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Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Adapted for classroom use.
JACK
ROOM 105 – MISS STRETCHBERRY
SEPTEMBER 13
I don’t want to
because boys
don’t write poetry.
girls do.
SEPTEMBER 21
I tried.
Can’t do it.
Brain’s empty.
YOUR TASK
Write a poem.
1
2
LESSON
Imagery: language that appeals to the senses, giving the
reader a vicarious experience. Origin: Latin imago, meaning
“to image,” and imitari, meaning “to imitate.”
Read “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams.
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white chickens.
Discuss the imagery used in this poem. Why is this art? Why
is this beauty?
3
SEPTEMBER 27
I don’t understand
the poem about
the red wheelbarrow
and the white chickens
and why so much
depends upon
them.
If that is a poem
about the red wheelbarrow
and the white chickens
then any words
can be a poem.
You’ve just got to
make
short
lines.
OCTOBER 4
Do you promise
not to read it
out loud?
Do you promise
not to put it
on the board?
Okay, here it is,
but I don’t like it.
So much depends
upon
a blue car
splattered with mud
speeding down the road.
4
OCTOBER 10
What do you mean –
Why does so much depend
upon
a blue car?
You didn’t say before
that I had to tell why.
The wheelbarrow guy
didn’t tell why.
YOUR TASK
Write a short William Carlos Williams style poem that makes
use of imagery to create a vicarious experience for your
reader.
5
LESSON
Meter: a repeating pattern of stressed syllables
alternating with syllables of less stress.
Compositions written in meter are said to be in verse.
There are many possible patterns of verse and each unit of
stress and unstressed syllables is called a foot.
Iambic: a poem written in a repeating unstressed,
stressed pattern (sounds like today)
Trochaic: a poem written in a repeating stressed,
unstressed pattern (sounds like counter)
Read “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert
Frost.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have more promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Identify meter that this poem is written in. Does it have a
rhyme scheme? What quality does the rhyme and verse give to
the poem?
6
OCTOBER 17
What was up with
the snowy woods poem
you read today?
Why doesn’t the person just
keep going if he’s got
so many miles to go
before he sleeps?
And why do I have to tell more
about the blue car
splattered with mud
speeding down the road?
I don’t want to
write about that blue car
that had miles to go
before it slept,
so many miles to go
in such a hurry.
7
LESSON
Rhyme Scheme: the pattern of rhyme. The traditional way to
mark these patterns of rhyme is to assign a letter of the
alphabet to each rhyming sound at the end of each line.
Parallelism: constructing the parts of a piece in a similar
manner to ensure that elements of equal importance are
balanced. This arrangement may be applied to words,
phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, or complete units
of compositions.
Read “The Tyger” by William Blake.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
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Identify a few of the parallelisms in Blake’s poem. He
begins and ends the poem speaking of “symmetry.” What do
you make of this given his use of parallelism in the poem?
Identify meter that this poem is written in. Identify the
rhyme scheme? What quality does the rhyme and verse give to
the poem?
9
OCTOBER 24
I am sorry to say
I did not really understand
the tiger tiger burning bright poem
but at least it sounded good
in my ears.
Here is the blue car
with tiger sounds:
Blue car, blue car, shining bright
in the darkness of the night;
who could see you speeding by
like a comet in the sky?
I could see you in the night,
blue car, blue car, shining bright.
I could see you speeding by
like a comet in the sky
Some of the tiger sounds
are still in my ears
like drums
beat-beat-beating.
YOUR TASK
Write a Frost-style poem describing a natural scene. It
must have a rhyme scheme, and you need to try hard to write
it in verse.
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11
OCTOBER 31
Yes
you can put
the two blue-car poems
on the board
but only if
you don’t put
my name
on them.
NOVEMBER 6
They look nice
typed up like that
on blue paper
on a yellow board.
(But still don’t tell anyone
who wrote them, okay?)
(And what does anonymous mean?
Is it good?)
YOUR TASK
Publish one of your poems anonymously somewhere in the
school. How does it make you feel to have your art up there
for all to see?
12
NOVEMBER 9
I don’t have any pets
so I can’t write about one
and especially
I can’t write
a POEM
about one.
