Most of the time my lesson plans reflect the dept head, which is fine, she has been doing this for 15 years while I have been doing it for two. But this week I tried something on my own.
Our big thing right now is “paired readings” which means two selections of different genres covering the same theme or topic. We’ve done bats and butterflies and this time I decided to pair an article from Newsela on the Grammys with this poem by Naomi Shihab Nye:
Famous”
BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth
before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.
The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.
Naomi Shihab Nye, "Famous" from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye, copyright © 1995. Used with permission of Far Corner Books.
And OMG did I want to be able to pair it with this song:
But of course....NOT possible. lol
Most of the kids really got it One of the kids who listens (at 10 years old) to System of a Down and Marilyn Manson, looked at the article and said ‘miss? Your taste in music sucks!!” hahahahahaha Kid’s after my heart, I tel ya!
