"The Poem That Will Not End" by Joan Bransfield Graham illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker

THE BOOK:
Joan Bransfield Graham has created a gem of a book--a perfect book for ANY classroom! The main character, Ryan O'Brian, creates poetry everywhere he goes. He just can't stop; he writes a couplet with his french fries and scribbles a sonnet on the staircase. It seems he can't stop, until the climax when his teacher assigns him to write a poem about spring... Go figure, he draws a blank.

The book is a solid narrative with an added one of Ryan's poem scribbled across every page--it is set up similar to many science picture books where you can read the narrative or stop and read the additional facts.

Along with Kyrsten Brooker's fun illustration, this book can reach from Kindergarten all the way up to sixth grade (maybe even high school).  Well crafted, and oozing with potential to use in the classroom, this is a must-have for any teacher of poetry.

The Poem That Landed On Top of My Head

USE THE BOOK:
Like I said, this can be used with almost any age group. I think the interest level comes in around second to fourth grade, but older kids may get a few chuckles from it. Here are a few ideas to steal for your lessons...

1. Stop Freaking Out About Uniformity and Give the Kids Some Space to Be Creative:

This book has a good lesson for us teachers. Did you catch it? I love that the teacher's direction to write a poem on a particular topic stifles Ryan's creativity; it is true to life and hysterical. So rather than assigning a particular topic or style to a child, just spend time enjoying and exposing them to the different forms of poetry. Avoid what the great Billy Collins says happens to to poetry in schools:

Introduction to Poetry

BY BILLY COLLINS courtesy of The POETRY FOUNDATION

I ask them to take a poem   

and hold it up to the light   

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem   

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room   

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski   

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope   

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose   

to find out what it really means.

Let them see there are endless options, and then give them something to write on and with (French Fries work, but markers, pens, and pencils are slightly better). And then let them do it. Let them take moments to stop and write ideas during class. Sure, make it an assignment. But don't squish it into one day or week. Give them a month to start a poem. Some may take a year to get something they actually like, but give them time... And stop squelching their creativity with these uniform poems! (OK... in a week or two I will tell you to squelch their creativity with some ideas for poetry, but for now, let's all be free to be you and me.) Seriously, click that link.

2. Poetic Forms Detective Work:

This book contains a potpourri of poetic forms. I have it on my shelf to use this January when I teach my high schoolers about poetic forms. This would be a good one to use in centers or rotations, and it can be used with grades 3-12. (Yes, I do centers in high school... the students enjoy them and there is a ton of learning that can happen during this time.)

Make a copy of the last double-page spread AKA "Ryan O'Brian's Guide to Poetic Forms". Then, cut out each poetic form listed in "Ryan's" guide. (Some of you who reuse items year-after-year may want to post them on index cards to keep them sturdy.) On each form, cut out or white out the part that lists the example title and page number. Be sure to do this as it is the part that makes this more than just a numbers matching game!

Next, have the book, a piece of blank paper, and writing tool on a table with the cut up guide/index cards. Have the student(s) look through the book to find the poems that match the description from the guide. For instance, on the card it would read: "COUPLET: Two lines that usually rhyme." The students would then read through the book and discover on page 10, "Couplet for French Fries" is the match in the book. The student(s) would then write down the definition of couplet, then cite the example. You may want them to write the full couplet, or just cite the page number. (I prefer the full example--this way the paper becomes a superior study guide and reference sheet.)

The "Couplet for French Fries", clearly, would be one of the easier examples; however, the forms cinquain, triolet, limerick, and tanka have a little more detective work to do.

Ryan shows off by making a french fry couplet.

3. Creative Writing Brainstorming with Parts of Speech:

As I finished this book, I thought it would be cool to see a series of books like this on the different forms of writing. I suppose it would be a little boring reading "The Research Paper That Will Not End"... So then I realized, it would probably be best to do a sequel using parts of speech.

Have kids form groups based on the different parts of speech--I suggest you go with the four teams: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs. Give them the narrative that Ryan O'Brian has a new dilemma, he can't stop noticing all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs around him. Because of this, Ryan goes around and observes, names, and writes out the different things he sees.

Have kids think about places they think Ryan might go--the bowling alley, to a best friend's house, the beach, Disneyland... you name it. Once the group picks a location, and every group should have a different place, give them the table below and ask them to write their location in the blank at the top.

Ryan goes to ________________________

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives

Next, tell them TO ONLY FOCUS ON THEIR PART OF SPEECH and give them five minutes to come up with as many place-specific parts of speech as possible. For instance if they are in the Verb group and they select baseball it may read something like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide

After five minutes, that team passes their paper to the left and the next team has to come up with words that fit their column on this NEW topic. For instance, if the Adverbs group is beside the Verbs group, the Adverbs take the baseball paper and for five minutes they add to the list until it looks like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide	Quickly Loudly Boastfully Tensely Bravely

During this time the Verb group gets a new paper, say on the Barber Shop, and they work on theirs. This continues on until all groups have worked on all pages until every group has worked on place-specific parts of speech for all four tables.

The baseball paper might look something like this:

Ryan goes to the Baseball Field

Nouns	Verbs	Adverbs	Adjectives
Baseball Bat Helmet Pitcher’s mound Umpire	Run Walk Hit Steal Slide	Quickly Loudly Boastfully Tensely Bravely	Fast Angry Funny Sluggish Amazing

NOTICE- THE WORDS DO NOT NEED TO MATCH EACH OTHER; the part of speech is hard enough for many kids. In the end, however, the kids will have had a chance to work on four location, focusing on their one part of speech. 

Your job during all of this is to supervise their word choices to ensure all parts of speech are properly placed, and push them to pick the very best terms. If they keep repeating terms, then they haven't done their job. 

I would then suggest you make copies of their pages, and then have kids write narratives with these word banks that have been created so they can figure out what Ryan O'Brian does next.

5. Discussions/Writing Prompts:

Use these prompts to talk about the book with your kids, or you can have them write their responses. Remember, picture books don't need to stop in second grade!

1. Why do you think Ryan was infected with poetry? (Or should I say "blessed" with poetry?)
2. Where was the best place Ryan put his poetry? Why?
3. Should poetry be written on walls and tabletops? Why or why not?
4. What do you think will happen if he gets the poetry bug again?
5. Have you even been consumed by something that you can't stop thinking, writing, or talking about it? What is it? Why do you like it so much?

I hope you enjoy this delightful book narrative with poems included "The Poem That Will Not End"... And I hope you and your classes dive into poetry this year!


Happy learning!