Finding the Words

How do children find out what they are thinking, what they are feeling? How do we? In Finding the Words, students are guided through writing exercises that offer them ways to discover what they think and feel and new ways to express those ideas.  Practice at putting pencil to paper helps students become more fluent in finding the best words, across any curriculum or in any situation, where they need to synthesize information and to speak their minds and hearts, and to feel more confident in doing so. Isn’t that a necessary and creative skill we want children to take into life?

• Students will create work that incorporates the use of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, figurative language, simile and metaphor, and practice editing and revising as part of the creative process.
• Students will stretch their imaginations as they become more attentive to words and their meaning, usage and unique effect in what is written and spoken.
• Students will gain writing, reading, and presentation skills that promote a willingness to learn and to speak more confidently about what they learn and think. 

Program Description: The Finding the Words Residency will use a variety of poetry-oriented writing practices to help students gain additional writing, reading, and synthesizing of information skills in accordance with specific academic standards. Writing skills can integrate historical and scientific studies   and the enforcement of subject knowledge. The incorporation of other arts areas, such as music and visual art, may be used in the learning process. Sample Explorations: Haiku/Haibun—a form of Japanese Poetry/Prose that focuses on observation and re-statement of idea. Cinquain—a form of poetry that focuses on parts of speech and the use of simile/metaphor.