"Each day we go many places - many ordinary, some extraordinary. This project asks
participants to take a look at the places they go through new eyes, and to share their
thoughts through images and poetry."
Lanise Jacoby
Lighthouses
Keep
the Lights Burning, Abbie, is an important piece in our Literacy Program. This
book is based upon a true account of an event in the life of Abbie Burgess. In this story
Abbie, a young girl, must climb the spiral staircases in the lighthouse at Matinicus Rock
in Maine many times each night to keep the lights burning during a terrible storm.
To help deepen the
children's understanding, we take a trip
to Gloucester, Massachusetts to Eastern Point Lighthouse.
There we are met by the Coast Guard and climb similar spiral stairs to the top. You
can imagine the impact this has on the children!
Our Special Place
After our
trip, we began work on our project. First we read Autumn:
An Alphabet Acrostic. This was a great way for us to become familiar with acrostic
poetry. We loved this literary form! After our collaborative effort, the children began
writing many individual acrostics in Writers' Workshop!
~ LIGHTHOUSES ~
Lights flashing
In the dark
night
Gulls gliding
in the air
High above the
land
Towers watch
tides roll in and out
Huge rocks and
Ocean waters
all around
Under the stars
Signals save
ships from danger
Each light
different from the other
Next we heard The
Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown for our second part of the project.
Children worked with partners writing about what they felt was important about
lighthouses.
We then shared all of our ideas, compiling them to create our poem.
Here are the results of our efforts.
The important thing about
lighthouses is that they have lights.
The lights warn ships of danger in the night.
The lights flash in different signal patterns.
Lighthouses are always near or surrounded by water and rocks.
They have special marks called daymarks to tell sailors where they are during the day.
They can have keepers’ houses.
The Coast Guard looks after most of them.
Spiral stairs take you to the top where you can see for miles.
They are like towers.
They are usually round and made of bricks.
But the important thing about lighthouses is that they have lights.
Ms. Jacoby's
LINKS TO LEARNING can be viewed on her class webpage. These links will help you explore the theme of lighthouses.
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| Standards: English
Language Arts Framework
Literature Strand
Learning Standard 14 - Students will identify, analyze, and apply
knowledge of the structure, elements, and theme of poetry and provide evidence from the
text to support their understanding.
Learning Standard 18 - Students will identify and analyze how an author's
choice of words appeals to the senses, creates imagery, suggests mood, and sets tone.
Learning Standard 17 - Students will interpret the meaning of literary
works, non-fiction, films, and media by using different critical lenses and analytic
techniques.
Composition Strand
Learning Standard 20
Students will select and use appropriate genres, modes of reasoning, and speaking styles
when writing for different audiences and rhetorical purposes.
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