White Girl Writing
- Write about your verse book (Monster, The Crossover, Inside Out & Back Again, Enchanted Air, OR Brown Girl Dreaming). What are your initial thoughts about the book? What was it like reading a text that plays with form and structure? Did the form change how you read the text? How might you use these books in a classroom?
I read, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, and my initial thoughts on the book were confusion and questions. When I started the book I kept thinking about the authors writing style and I was unsure how to understand it. Each poem in the book was different and the poems go in chronological order. The author first talks about being born. I can honestly say it took me a few rereads to get it. Since getting it I really like it. The poems had depth and character. The other put thought into each poem and made each one unique. Even every “How to Listen” changed. This book definitely plays with form and structure. The lines are longer that the book Love That Dog, but the sentences were made in a way that could be followed. The form did play a part in how I read it. I first thought I should read it fast because the lines were shorter but this book I found myself reading slower for some parts and faster for others. When I was reading this book some of the texts are in italics (the italics were people talking) and I found myself giving those parts different voices. I would use this book in a classroom because it is a book shows kids that poems do not have to rhyme. I would read this book with a class, but I would start off by letting the students explore the book finding poems that they like or do not like. Once they have done that I would then read it from start to finish. I like the idea of the students digging thought the book and searching for things that they like. I did that after reading and I was able to look at the book differently. If you do not read it in chronological order it is a book with different poems of this girl’s family. If you read it in chronological order it is the girl’s life from birth. In class we created the Centos and I think that is a good task to do with children. They can find lines in the book and make their own poems.
- Cento work: Create your own poem using lines from the texts we’ve read in this class (any of the books are fair game).
Even the silence/ has a story to tell you just listen. Listen
This is all we know how
Let me introduce myself. Then just starts going on and on
I didn’t know how much I loved being everyone’s baby girl until now
when my life as a baby girl is nearly over
Bad won’t be forever and what is good can sometimes last a long
long time
One Reply to “White Girl Writing”
Nice blog post. Brown Girl Dreaming sounds very interesting, but I can definitely see how it can cause confusion. I too find myself struggling to read poetry at times. I feel as if even though there is much less to read it still takes longer to be able to fully comprehend what the poem is saying. I think that would be a great idea to use the book as an example in a classroom to show that poems don’t always have to rhyme. I think that is something many children do not understand, yet really there is no true structure. I really like your poem!