Mental will is a muscle that needs exercise, just like the muscles of your body.
—Lynn Jennings
Mental Rehearsal
On my high school track team, I once had a coach who taught me how to mentally rehearse the race I was going to run. She coached me to imagine myself running the pace I had trained for, overtaking runners in front of me, and even seeing my desired time on the clock when I passed the finish line. Many years later, I don’t remember much about that particular race, but something about the advice that I got from that coach has stuck with me all this time.
Mental rehearsal is still a strategy that I use when I’m running in a race. I find a quiet space and visualize my race mile by mile. Doing this type of rehearsal is so valuable to me: It helps to relieve the jitters I get before a race, builds my confidence in myself, and gives me the chance to tackle any potential problems I may face before I actually face them.
Mental rehearsal isn’t just for race day. I often use mental rehearsal before I write, arranging and reading the words I want to say in my head before I ever commit them to paper.
There are many opportunities for us to offer our students the chance to rehearse as well. We offer opportunities for rehearsal when we ask students to turn and talk about a question that is posed, when we ask them to point to blank pages as they storytell, when we ask them to start their poetry on whiteboards before they move to paper.
This week we look at poetry, plus more—as always.
Shine on!
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills
Featured Contributors
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills are longtime contributors to Choice Literacy. They met while co-teaching a fourth-grade class, and experienced the powerful effects of professional collaboration on both themselves and the students in the classroom. Tara is now a middle school literacy teacher, and Kate is a K-5 literacy coach. Though they’re no longer in the classroom together, they still depend on each other for professional reflection and growth, and meet up for weekly runs. You can find them on Twitter, @taraandkate.
Listen in on the podcast as Ruth Ayres and Cathy Mere discuss this week’s theme.
Each year the month of April is set aside as National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate poets and their craft. Various events are held throughout the month by the Academy of American Poets and other poetry organizations. Find more information on Read Write Think.
Gretchen Schroeder uses picture books to help her high school students understand and write persona poems. (This article was first published in 2020.)
Poetry can be the glue that holds many classroom communities together. It works for quick morning meeting openings, transitions, or even a bit of laughter when energy is flagging. Cathy Mere shares her favorite poetry resources for remote learning. (This article was first published in 2020.)
Are you reading along with the Choice Literacy Book Club? Share your thoughts about The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad, S.K. Ali, and Hatem Aly by leaving a comment on the Padlet in the book club. Just go here to sign up—it’s free.
Course Highlight
Don’t miss Gretchen Schroeder‘s session, “Weekly Poetry Response Choices” in the Secondary Contributor Course: Empower Choice for Readers and Writers. Gretchen shares three ways to respond to poetry—text focused, reader focused, and creative focused.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Katherine Sokolowski immerses students in poetry with mentor texts about age and time to linger in thinking about their own ages. This combination invites poetry into classrooms and gives students space to embrace the genre by writing their own age poems.
Leigh Anne Eck curates a fantastic booklist of novels in verse for middle-grade and young adult readers.
In this encore article (published March 18, 2022), Jen Court shares the way whiteboards and conversation lifted pressure from student writers so they could create poetry.
Check out this new Field Experience course: Writing Poetry with Elementary Writers. Help elementary writers develop the mindset and tools to dip into poetry in their notebooks. (This course is free to members.)
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Cathy Mere encourages instructional coaches to take the best parts of workshop practice and apply them to coaching.
In this Coaching Minute, Inga Omondi suggests keeping the focus on students in order to entice apprehensive teachers into a coaching relationship.
This encore video documents a demonstration conference of Clare Landrigan working with Lexi, a student who is developing confidence as a writer through exploring poetry, and transferring that learning to other subject areas. The lesson includes a prebrief and debrief with Lexi’s teacher.
Leaders Lounge Course Highlight
Ruth Ayres shares a wealth of resources from Choice Literacy contributors focused on the power of giving and receiving student feedback. This course is divided into four short sections, each tackling a different aspect of giving, receiving, and using student feedback.
Quote It:
If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
—David Carradine
That’s all for this week!
