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Poets read for public, write for world
(by Mark J. Bonamo - February 12, 2008)
Jose Melendez is a first grader in Ms. Miranda’s class at Fairmount School in Hackensack. The soft-spoken six-year old is also an artist. Sitting cross-legged on a classroom floor, he talked about why he likes to write poetry.
“When I write something, I feel a little special. It entertains people,” he said with a smile, thinking about his most recent poem, “The Ball.” “And when I’m done, I could show my parents and they could say something good.”
Students at Fairmount School have been showing the world that they can write through a program run by school literacy coach Jessica Luciano-Dow. The “Growing Up Writing” program helps students to express their innermost thoughts on paper and tries to encourage kids to give voice to their dreams through the written word. At the same time, their work offers sharp snap shots of the reality of Hackensack life through the eyes of the city’s youngest citizens.
photo by Christopher Trento
Fairmount students read original poetry at Starbucks.
Growing up writing, growing up in Hackensack
At a Jan. 30 poetry reading held at the Starbucks located at 360 Essex St., Fairmount School students from kindergarten to fourth grade had the opportunity to read their work before an audience of family, friends, teachers and interested members of the Hackensack community. Third grader Victoria Velez read “My Grandpa Leaving For Florida,” while first grader Noah Caballero gave some practical advice about “How To Get Dressed.” The one-word title of kindergartner Adrian Rodriguez’s work said it all: “IHOP.”
After the students were done reading their poems, Luciano-Dow told the crowd the location of the creative wellspring of their work.
“The students have been creating narratives from their personal lives,” she said. “Then the teachers work on incorporating different grammar and syntax skills into their work. I would say 99 percent of the work comes purely from the children. The children choose their own topics. They are not given a prompt, such as the ones given in previous traditional writing skills teaching models. These children are true authors, and they take great pride in their work.”
Back at Fairmount School, Luciano-Dow explained how the teachers work to prompt students to get enthused and engaged by writing.
“The teachers show a love for reading when they read aloud to the students,” she said.
“We try to find stories that are connected to their personal lives and that are relevant to where they live. Then you get the kids hooked. Before you know it, they are picking up books. Then the writing follows. First, they mimic some of the stories that they read. Then they understand the concept that authors have a story to tell. Therefore, they have a story to tell.”
A true fish story
First grade teacher Shannon Cox-Murphy noted how her student Grant Gallerini told his story in his poem “How To Go Fishing.”
“Grant loves to go fishing with his father,” she said. “That’s the area in which he felt he had expertise.”
Cox-Murphy noted the importance of parental input is getting kids to express themselves.
“If you are see your parents read and write, you see how much richer your home life can be,” she said. “Then kids have to be in a risk free environment in which perfect spelling is not expected immediately. This way they know that the expectations on them are within reach. You follow by taking them to the next level by helping them make adjustments in capitalization and punctuation as they go along. Each time they write, you build them up and celebrate their work as true writers.”
Looking at the 6-year old Grant, his teacher painted a portrait of the artist as a young man.
“He’s quite comfortable in his own skin, and he takes a lot of risks in his writing,” she said. “He can be unassuming, but can surprise you with what he can do. He pulls these wonderful stories out of his pocket.”
Writers reach out to the community
Luciano-Dow noted that events such as the student poetry reading at Starbucks, from which part of the proceeds went to support the ongoing Fairmount School Project Playground effort, is a way to build bridges to those beyond school boundaries.
“Our real focus is to build relationships between our community and our public schools,” she said. “We want to open up communication, get parents involved and get the community really engaged and interested in what the schools are doing. It’s great when we can do something outside of the schools at an hour when parents can try to make an event.”
Jose Melendez and his work are already the main event at home. With the help of his Salvadoran-born parents, he is now ready to go global.
“With my sister I speak English, but with my parents I speak Spanish,” he said. “When I read in Spanish, my parents are impressed. I’m going to start writing in Spanish, too. But I’m going to learn from my parents first.”
E-mail: bonamo@northjersey.com
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