Case Study 7: River Poetry
Case Study 7: ‘River Poetry’
© Steve Pratchett (1997)
"The afternoon sun was getting low as Rat sculled gently homewards in a dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself and not paying much attention to Mole".
(Kenneth Grahame 1908 The Wind in the Willows. Puffin, 1983)
Introduction:
The children who wrote the poems in this case study were 10-11 years old. They did so as part of a river studies project involving collaboration between Barbara Howland & Mark Wiggins, (class teachers at Estover Primary School, Devon) and Steve Pratchett, (Senior Lecturer at The University College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth).
The Geography and English National Curriculum Context
The river poetry activity is a good example of integration between National Curriculum English and geography.
"In looking at landscape features it is important at all levels to begin by asking the children for their own descriptive words - wiggling, winding, bending, turning twisting and snaking give just as clear a picture of the course of a river as 'meandering' does, and the opportunity to build up a list of synonyms in this way not only develops general vocabulary but also reinforces the meaning of the more specific term when it is eventually introduced".
Lewis & Watts (1995:35)
Herein lies the greatest value of the poetry activity. Yes it develops children's vocabulary and skills in English but it is also good geography because the synonyms help to reinforce key geographical concepts and terminology.
In the following poem written by an eleven-year old pupil, we can not only see language used expressively to describe visual images and evoke mood but it also draws on geographical vocabulary e.g. "meanders through the moor collecting water from its tributaries":
The Cherrybrook river
"As I watched the glistening river,
Flowing and splitting past the rocks
I looked down to see
Water boatmen skating past me.
I followed them down stream,
To a place like my dream
Where the fish swim in clear waters allat peace.
While blowing on the barbed wire
I see sheeps fleece.
The river meanders through the moor
Collecting water from its tributaries
On its long and winding journey to the
SEA."
The Key Stage 2 English National Curriculum states:
1a "Pupils should be given opportunities to write for varied purposes, understanding that writing is essential to thinking and learning and enjoyable in itself".
As will be seen from the quality of the poems, the act of writing while sitting on the banks of a river for half an hour observing your "favourite spot" was not only a very enjoyable experience for the children but led to intense concentration and quiet contemplation and reflection.
1c "The forms in which they write should include imaginative writing, e.g...... poems"...... They should be taught to use features of layout and presentation".
1b "Pupils should be given opportunities to write for an extended range of readers, eg. the class, other children, adults in the school and community, imagined audiences.”
The class teacher encouraged the children when back at school to design the layout for a page in a poetry book. This page was to integrate their field work sketches, aphotograph of the spot in the river that they had been observing, and the text of their poem configured in such a way as to convey something about the river and its atmosphere. The extended range ofaudiences for this poetry book were parents, their peers, children in other classes, students at a teacher training college and submission for publication to the Primary Geographer journal.
The National Curriculum also places stress on pupils being taught to: "plan, draft, revise, proofread and present." (2b). The class teacher ensured that the children went through all these stages which helped to refinetheir words and phrases recorded on the river bank and hone their presentation skills.
The activity:
"As the afternoon sun was getting low" and after a busy afternoon of geographical field work, the children chose their favourite spot on the Cherry Brook River bank to "murmur poetry-things" to themselves like Rat in 'Wind in the Willows'. Some sat on large boulders in the middle of the river some sat on the bank itself. Both the teacher and I used careful questioning to encourage the children to refine their observations. They were encouraged to make sketches as well as to record words and phrases that expressed the sights, sounds and smells.
"The importance of talking - describing, questioning, discussing - as support for drawing cannot be overemphasised. It is through talk as much as through looking that children come to see the world about them more clearly and perceptively."
(Clement 1986 p. 115.)
The class teacher also took photographs of each child's chosen part of the river which they used back in the classroom to help with recall and the revision of their work. The children also incorporated their photographs in the design of their poetry page.
The poems:
It is not possible to include the full text of all the poems so the following extracts have been chosen to give a flavour of the children's observations and reflections.
The visual references made by the children:
"Sitting and watching
the river flow,
Then all of a sudden
the wind starts to blow,
The river cascades and
twirls into shape
To avoid the colourful
rocks in the way...... "
Rocks and sand smooth
gentle weeds, light from
the sun shining down
on to the river...... "
"Slowly the bubbles flow
down river
to the deep blue sea".
"water eating at the edges
currents in the river...... "
(" Eating at the edges"- a nice anthropomorphic allusion here to the river eroding the river banks e.g. the concept of corrasion -the process by which the material, carried by the water, abrades the river banks undercutting them and causing collapse).
