Kenya Poetry Project

When I was in Kenya in 2011, I worked with three fifth grade classes at the Bondeni School and I have never had more fun teaching then I did that week. I was not exactly sure what I would be doing. I had plans, but I had never been in a situation like that before in my life. Most of the other teachers on that trip worked at the Area 2 school, but since that school did not have fifth grade classes due to a lack of room, I was escorted down the road to the Bondeni School. The principal brought me to the first classroom that morning and said that the teacher would soon arrive. "Soon" meant that the teacher did not show up for about 45 minutes. I stood in front of about 25 curious faces and did what I had to do. We started talking and I immediately felt at home with my new Kenyan students! That week I taught some science lessons based on what they were already learning, but had the most fun and success teaching a simple writing process that I use with my Nashua students for building sentences and then later teaching some math and puzzle solving using Tangrams and Pentominoes. While I was teaching, I was also working with the teachers giving them ideas and techniques that they could use while teaching as well as observing, encouraging, and learning from them.

This time I again have no clue as to exactly what I will be asked to do. I will be planned and ready with many ideas of my own as I try to meet their needs, but I do have some ideas that I have been developing that I am very excited about. One idea is to teach some writing strategies, but this time using some great and simple poems to inspire what I hope will be some interesting writing and conversations. I also am doing these same poetry lessons with my class at New Searles Elementary School. I will use my student's writings as models for the Kenyan students and I hope it will also open a type of cross-cultural poetry dialogue between "my" students on two different continents. I think they can both learn from and be inspired by each other.

My plans will remain fluid, but if all goes according to plan, it might look something like my brief outline below. There is still plenty of discussion to be had with my fellow teachers going on the trip and the teachers in Kenya, so I am sure the plans may be tweaked a bit or a lot, but in my thoughts right now, this is one thing that I would like to pursue.

In all, I would like to teach five poems over five days. I would also like to partner with the Kenyan teachers to help them either teach along with me (essentially taking over by the end of the week) as well as leave them other examples and poetry lesson plans for them to try with their classes when I am long gone from Kenya. My impression of the the teaching in Kenya is that there is a lot of rote memorization in their lessons. They do lack materials to teach from and they are responsible for preparing their students for national tests that make a difference as to whether a student can further their education as well as to determine which school they may attend in high school and college. I also noted the creativity and playfulness of the children on the streets of Mathare and I would like to bring that sense of play and creativity into the school setting

Monday: "I am From Ireland" (14th Century Irish Poem) This is from an old Irish poem so at first we have the confusing old words to ponder before we see a translation. The Kenyan kids will think I am nuts, just like my American students think when I first show them the poem. It is a simple poem that states where someone is from and then invites another person to do something fun and joyful in that place. My students will be writing poems about New Hampshire or the United States and these will serve as models to inspire the Kenyan students to write a poem about the Mathare Valley, Kenya, their family, or even their school. I will be looking at the positives about the places we live and the things we enjoy doing in those places through this poem.

Tuesday: "I am Nobody" (Emily Dickinson) This is a poem where Emily Dickinson proclaims her shyness and the fact that she enjoys being herself and not someone else. My students are writing poems about their personalities, but they use their personality trait as a metaphor, for example they wrote poems like these: "I am Activity", "I am Modesty", "I am Creativity", and "I am Energy". I would hope that by being inspired by Emily Dickinson's poem that kids will write poems that affirm who they really are and that they can proudly claim their identity. I would also hope that kids in both Nashua and Kenya can see how similar they are despite thousands of miles of distance and such different life experiences.

Wednesday: "The Red Wheelbarrow" (William Carlos Williams) This is one of my favorite poems for its plain simplicity. In this poem something very ordinary is given some supreme and mysterious significance. I think that the kids in Kenya might be able to share some of the important things in their lives: a pencil for school, a ball made out of found trash, a small family home, a mom, or who knows what they might write about as being significant. I am most infinitely curious as to what they can come up with.

Thursday:  "The Tyger" (William Blake) or "The Pasture" (Robert Frost) I always tend to over plan and that way I can be ready to be flexible in the moment to chose different paths in my teaching. I could spend this day continuing earlier lessons, use either of these poems, or I might just might try different poems with different classes. "The Tyger" is a difficult poem to understand, but even the parts that are hard to decipher just sound so wonderful.There are some creative ways to bring meaning to the understandable parts of this poem. Some of it I describe here. The fun is in writing a poem to an animal where you can ask it any questions that you like. My students would have modeled and shared poems about local animals and the Kenyan students could write about the wonderful animals in their country. These poems may have to be written together as class poems.

Robert Frost's "The Pasture" is a poem written in New Hampshire that invites someone to come along with the writer to do something ordinary that they might do in their daily life. It would make a wonderful poem for kids to write about their daily activities and to offer such an invitation. I could see children in Kenya writing "You come too!" to their age mates in New Hampshire and vice-versa. It would be a clever way to share a small window into their own worlds and activities.

Friday: I have some other planned activities for this day, if we make it this far! I am some big ideas about what we can do with these poems that I am very excited about! It may involve posters, photography, and even videos-spoken or animoto videos. I don't think I will have enough time to do all I would like to do! When I return from Kenya, I would like to use some of the poems to create a book using poetry from my Nashua students and my Kenya students.

How you can help with this poetry project:
In order to do these activities, I would like to bring some supplies and materials to Kenya. There will be a lot of hand-made posters created by myself and my students, but there are some things that need to be purchased. If you would like to donate any of these items or the funds to purchase any of them, that would be wonderful. please contact me. Any amount would go towards purchasing supplies for this trip

I started by listing books and materials on Amazon, but some things I wanted were not there or overpriced. Then, I looked for some of the books on Scholastic.com. They had some of the books for a much cheaper price, but some of the books I wanted were missing. I just decided to go with a list of books and materials for the poetry project and hope that people might be inspired to get behind this project.

If you would like to donate or purchase an item or donate to this project, please feel free to contact me.
I would like to have  multiple copies of these books so that the students can get their hands on some quality poetry and pictures to inspire them. All the books below are just $4 a copy through Scholastic. The National Geographic Animal Poetry book is $8 and it is gorgeous ( I recently got a copy of it for my classroom).

The William Blake and Robert Frost poetry books are not currently for sale at Scholastic. They are at Amazon. Robert Frost is under $7, but the William Blake one will have to be found somewhere else as it is out of print or I will have to get a used copy.

I will also need to bring lots of colored crayola markers, packages of white construction paper, and some notebooks so that each child can have a notebook just for writing and poetry.