Weekly Inspiration: Perseverance

For this week's inspiration, I was thinking about everyone getting ready for testing. Many kids find testing to be overwhelming and get frustrated quickly. I decided the inspiration for this week should be on perseverance and not giving up.

Poetry: "On Quitting"
For the poem this week, I chose "On Quitting" by Edgar Albert Guest. I would read the poem to my students and have them visualize and think about the poem might mean. I would still use the Poetry Peace Map from Laura Candler's website to do three readings of the poem. After using the graphic organizer a couple times, I would have the students draw it themselves. Discuss vocabulary like grit and pluck. I think this would be a great poem to have the students illustrate. You could even have them write their own poem on showing "grit." Have them think about a time they quit. How did they feel? Did they ever almost quit and keep going? How could they apply these ideas to testing?

Quote: Einstein's Problem Solving.
I chose a quote from Einstein. All student's should have heard of Einstein. If not, you could do a quick introduction on Einstein before introducing the quote.

Have your students consider what can be gained by sticking with something even if it seems confusing, long, or too difficult. You can download the quote at my TpT store.

Picture: Running the Race

Have your students consider what it takes to run a race and finish. What is the goal? What keeps runners motivated?

I hope this provides some writing inspiration or just a little inspiration to persevere and keep up the hard work. :)