Beatnik Poetry

Over the last 4 or 5 years, our school has been receiving training in teaching children how to write, especially how to write to a prompt. This year we are doing 3 school-wide writing prompts. Just this week we completed our second one. Most of the children are understanding the assignment, but a few remain resistant to writing. One such child in my class did not want to write much past 3 lines. She was encouraged to try just a little harder. The prompt was to tell what you think friendship is. Although she never mentioned friendship, she did tell about her friend, John. She and John have been friends all through school, so she had many experiences to choose from. I cannot print her writing here, but will tell you that she wrote a page and a half with every other line stating, "He likes me a lot." With practice in reciting the piece, it begins to sound like beatnik poetry. So although she scored poorly on the assignment, I do think she has promise in writing poetry for the 60s. Now if I could just find those bongo drums.