NOVEMBER 15
Yes, I used to have a pet.
I don’t want to write about it.
You’re going to ask me
Why not?
Right?
NOVEMBER 22
Pretend I still have that pet?
Can’t I make up a pet –
a different one?
Like a tiger?
Or a hamster?
A goldfish?
Turtle?
Snail?
Worm?
Flea?
13
LESSON
Read “dog” by Valerie Worth.
Under a maple tree
The dog lies down,
Lolls his limp
Tongue, yawns,
Rests his long chin
Carefully between
Front paws;
Looks up alert;
Chops with heavy
Jaws, at a slow fly,
Blinks, rolls
On his side,
Sighs, closes
His eyes: sleeps
All afternoon
In his loose skin.
What makes poetry aimed at children different from poetry
aimed at adults?
14
November 29
I liked those
small poems
we read today.
When they’re small
like that
you can read
a whole bunch
in a short time
and then in your head
are all the pictures
of all the small things
from all the small poems.
I liked how the kitten leaped
in the cat poem
and how you could see
the long head of the horse
in the horse poem
and especially I liked the dog
in the dog poem
because that’s just how
my yellow dog
used to lie down,
with his tongue all limp
and his chin
between
his paws
and how he’d sometimes
chomp at a fly
and then sleep
in his loose skin,
just like that poet,
Miss Valerie Worth,
says,
in her small
dog poem.
15
YOUR TASK
Try your hand at writing a children’s poem. Remember, it
should focus on imagery, make use of sound devices, and
have a playful tone.
16
DECEMBER 4
Why do you want
to type up what I wrote
about reading
the small poems?
It’s not a poem.
Is it?
I guess you can
put it on the board
if you want to
but don’t put
my name
on it
in case
other people
think
it’s not a poem.
DECEMBER 13
I guess it does
look like a poem
when you see it
typed up
like that.
But I think maybe
it would look better
if there was more space
between the lines.
Like how I wrote it
the first time.
And I liked the picture
of the yellow dog
you put beside it.
But that’s not how
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my yellow dog
looked.
YOUR TASK
Let someone else read your children’s poem and have them
find a picture they think should go with it. Paste a copy
of the picture here. Is the picture what you had in mind?
Explain
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LESSON
Pastoral: an artistic composition dealing with the life of
shepherds or with a simple, rural existence. The term is
used to describe simplicity, charm, and serenity attributed
to country life. Currently, it applies to any literary
convention that places kindly, rural people in nature-
centered activities.
Read “The Pasture” by Robert Frost.
I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.
I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so
young,
It totters when she licks it with her
tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long. You come too.
Identify meter that this poem is written in. Identify the
rhyme scheme? Identify the parallelisms present. Explain
why imagery is important in pastoral poems. What words in
this poem invoke vivid images in the reader’s mind?
19
JANUARY 10
I really really really
did NOT get
the pasture poem
you read today.
I mean:
somebody’s going out
to the pasture
to clean the spring
and to get
the little tottery calf
while he’s out there
and he isn’t going
to be gone long
and he wants YOU
(who is YOU?)
to come too.
I mean REALLY.
And you said that
Mr. Robert Frost
who wrote
about the pasture
was also the one
who wrote about
those snowy woods
and the miles to go
before he sleeps –
well!
I think Mr. Robert Frost
has a little
too
much
20
time
on
his
hands.
JANUARY 17
Remember the wheelbarrow poem making pictures with words
you read about the snowy woods
the first week and the pasture –
of school? and his teacher typed them up
and they looked like poems
Maybe the wheelbarrow poet so people thought
was just they were poems.
making a picture
with words Like how you did
and with the blue-car things
someone else – and reading-the-small-poems thing.
like maybe his teacher – On the board
typed it up typed up
and then people thought they look like
it was a poem poems
because and the other kids
it looked like one are looking at them
typed up like that. and they think
they really are
And maybe poems
that’s the same thing and they
that happened with are all saying
Mr. Robert Frost. Who wrote that?
Maybe he was just
YOUR TASK
Write a pastoral poem that relies heavily on imagery using
your life in the West Kootenay as inspiration.
