STOUGHTON -- At the Robert O'Donnell Middle School here, Englishteacher Sheila Field has come up with a novel way to introducestudents to Ogden Nash, Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson: Herstudents wear the poets on their backs.
The seventh graders inscribe T-shirts with a favorite poem --either someone else's or their own -- and illustrate it with bits oforiginal art. Then they memorize their poem and recite it.
'The scope of the poetry is broad,' said Field, 'from nurseryrhymes to Shakespeare to the modern poets.'
Lauren Zecco, 13, found her voice in 'Beyond the Lake,' one ofmany poems she said she has been inspired to write. Her poem, whichis about vampires, came to her after watching a vampire movie ontelevision.
'Writing poetry,' she said, 'has become a hobby for me.'
Part of the impetus for the project, Field said, is that manystudents think poetry is hard to understand. Her own love of poetrycame from her grandfather, who often recited Henry WadsworthLongfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier poems to her, and she wantsher students to see that poetry can be fun.
'I started the unit,' Field said, 'by bringing them into thelibrary and having them take all these books off the shelves and justhave fun reading different poems.
'At this stage, what they need is a broad introduction. My goalis to expose them to poetry as a literary art form as well as avehicle for enjoyment and appreciation.'
The students read hundreds of poems, some silently, others aloud,before each picked a verse for the project.
Selections included 'O Captain' by Walt Whitman and 'The Raven' byPoe as well as Shakespearean sonnets. Field said she tries to helpyoungsters become familiar with poetic sounds and rhythm and to applythese to their writing. Students were encouraged to learn poeticterms -- onomatopoeia, alliteration and rhyme, to name a few -- andto memorize eight lines of a poem for recitation.
'Teachers should encourage more memorization,' Field said. 'Thebrain is like a muscle, and memorization is one thing that helps keepit exercised.'
Field has done the same project with high-school students studyingAmerican literature. A few years ago, her ninth graders designedT-shirts around entries in Benjamin Franklin's 'Poor Richard'sAlmanac.' Older students were engaged in the exercise, she said, butthe project suits middle-school students, well, to a T.
'It's very hands-on,' she said, 'and because so much of the workis done at the tables in a group, they have time to talk with eachother about their work and to practice their social skills.'
The project also allows self-expression. For Lindsey Hines, 13,that expression came in the form of re-creating childhood memories.She designed her shirt with poems taken from 'A Child's Garden ofVerses' by Robert Louis Stevenson.
'When I was young, my parents used to read this to me at nightbefore I went to bed,' Hines said. 'So it has very special meaningfor me.'
The poetry fashion project has several components. After readingmany poems and selecting one or writing original verse, students makea draft of their design on paper. They practice lettering the linesof poetry and spacing lines and stanzas before creating theillustrations.
Each student brings in a white or light-colored T-shirt; Fieldsaid the Stoughton Army and Navy Store donated a few to youngsterswho could not afford to buy one. Each student contributed a fewdollars, she said, and waterproof fabric markers, cardboard for worksurfaces, fabric paints and glitter, buttons, iron-ons and glue werepurchased.
Finally, students decorated their shirts, memorized their poemsand performed an oral reading.
During one class, music teacher Charles Cook joined the studentswith his keyboard and played in the background to create mood, tempoand atmosphere.
One recent day, as students mingled around the cafeteria readingthe poems on each other's shirts, there wasn't a disappointedcustomer in the group.
'I learned that poetry is not boring,' said Rachel Vasconcelos,13. 'There are a lot of poems about topics kids like -- animals,sports, vampires.'
Peter Mello, 13, wore a T-shirt decorated with 'The Bee' by IsaacWatts.
'I learned how strong metaphors and similes are for expressingfeelings,' he said. 'I'm a craftsperson, so this was fun.'
Michelle Lamb, 12, was particularly honest about the project.
'Even kids who don't like to do homework did their work thistime,' she said. 'I think it was because kids like T-shirts and youdon't usually get to decorate them in school.'
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