Poetry Class Update

We are still working on our acrostic poems which we are writing in couplets.  I really put a big emphasis on word choice.  I have shown the kids how to use the dictionary app. on the computer and they are utilizing it for the thesaurus.  We are taking words that are over used such as "nice" or "pretty" and finding more interesting words as substitutes.  Sometimes, this will throw off the rhyme and requires that a couplet be rewritten.  It is my hope that all this revising and attention to detail will spill over to their other writing.  If you have a chance to reinforce this with other writing assignments at home, that would be great!  The poems we have been analyzing at the beginning of class is "The Ballad of William Sycamore" by Stephen Vincent Binet.