21
22
JANUARY 24
We were going for a drive And that’s where we saw
and my father said the yellow dog
We won’t be gone long – standing against the cage
You come too with his paws curled
and so I went around the wire
and we drove and drove and his long red tongue
until we stopped at a hanging out
red brick building and his big black eyes
with a sign looking a little sad
in blue letters and his long tail
ANIMAL PROTECTION SHELTER. wag-wag-wagging
as if he were saying
And inside we walked Me me me! Choose me!
down a long cement path
past cages And we did.
with all kinds of We chose him.
dogs
big and small And in the car
fat and skinny he put his head
some of them against my chest
hiding in the corner and wrapped his paws
but most of them around my arm
bark-bark-barking and as if he were saying
jumping up Thank you thank you thank you.
against the wire cage
as we walked past And the other dogs
as if they were saying in the cages
Me! Me! Choose me! get killed dead
I’m the best one! if nobody chooses them.
23
JANUARY 31
Yes
you can type up
what I wrote
about my yellow dog
but leave off the part
about the other dogs
getting killed dead
because that’s too sad.
And don’t put
my name
on it
please.
And maybe
it would look good
on yellow paper.
And maybe
the title
should be
YOU COME TOO.
FEBRUARY 7
Yes
it looks good
on yellow paper
but you forgot
(again)
to leave more
space
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between the lines
like I did
when I wrote it.
That’s okay though.
LESSON
Onomatopoeia: the formation and use of words that suggest,
by their sounds, the object or idea being named. Origin:
Greek onoma, meaning “name,” and poiein, meaning “to make.”
Read “Street Music” by Arnold Adoff.
T h i s c i t y:
t h e
a l w a y s
n o i s e
g r i n d i n g
up from the
s u b w a y s
u n d e r
g r o u n d:
slamming from bus tires
and taxi horns and engines
of cars and trucks in all
v o c a b u l a r i e s
of
clas
flash
screeching
hot metal l a n g u a g e
c o m b i n a t i o n s:
as p l a n e s
o v e r h e a d
r o a r
an
o r c h e s t r a
of rolling drums
and battle blasts
assaulting
my ears
w i t h
t h e
25
a l w a y s
n o i s e of
t h I s c I t y:
street music.
Adoff on poetry: “Writing a poem is making music with words
and space.” He strives to “turn sights and sounds into
words… into singing poems.”
How does Adoff make “music with words and space” in “Street
Sounds”? Be descriptive and use specific examples.
26
FEBRUARY 15
I like that poem There is not too much traffic
we read today on my street –
about street music not like in the
in the city. middle
of a city.
My street is not
in the middle We play in the yards
of the city and sometimes
so it doesn’t have in the street
that LOUD music but only if
of horns and trucks a grown-up
clash or the big kids
flash are out there, too,
screech. and they will shout
Car!
My street is if they see a car
on the edge coming down our street.
of a city
and it has At both ends
quiet music of our street
most of the time are yellow signs
whisp that say
meow Caution! Children at Play!
swish. but sometimes
the cars
My street is a THIN one pa no attention
and speed down
with houses on both sides
the road
and my house is
as if
the white one
they are in a BIG hurry
with the red door.
with many miles to go
before they sleep.
YOUR TASK
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Write your own “Street Music” poem. Turn the “sights and
sounds” of your street into a “singing poem.” Create the
music of your street with “words and space.”
28
LESSON
Concrete Poetry: poetry in which the poet’s intent is
conveyed by graphic patterns of letters, words, or symbols
rather than by the meaning of words in conventional
arrangement.
Read “The Apple” by S.C. Rigg
s
t
e
m
apple apple apple apple
apple yum apple yum apple yum apple
juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy juicy
juicy
crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy
red yellow green red yellow green red yellow green
red
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
apple apple
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
apple apple
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
apple apple
yum delicious yum delicious yum delicious yum
delicious yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum
yum yum yum yum yum yum wormy worm yuk yuk yum
yum
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yum yum yum yumyum wormy worm
yum yuk yuk yum
yum
yum yu yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum
yum delicious yum delicious yum delicious yum
delicious
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
apple
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
apple apple apple apple apple apple apple
red yellow green red yellow green red
crunchy crunchy crunchy crunchy
juicy juicy juicy juicy
apple apple
How important is space in concrete poetry? What special
little details do you notice when you look at the poem
carefully?
