E-mail this page Reader Comments (below)

By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer Sunday, February 18, 2007

At Portland's Nathan Clifford School, teacher Cathy Buck doesn't give her third-graders an inch.

"Tell me something you know about this man," she said, pointing at a collage of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

"He's famous."

"And why is he famous?"

"He built a school."

"You're kind of right. But it was not built until after him," Buck said during her lesson on Longfellow (who has another Portland elementary school named for him).

Buck has her students guess and recall what they've learned about Longfellow in various lessons throughout the school year.

The third-graders have been learning about Longfellow as part of their history curriculum, which is required learning in Maine. But Buck incorporates this history -- so dear to the city of Portland -- in many subjects.

This spring, her Longfellow lessons will culminate in a "physical theater," when the Clifford students craft a play using facts about Longfellow and cast themselves on a stage without props.

"I'm always looking for patterns," said Buck, a teacher for 15 years. "Longfellow in Portland is part of the (Maine) Learning Results. We study history in a sequence. It's our decision how we do that."

Last week, the daily Longfellow lessons were multifaceted.

Buck began by having the students compare and contrast life today with life in the 1800s. It was her way to impart an appreciation of Longfellow's poetry and what it would have meant in the 1800s.

"What are three things they would have done back in the 1800s to relax?" Buck asked.

After "sleeping," "eating" and "taking a bath" were accepted as worthy answers (and computers, video games and television were thrown out), the students realized music and reading were hobbies they would have shared with those who lived during Longfellow's time.

The lesson rolled into English literature, and then on to grammar.

After Buck had the students read in a circle from Longfellow's "The Day is Done," she used the poem to teach them about similes, like the one Longfellow used:

"As showers from the clouds of summer,

"Or tears from the eyelids start."

Together, Buck and the Clifford students went to the chalkboard and worked on their own version of a poetic simile:

"Nathan Clifford School is

"As tall as a skyscraper,

"Or as old as my great-grandmother."

It was only a first stanza, but to Buck, it was a bit more.

The verse represented her students' ability to identify with their city's famous poet.

"I want them to hear a simile, and then write a poem from that. That's what I really want them to learn, not just the history of the city. It has to come down to more than that," Buck said.

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at: