Reflections in Writing

Students in Mrs. Philipson's 8th Grade English class were asked to reflect on their time camping in North Carolina through a set of three poems. Two were haikus, each describing an element of nature they encountered on their trip. The third was a free verse poem that talked about an experience on the trip. These works ended up highlighting many elements from the trip - from the bus ride to experiencing a breathtaking view on the hike to being rained on in the middle of the night! The free-verse poem was a chance for students to practice creating using some of the tools they have been studying such as simile, metaphor, anaphora, antithesis, parallel structure, and allusion in their own writing. So how does such an assignment prepare our students for their life beyond 8th grade? According to Mrs. Philipson, "We spend a lot of time in 8th grade working on the analytical writing that will be the touchstone of literature courses through high school and college, and we really need to take time to stretch our creative writing muscle occasionally! In addition to analyzing how and why authors use specific tools in their work, we need to practice creating them so that we can use them in our own work."
 
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