Module 6 Poetry Break: Serious Poem
Poetry 5663
Diana Stephens
“If I Could Go Back”
By Alma Fullerton
From Walking on Glass
Introduction: I have two poems to share with you today from this new verse novel, Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton. It’s just been published. The first poem is called “If I Could Go Back.” I want to know, if you could change anything in history, what would it be?” (Accept all responses.) Listen to see if you hear any of your ideas in this poem.
“If I Could Go Back”
By Alma Fullerton
My teacher asks everyone,
If you could change
anything in history,
what would it be?
Kids say things like,
I’d prevent wars
or Bin Laden and Hitler
wouldn’t have been born.
Other kids nod their heads to agree.
When the teacher asks me,
I say,
“Four months ago,
I would have come home
five minutes earlier.”
Everyone looks away from me
like my face is on
sideways.
Extension: What are you thinking? (Wait for responses.) Could I have a volunteer who would read it again? What is it that happened at this house, do you think? What part of this poem do you like? Jot down in your journal some ideas about what you would like to change in history, and what you would like to change in your personal life. Those might be ideas for future poems.
Here’s another poem, the one the title comes from. I need a volunteer to help me read. We will each read alternate lines. I will read the first line, you will read the second line, and so on, to the end of the poem. See if it gives us any more information about what happened that day he wished he had come home five minutes earlier.
“Walking on Broken Glass”
If Mom came home,
things wouldn’t change.
Her mood would always flip
from bad to worse
in a matter of seconds,
and for the rest of our lives
Dad and I would
be walking on
shards of glass
from a broken
chandelier.
Extension: What are you thinking? What do you notice about the poem? (Accept all comments.) What do you think about the writer’s life? Why?
I will tell you one thing about this verse novel which you can read on the inside cover: his mother is in a suicide-induced coma.
Fullerton, Alma. 2007. Walking on Glass. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Poetry 5663
Diana Stephens
“If I Could Go Back”
By Alma Fullerton
From Walking on Glass
Introduction: I have two poems to share with you today from this new verse novel, Walking on Glass by Alma Fullerton. It’s just been published. The first poem is called “If I Could Go Back.” I want to know, if you could change anything in history, what would it be?” (Accept all responses.) Listen to see if you hear any of your ideas in this poem.
“If I Could Go Back”
By Alma Fullerton
My teacher asks everyone,
If you could change
anything in history,
what would it be?
Kids say things like,
I’d prevent wars
or Bin Laden and Hitler
wouldn’t have been born.
Other kids nod their heads to agree.
When the teacher asks me,
I say,
“Four months ago,
I would have come home
five minutes earlier.”
Everyone looks away from me
like my face is on
sideways.
Extension: What are you thinking? (Wait for responses.) Could I have a volunteer who would read it again? What is it that happened at this house, do you think? What part of this poem do you like? Jot down in your journal some ideas about what you would like to change in history, and what you would like to change in your personal life. Those might be ideas for future poems.
Here’s another poem, the one the title comes from. I need a volunteer to help me read. We will each read alternate lines. I will read the first line, you will read the second line, and so on, to the end of the poem. See if it gives us any more information about what happened that day he wished he had come home five minutes earlier.
“Walking on Broken Glass”
If Mom came home,
things wouldn’t change.
Her mood would always flip
from bad to worse
in a matter of seconds,
and for the rest of our lives
Dad and I would
be walking on
shards of glass
from a broken
chandelier.
Extension: What are you thinking? What do you notice about the poem? (Accept all comments.) What do you think about the writer’s life? Why?
I will tell you one thing about this verse novel which you can read on the inside cover: his mother is in a suicide-induced coma.
Fullerton, Alma. 2007. Walking on Glass. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
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