We are looking at the ordinary everyday things we do, to find significance; to inspire us to write.
Mentor Text #1
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| James K. Baxter |
This Town
The town was usual enough; it had
A creek, a bridge, a beach, a sky
Over it, and even a small tin church
I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I
Did what boys do - dozed in the hot
Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad
Boatbuilder, crept like rabbits through the black
Under-runners with a weak torch,
Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam
Doing nothing important
James K Baxter
What do you notice? (padlet)
- How is the poem framed?
- Any unfamiliar words
- What do you notice about the punctuation? How is it used for effect?
- What is the writer trying to do?
- What time of the year is it? How do you know?
- What are the nouns? What about verbs? What do you notice about them?
- Where are we? How do you know?
- What does the town have?
Mentor Text #2
Playmates and Pastimes from Piano Rock by Gavin BishopWhat are your connections to the text?-Zero Draft your idea.
We noticed that the poem by James K Baxter found the extraordinary within the ordinary. To complete a poem like JKB we decided:
- To use the first line (The ? was usual enough) but include something from ours lives (backyard, garage...)
- To include 5 nouns but describe the 5th better than the others
- Name some people/person doing what that person does
- Include a list of verbs and nouns (describing the things we do and where)
- Frame the poem with doing nothing important
EXAMPLES
Below are a link to a couple of examples. Check them out.
Harrison's is a good example of using colloquialisms and making it sound conversational
Skye's lets us into a private world and has a depth of feeling
Nina's lets us experience the fun of just having fun
