Stop….Notice...and Wonder! by Jen Greene

As I closed out National Poetry Month with the creation of a published poetry book, I reflected back on what my students and I learned as writers.  The number one thing I found was that we were taking more time to stop, notice, and wonder.  More than we had all year. 

We spent a lot of time generating ideas and using mentor texts that celebrated noticing little things.  Using picture books such as Daniel Finds a Poem by Micha Archer  and Color me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen allowed my students and me to revel in the beauty of the world around us.  I’m fortunate to work in a school that is nestled back in the woods, part of William Penn’s original land grant.  Our outdoor campus is so inviting, particularly in the spring.

After photographing the flowers in the courtyard and writing poems about them, my students returned after Spring Break to find that the grass had been mowed and the flowers were gone.  All that remained were two red tulips.

We stopped….noticed that these two flowers remained...and wondered what they felt like, being the survivors of the lawnmower.  So much of the writing that came from this little observation was about friendships, feeling lonely, missing people who are no longer with us.  One student reminded us that they weren’t really lonely- because they had each other. The outcome and quality of their writing was better than any lesson I could have planned.

Take time to look around you.  To notice something new.  To wonder about what you notice.  And see where that takes you as a writer. 



Jen Greene is an elementary school teacher in the West Chester Area School District in West Chester, PA.  She is a fellow with the PA Writing and Literature Project (PAWLP) and a doctoral student at Widener University.  You can find her on Twitter @GreeneMachine82 or via her blog: www.GreeneLit.wordpress.com