Boardman elementary students show off poetry skills
BOARDMAN
Snap, don’t clap.
That was the rule at Robinwood Lane Elementary Friday, where a group of fourth-grade students participated in the school’s first “Coffee House Poetry” session.
Family members packed a classroom to watch and listen as students took turns sitting in the center of a circle, rotating in a chair as they recited material they’ve been working on for the past six weeks.
Studying poetry is a Common Core requirement, language-arts teacher Jan Zorman said. “But we turned it into something exciting.”
The session was organized by Zorman and social studies/science teacher Jeanette Tamulonis, but the idea didn’t start with them.
Last year, a fourth-grade student mentioned she did coffee-house poetry at her previous school, and suggested her Robinwood Lane teachers start it up here.
Zorman recalled how she hated to study poetry when she was in school, so she wanted to make it more fun for her own students. Her students have been working on different kinds of poetry, ranging from acrostic to haiku to bio poems. Some of their work has been featured in The Vindicator recently, which students excitedly noted before they read their work aloud.
For their part, most students seemed eager to share their masterpieces.
Alivia Shablesky said she was excited to read her work. Her poem titled “The Ghost” elicited laughter from the audience.
“I think I saw a ghost. It was not like most. It didn’t fly at all. And it was very tall,” Alivia’s poem read.
“It was not so scary. And surprisingly hairy. But when I yelled for my mother, it was actually my brother!,” she wrote.
Her inspiration, she said, was her 15-year-old brother, who often tricks her.
Alivia also shared a poem about Christmas morning – “Because I’m always so excited” – which was a common theme among her classmates’ poetry.
Each student read three of their poems. Zorman said they have much more in their collections.
“Believe me, they have a repertoire,” she said.
“They worked really hard on their poetry. ... We couldn’t believe some of them.”