. ~Stephen Mallarme

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out…. Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure. ~A.E. Housman

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. ~Robert Frost

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. ~T.S. Eliot, Dante, 1920

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it. ~W.H. Auden

A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. ~Salman Rushdie

From: Quote Garden

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Brave

By Kyriana Lynch (10)

Being brave
Isn’t just courage,
Isn’t just fanciful
Danger.

It’s not doing
Something that’s foolhardy,
Taking bad dares
From friends.

But if not these things,
Where does bravery lie?
It’s loyalty; faithfulness;
And standing up
For what’s right.

It’s helping others
Out of danger,
Putting them before
You.

Bravery is also
Trust.
Trusting others to do
What’s right
For you.

Comforting people
When you
Are
Scared,

Remembering that
No matter how
Deep, how
Wide, how
Long the pit is,

As deep as
Bravery goes,
God’s love
Is farther
Down.

Past danger
Is
Love.

June 13, 2006

—

This poem is the result of last week’s writing prompt for the Friday Freewrite. I loved it. 

Julie

Posted in Poetry, Students | 1 Comment »

The Arrow and Slingshot in June and July

Hi everyone.

Brave Writer is busier than ever so I apologize for getting behind in updating the blog. I promise that there will be a Friday Freewrite this week! Scout’s honor. 🙂

A couple points of business:

The Arrow and Slingshot are year round tools. However in June and July we offer specialty issues (so that you have two months per year where you don’t have to do dictation). Last year we offered the Arrow and Slingshot Evaluation and Planning Tools. This year I have four different specialty issues prepared:

Arrow

June: Exploring Poetry
The June issue will offer you specialized help in reading poetry with your kids to help them enjoy it and to get more out of it. We’ll also talk about how to write poetry and offer you a reading list of great poems, poets and poetry anthologies for kids. Included is a project for creating a personal poetry anthology.

July: Enjoying Fairytales
The July issue will give you some suggestions for how to make fairytales a part of your reading life with your elementary aged kids. Included will be specific activities that will help your younger children narrate the fairytales as you read them together culminating in a year long project that will be a joy to share with others and savor through the years.

Slingshot

June: Making the Most of Movies
The June issue will give you tips and guidelines for using movies as a way to access literary elements. We’ll look at how you can spawn challenging conversations while watching movies, how to identify the plot elements, how to turn movie viewing into more than entertainment, but also a way to enhance a teen’s understanding of the elements of good literature. We’ll also look at how movies have their own criteria for discussion and evaluation that differs from literature.

July: The Importance of Seeing Plays
The July issue will focus on the role of plays in the robust high school English program. We’ll include a list of must see (or at least read) plays as well as some tips for how to get to plays in your area without spending a fortune. This issue will also give you some guidance in understanding the various genres (drama, comedy, musical, and so on).

I’m excited about offering these tools during the months of June and July. If you’re already subscribed, these issues will simply continue your subscriptions. We’ll also announce the new book lists for August 2006-May 2007 by the end of May.

For those not yet subscribed, now is a great time to sign up! You’ll get to start with the June and July issues and roll right into fall. The first issue is free if you sign up through paypal for the monthly deduction of $6.00 per month. You may also order 10 issues for the price of nine by sending a check for $54.00. Details below.

Click here to find out more about how to order.

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