"The water gleams as the sun beams
Down on it...... ".
"I can see the colours in the rocks, yellow, green and black...... "
"The stones on the river bed
are more colourful,
As they glisten in the sun"
(An astute observation that colours are more vibrant when stones are wet rather than dry).
"Wet stones glistening in the warmth
of the sun"......
"The river shines and shimmers in the sun.
One boulder sits in the middle of the
river all alone.
The river bed is full of rainbow colours.
Small fish swim around the pebbly bed.
Colourful stones rest on the bottom.
Green, yellow, blue, red, white, brown,
Orange, black, peachey brown and pink...... "
(Apart from the expressive use of language, notice the development of vocabulary arising from field work discussions, e.g. "bed", "boulder" also note the description of colours which probably arose from an activity where the children used a stone board to analyse the shapes, colours and dimensions of stones across the river-bed. There is an excellent linguistic device used to describe a colour e.g. the hyphenation of a familiar object (peach) and a colour (brown) to identify the precise colour tint. It is also worth considering how the field sketches of the river and its movement around rocks and boulders have helped to refine the children's perception of line, tone, colour shape and texture).
"As the river flows gently under the bridge, it makes tiny
ripples as it hits the rocks".
The atmosphere as captured by the children:
"The water whirls round the bend,
A moments peace and shade taken from the
bridge before each droplet again races
one another to the sea, their finishing line...... "
(A delightful turn of phrase, "a moments peace and shade taken from the bridge before...."which contrasts with the sense of whirling speed before this moment and the onward race that follows immediately afterwards).
"Splashing slydey wavey,
it is so peaceful you
only can hear the river...... "
("In looking at landscape features it is important at all levels to begin by asking the children for their own descriptive words".Lewis & Watts 1995).
.
"As the summer morning is misting into heat
the water just cascades...... ".
("As the summer morning is misting into heat"; what a remarkable observation that conjures up an early morning river mist thinning to reveal the burning heat of the sun - a phrase that Kenneth Grahame would have been proud of. Yes this does happen on Dartmoor, it's not all rain!)
The sounds heard:
"It picks up speed, whooshing, whirling, bubbling as it goes' meandering around the bend.
Gushing, roaring, splashing too and the wood pigeon above
gives a quick cook-coo.
Where will this gurgling ever end?
Suddenly it's peaceful, still and calm then instantly
disturbed by a splashing foot...... "
"The whirling and splashing sounds of the river
become louder as the water hits the rocks...... ".
"The crashing is a joyful sound,
It gets faster as it goes down.
Then it meanders once again.
The burbling sound means
it's getting closer to the sea."
"As I sit by the Cherrybrook River
All that I can hear is splashing of the water
cleverly knocking the stones
one by one as it rushes to the sea...... ".
(Apart from the expressive use of language there is evidence of the concept of transportation creeping in, e.g. saltation - the way in which the river makes smaller stones bounce and skip along the river-bed and attrition - the process by which material moves along the river bed colliding with other material and breaking up into smaller pieces).
Thoughtful ponderings!
"Where it stops nobody knows...... "
"Rocks water fast flowing, bubbling whizzing
towards the sea.
To different countries...... "
"Now slow and still going past towering banks.
Dropping small stones that
fish dodge down in the depths.
Still its journey has been short,
to the sea...... "
(In many of the poems the children reflected on the river's journey...... "where is it going?" and mention its ultimate destination, the sea).
A sense of place:
"Finally - and most importantly - comes the quetion "What would it feel like to be in this place?". This is the imaginative dimension of the subject".
(Storm 1989 p. 4).
In part, geography is about developing a sense of place; what it would feel like to be there. In reading these poems you cannot help but get a real feel for the Cherry Brook on Dartmoor. Doesn't it make you want to visit there? (OS map Landranger 191, grid ref. 631,749)!
References
Clement, R. The Art Teacher’s Handbook. London: Hutchinson
Grahame, K. (1908) The Wind in the Willows. Puffin, 1983
Lewis, E & Watts, S(1995) ‘A World of Words – Primary geography & language development’ in Primary Geographer no 2. Sheffield Geographical Association.
Storm, M. (1989) ‘The Five Basic Questions for Primary Geography’ in Primary GeographerNo. 2. Sheffield: Geographical Association.
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The resource was written by Steve Pratchett and copyright resides with the author. Any images or other materials are original unless stated otherwise. Copyright images may be excluded from the Creative Commons licence described below.
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January 2012
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