FEBRUARY 21
That was so great
those poems you showed us
where the words
make the shape
of the thing
that the poem
is about –
like the one about an apple
that was shaped like an apple
and the one about the house
that was shaped like a house.
My brain was pop-pop-popping
when I was looking at those poems.
I never knew a poet person
could do that funny
kind of thing.
30
FEBRUARY 26
I tried one of those
poems that looks like
what it’s about
MY YELLOW DOG
by Jack
MARCH 1
Yes
you can type up the yellow dog poem
that looks like a dog
but this time
keep the spaces
exactly
the same
and maybe
it would look
really really good
on yellow paper.
Maybe you could put my name on it.
But only if you want to.
Only if you think it
looks
good enough.
31
MARCH 7
I was and why didn’t
a little embarrassed he
when people said or
things to me like she
Neat poem Jack want to put
and his or her name
How’d you think of that, Jack? on it?
Was it like me
And I really really like when I didn’t think
the one you put up my words
about the tree were
that is shaped like a tree poems?
not a fake-looking tree
but like a real tree Maybe you will tell
with straggly branches. the anonymous tree poet
that his or her tree poem
But I want to know is really
who is the a poem
anonymous poet really really
in our class who wrote that and a good poem, too.
YOUR TASK
Write and publish your own concrete poem, but don’t put
your name on it. Put a copy of it here, and another up in
the classroom. Then pick your favourite concrete poem and
write a note here about why you liked it.
32
LESSON
Read “Love That Boy” by Walter Dean Myers.
Love that boy,
like a rabbit loves to run
I said I love that boy
like a rabbit loves to run
Love to call him in the morning
love to call him
“Hey there, son!”
He walk like his Grandpa,
Grins like his Uncle Ben.
I said he walk like his Grandpa,
And grins like his Uncle Ben.
Grins when he’s happy,
When he sad, he grins again.
His mama like to hold him,
Like to feed him cherry pie.
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I said his mama like to hold him.
Like to feed him that cherry pie.
She can have him now,
I’ll get him by and by
He got long roads to walk down
Before the setting sun.
I said he got a long, long road to walk down
Before the setting sun.
He’ll be a long stride walker,
And a good man before he done.
What is nice about this poem?
MARCH 14
That was the best best BEST I copied that BEST poem
poem and hung it on my
you read yesterday bedroom wall
by Mr. Walter Dean Myers right over my bed
the best best BEST where I can
poem see it when I’m
ever. lying
down.
I am sorry
I took the book home Maybe you could
without asking. copy it too
I only got and hang it
one spot on the wall
on it. in our class
That’s why where we can see it
the page is torn. when we are stting
I tried to get at our desks
the spot doing our stuff.
out.
I sure liked that poem
34
by Mr. Walter Dean Myers
called And also because
“Love That Boy.” when I had my
yellow dog
Because of two reason I loved that dog
I liked it: and I would call him
One is because like this –
my dad calls me I’d say –
in the morning Hey there, Sky!
just like that.
He calls (His name was Sky.)
Hey there, son!
YOUR TASK
Writing as his father, try to explain why Jack liked “Love
that Boy” so much.
YOUR TASK
Find a poem you enjoy. Find a poem you can really love.
Copy it down here and on another piece of paper. Put the
second copy by your bed.
35
MARCH 22
My yellow dog to hug the insides
followed me everywhere right out of me.
every which way I turned
he was there And when us kids
wagging his tail were playing outside
and slobber kicking the ball
coming out he’d chase after it
of his mouth and push it with his nose
when he was smiling push push push
at me and getting slobber
all the time all over the ball
as if he was but no one cared
saying because he was such
thank you thank you thank you a funny dog
for choosing me that dog Sky
and jumping up on me that straggly furry
his shaggy straggly paws smiling
on my chest dog
like he was trying Sky.
36
every evening
And I’d call him Hey there, Skye!
every morning
YOUR TASK
Write a poem about something you love. Use what you have
learned like Jack has done and write a poem about something
you desperately love.
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