Shelby Johnson Writing Unit Student Work Analysis I selected two students work samples that I thought showed

effort that they put into the writing process and poetry lessons. One student, Student A work samples A!"A#$ wrote a poem on springs, a topic that I found interesting and uni%ue. In lesson one, he showed his creati&ity by re"writing the poem using multiple letterings to enhance it. I did not know how well students would like this acti&ity, but he seemed to be &ery engaged. When walking around, I asked him %uestions about some of the choices he made and why' It was interesting to hear his responses, in learning that e&ery drawing or aspect of the piece was done for a reason. (his reminded me of the book for my book group, )In *ictures and In Words.+ ,or e-ample, he included the dashes in"between the letters of )creak+ to connect each letter to the indi&idual sounds or steps in a creak A!$. In ./, he was eager to share some fun and dramatic words that he came up with. I learned that this student has strength in brainstorming ideas. When a peer needed assistance, he was willing to help. I thought he did a nice 0ob writing down what )springs+ made him think of A1$. I think this definitely helped when coming up with phrases in his final poem. 2e decided to create a concrete poem in which his words were written in the shape of a bouncy spring. I can grasp the feel of the )bounce+ 0ust by looking at his piece A#$. I think that with his strength in the creati&ity, he does a great 0ob with making a decision on how he could make his shape poem connect to his theme. When writing more poetry, I would say his ne-t steps would be to try and include some of the elements of poetry that we ha&e introduced simile, metaphor, alliteration, rhyme, etc. $.

Student 3 added some interesting things in the enhancing poetry lesson. 2e thought a lot about the actual ob0ects and &isuali4ations of what the word meant. I was impressed with the letter )(+ on the word )treetops+ which he made look like an actual tree. 3!$ I think that if he spent a little more time on this, we would see some more creati&ity. After his first simple concrete poem on snow, I conferenced with him on how he could gi&e it some more detail and thought. 2e then decided to change to an idea on lightning. (his was a common theme among the boys. 2owe&er, I really appreciated the piece that this student put together. As the other student wrote a poem within a lightning bolt shape, student 3 thought about a thunderstorm as a whole. When first conferencing, I saw a blur of words and could not really distinct where e&erything was placed and what it represented. I had to ask him about certain words and phrases and what they represented. 2ow could we make this word clear to readers that it is supposed to the cloud' 2ow will readers understand that this is rain but this is lightning' (hese %uestions got him thinking about different colors to use and placement on the page. In his final piece 3#$ he included blue for the rain and puddles, yellow for lighting, and black for the storm cloud. I thought that he ga&e a lot of thought into the different elements he added to the poem. I like how the lighting was written in phrases while the rain was single words. (his ga&e the distinction of the two.

.oth boys did well on the grading rubric for the concrete poems. Although some of the other students may ha&e had better handwriting or drawn pictures, I think that their hard work and creati&ity was e&ident when it came to their final pieces.