Join us for an engaging presentation about poetry and the book-making process! Award-winning author Mary Quattlebaum will lead students in a discussion of poetry, using her book of poems, Family Reunion, and sports poems, shaped poems, and others to focus on rhythm, sound, and other poetic elements.  Students will write a haiku and talk with Mary about their process.

Project partner Eerdman Books for Young Readers will provide each interactive site with a complimentary copy of Mary’s book, Family Reunion. Project partner Farrar Strauss and Giroux will provide each interactive site with a complimentary copy of Mary's Book, Sparks Fly High.

There will be ample time for students’ questions and interactive discussion.  Using her book Sparks Fly High, Mary will also show the steps in creating a picture book, including drafts, sketches, revisions, finished art, printing, and binding.  A virtual book signing will conclude this event.

Program Outline:

• Welcome/Introductions (5 Minutes)
  Each school will have 30 seconds to introduce themselves at the beginning of the videoconference. Please share the name of your school, where you are located, and an interesting fact about your school or community. We’ll call on schools in alphabetical order.

• Introduction of Mary Quattlebaum (2 Minutes)
  One school (let us know if you’re interested!) will introduce our guest author, Mary Quattlebaum.

• All About Poetry (15 Minutes)
  Mary Quattlebaum will delight students with interactive poetry readings and poems she has written, as well as her process for writing poetry.

• Student Haiku Presentations (15 Minutes)
  Each school will share one of the student-created haiku poems as part of the videoconference event. The author of the haiku will read it aloud during the videoconference.  The author should also be prepared to talk a little during videoconference about their process (What was the hardest part for them about writing this haiku?  What part did they like best?  How many drafts did they write?).

• Investing the Book Making Process (15 Minutes)
  Using her book, Sparks Fly High, Mary will share the book making process.

• Question and Answer Session/Discussion (15 Minutes)
  During this time, we will call on sites in alphabetical order to ask a question. Each site will have an opportunity to ask Mary one question and then we will move onto the next site. If time permits, we will repeat the cycle. Students should be at the microphone, ready to ask their question, prior to the moderator calling on your site.

• Wrap-Up/Final Remarks (5 Minutes)

Pre-Videoconference Activities:

• Read and Discuss Family Reunion: Students should be familiar with Mary’s book Family Reunion.  Eerdmans will provide each participating school with a complimentary copy of the book.  To guide discussion, teachers might ask the following:
  • Fifteen poems tell the story of 10-year-old Jodie’s family reunion.  How does Jodie feel about the reunion at first (“Getting There”)?  How does she feel at the end (“Letter to Nana”)?  How do students feel about their own family reunions? 
  • What are some things that the extended family likes to do together?  Look at poems such as “Shag’s Greeting,” “Cloud Visions,” “Watermelon,” “A Feast and Talk Fest.”  Have students write a paragraph or so about their own family reunions mentioning games they like to play, places they like to meet, and/or special foods they tend to eat.  Or ask them to describe their favorite part of their own reunion.  What happens and what makes this part feel so special or fun?
  • Ask each student to choose his/her favorite poem.  What especially did you like about it?  Are there any words or phrases that seemed especially descriptive?  Are there any rhyming words?  Did the poem capture the way you sometimes feel?
  • Look carefully at the illustrations by Andrea Shine, who paints beautiful watercolors and then adds found material (leaves, seed pods, torn and cut paper, fabric scraps, words or pictures cut from magazines) to create unique collages full of “hidden treasures.”  Ask students to find some of these hidden treasures in the pictures.  They might try illustrating their own poems, especially the haiku below, by drawing or painting a picture and adding collage elements.

• Writing a Haiku: In “Lightning Bugs,” Mary wanted to write a very small poem about a very small thing—a lightning bug—so she chose the haiku form.  Haiku is a syllable-based, 3-line poetic form that originated in Japan.  The first line has five syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line has five syllables.  With haiku, the poet tries to create a vivid picture (image) from Nature with words rather than focus on rhyme.  Teachers might share examples of haiku with students.  [Note: if using the Haiku Guide above, recognize that some samples are not in the traditional 17-syllable form.]
  • In preparation for this videoconference event, students should write their own traditional 3-lined, 17-syllable haiku about a small thing (button, flea, twig, etc.).
  • Each school will share one of the student-created haiku poems as part of the videoconference event. After students have created their haiku, have them share with one another.  As a class, choose which haiku your school would like to share as part of the interactive event.  The author of the haiku will read it aloud during the videoconference.  Students should also be prepared to talk a little during videoconference about their process (What was the hardest part for them about writing this haiku?  What part did they like best?  How many drafts did they write?).
  • Email a copy of the haiku you'll be sharing to Heather Weisse Walsh (hweisse at magpi.net)  no later than 5 days before the event. Haiku poems will be emailed to all participating schools so that students can from different schools can review each other's work. Stories should be emailed in word or RTF format. 
• Prepare Questions: Have students come up with questions for Mary about her work, her background, how she became a writer, etc.  As a class, choose the top 5 questions.  Make sure students are prepared to ask these questions as part of the videoconference event.  Each school will have a chance to ask 1 or 2 questions –but by preparing 5, we can make sure that questions aren’t repeated.

Post-Videoconference Activities:

• Reflect: Have students write a written reflection about the program or conduct a classroom dialogue with students. What did they enjoy about the videoconference? What did they learn?
• Related to Family Reunion: A national magazine, Reunions Magazine, occasionally publishes work by young people.  Students interested in submitting descriptions of their family reunions can find submission guidelines on Mary’s website.
• Related to Sparks Fly High: Refer to Mary’s “Teaching and Writing Activities” on her website for discussion questions and writing exercises based on this colonial American folktale.

National Standards:

Participation in this program satisfies the following English language arts standards, as outlined by the National Council for Teachers of English:

• Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.