The Celebration Poem

Throughout the year, my eighth-grade students read and write various forms of poetry. Recently, we discovered together the effectiveness of using poetry as a vehicle for celebrating a meaningful experience in our lives.

It started when I shared Byrd Baylor's book I'm in Charge of Celebrations with the class. It's a beautiful book based on celebrating natural phenomena and the privilege of witnessing triple rainbows, whirlwinds, coyotes, jackrabbits, meteor showers, unusual cloud shapes, and the first day of spring. After being caught up in the wonder of Baylor's words and spirit, students wanted to write about a celebration of their own. Realizing what a great idea this was, I drafted the guidelines below. I also copied one of Baylor's "celebrations" -- the one about the triple rainbow -- onto the chalkboard for students to refer to for inspiration.

1. Choose your own celebration, based on a special moment, a special memory, or something significant that happened in your life.

2. Describe it in detail. Tell what you're celebrating. Include sensory images, alliteration, similes, and metaphors. Choose your words and images carefully so that your description creates a vivid picture and sounds good when read aloud.

3. Tell how your celebration makes you feel and what effect it has on you.

4. Include the date and time of your celebration, as well as its "official" name.

Students have a day or two to write their poems, and then we have a read-aloud session where volunteers can read their celebration poem to the class. I evaluate students' poems in light of their inclusion of imagery, figurative language, and poetic techniques, and also in terms of their imagination and creativity.

The poems that are produced during this activity are always fun to read and hear, and commemorate many special moments from students' lives. For example, one eighth-grade student wrote a poem about dancing in the rain with her sisters, which ended:

And so was born
a new celebration
The Day of the Dance in the Rain.

Eventually, these celebration poems become part of an anthology students put together that includes both poems they've read and responded to and poems they've written. As a culminating activity, we hold a Coffee House Poetry Session and students read aloud one poem that they have discovered and one poem they have written.

Virginia Van Amburg, St. Joseph/Marquette School, Yakima, Washington

This teaching idea was originally published in Classroom Notes Plus (October 2002).