Kate and the Bean Stalk

Imagine you’re at the market and a random person comes up to you and says “Hey, I will trade you these magical beans for one of your most prized possessions.” Welcome to Kate’s world. The book I am referring to is Kate and the Bean Stalk by Mary Pope Osborne.  As Kate is not the wealthiest kid on the block, one day her mother asks her to go to the market to sell a cow for some food. On her way she meets a guy who offers “magic beans” for her cow. Kate accepts, but it makes her mother furious and she throws the beans out the window. Later that night Kate goes outside to find the beans, but instead finds a surprise. She sees a HUGE bean stalk that goes for miles. In her state of curiosity she begins to climb the bean stalk. She stops when she sees a castle. An old lady greets her and begins to tell her the story about a family whose father was killed by a giant. The mother and her child were so scared that they moved and were poor. The old lady tells Kate that the king had some prized possessions. She tells Kate that if she can find those possessions the family would no longer be poor. Kate heads to the castle to begin her quest when she runs into a giantess who is looking for a servant. Kate became that servant and each time she served breakfast she noticed the giant had one of the king’s prized possessions which she would steal. Kate took all three prized possessions and the giant chased after her.  She ran down the bean stalk, cut it down and the giant fell to his death. The fairies came and told the old lady that Kate and her mother are the king’s family and they lived happily ever after.

                This is a good example of traditional literature to have in the classroom because it incorporates different elements of traditional literature.  This story incorporates motifs such as magic, journeys and quest, trickery, and respective phrases.  The story incorporates magic because Kate receives magic beans. Those magic beans lead to a magical kingdom with giants and fairies. As the story goes on Kate goes on a journey to find all the king’s possessions so that the king’s family will not be poor. The giantess uses trickery to keep Kate as a servant so the giant will not eat her. The giantess would make Kate hide whenever the giant would eat his food. Kate would also use trickery when she would take the king’s prized possessions. The Giant used  a repetitive phrase whenever he ate. The giant would say “FEE, FI, FO, FUM” every time the giantess would give him breakfast. The setting also contains elements of traditional literature. The book starts out, “Long ago, a girl named Kate  lived with her mother in a in a humble cottage”. The plot is also predictable. Every time the giant would eat his breakfast, Kate would steal one of the king’s possessions.  In our opinion this would be ideal for the third to fourth grade, because the language and plot is easy for the students to understand.

                

I Never Said I Wasn't Difficult

Have you ever felt torn between two or more emotions? Have you ever wanted someone to be there for you, but yet you try to push them away and make them leave? Have you ever wanted privacy, yet you didn't want to be alone? Does this sound familiar to you? If you are old enough to read this blog, you are old enough to have been there. These are common emotions for teens and preteens. They want to be all grown up and not need their parents, but yet in so many ways, are still so young and need their parents love and support more than ever.

So, what is poetry? Our book says that poetry “tugs at you with an insistent voice that rings through your head.” Another page says that “poetry is like a picture taken without a camera.” Poetry has several elements that make it able to be considered “well crafted”. Some of those elements are sound, rhyme, alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia, rhythm, figurative language, shape, emotional force and insight.

Wow, does this blog post seem all over the place to you? Yes, I have taken my ADD medicine this morning. 

Just like teens and preteens can often seem all over the place with their emotions but to them it makes perfect sense, I am going to tie the elements of poetry and the wide variety of emotions of teens and preteens together.

The element of sound in poetry consists of the subcategories of rhyme, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhythm.  Our textbook says that “the sounds of poetic language are what make it sound musical to the ear.”

 Are you still wondering how these two seemingly different subjects tie together?  Read this poem by Sara Holbrook and I will show you how they relate.

I Never Said I Wasn't Difficult by Sara Holbrook

I never said I wasn't difficult,

I mostly want my way.

Sometimes I talk back or pout

And don’t have much to say.

I've been known to yell “So What?”

When I’m stepping out of bounds.

I want you there for me and yet,

I don’t want you around.

I wish I had more privacy

And never had to be alone.

I want to run away,

But I am scared to leave my home.

I’m too tired to be responsible.

I wish that I were boss.

I want to blaze new trails,

But I am terrified of getting lost.

I wish an answer came every time I asked you “why?”

I wish you weren't a know it all.

Why do you question when I’m bored?

I won’t be cross examined!

I hate to be ignored.

I know I shuffle messages like cards.

Some to show and some to hide.

But if you think I’m hard to live with,

You should try living with me on the inside!

This poem has a rhyming scheme in which the 4^th line rhymes with the 2^nd line. This scheme repeats in several stanzas of the poem which gives it a “tug of war” type of feeling. That feeling is often displayed in the emotions of the preteens and teens that this poem was written about.

There are several  examples of assonance, or a repeating internal vowel sound that provides a partial rhyme in this poem. Here is one of them.

“I wish I had more privacy, 
And never had to be alone.
I want to run away
But I’m afraid to leave my home.”

The repeated sound is the long O sound in alone and home.

Poems also have the elements of figurative language, shape, emotional force and insight.

This poem is a great example of using emotional force. This poem pulls you one way and then another, over and over again, much like the conflicting emotions felt by a middle school student. It also gives us insight and helps us remember what it was like to be that age and be all over the place as far as our moods and emotions are concerned.

There, I did it. I made two seemingly unrelated subjects subjects relate.

 My opinion of this poem is that it could definitely be used to teach the elements of poetry to a group of older elementary children. Many 4^th and 5^th graders, especially girls, can already understand this emotional tug of war. If we as teachers acknowledge it, and show examples of authors, who our students look up to, who acknowledge it, then it will seem more normal and not as scary as they begin to navigate the course of their preteen and teenage years.

 If we don’t acknowledge the mood swings that our students face as they enter these confusing years, we cause it to be a taboo subject and students may feel like it is not a normal thing. Our goal as teachers should be not only to teach the CCGPS and GPS standards, but to teach life as well, because many of our students won’t get those lessons at home.