Poetry, she thought, with a sigh,is little more than proseedited forbrevityand line breaks. Right now, I’m doing a poetry unit with my fourth graders. Most of them dread poetry writing. While it’s no surprise, this news saddens me. As someone who prefers to express herself through poetry, I hold the belief that people are much… Continue reading Poetry Month: That’s the (Line) Breaks
Tag: poetry
Poetry Begins with Play
Learning to play with words is an important step for young writers who are learning to create poems.
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Have Charts, Will Travel. Mentor texts? Even better!
My last post was about some of the reflections that I want to remember when I teach any genre of writing, but I also wanted to share more of our poetry workshop and some of the amazing poems students wrote during our time by the lake. Teaching poetry in an outdoor education setting to fifth-grade students is… Continue reading Have Charts, Will Travel. Mentor texts? Even better!
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Put poetry into your writing tool kit all year!
Naturally, April seems to be the month to introduce poetry units of study as either part of writing or reading workshop, and that is a lovely celebration to look forward to. But, why wait until April? Why not bring the power of poetry into our workshops from the very beginning of the school year?
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Throwback Week: Be A Teacher Who Writes Poetry
Be a teacher who writes poetry and share it with your students.
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Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters.
One of the reasons poetry is so powerful is because of all that can be taught and learned via this genre. Since typically this genre is short it makes it manageable for students to try new strategies and techniques. It is also appealing since it takes less time to write a poem, often drafting, revision,… Continue reading Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters.
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Get Ready!
It's coming . . . Eight Days . . . Eight Poems . . . Insight into poetry that only comes from being a poet yourself. Join us for our poetry challenge: What? No blog? Don't let that stop you! Use Google Docs . . . simply upload your poem to Google Docs and then… Continue reading Get Ready!
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Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters
March 2009's Voices from the Middle included an article by Georgia Heard entitled "Celestino: A Tribute to the Healing Power of Poetry. " In typical Georgia Heard style, the article is both eloquent and poignant. Early in the article Heard writes, One of the reasons to invite poetry into our lives and into the lives of… Continue reading Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters
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The Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters.
"I hate poetry," unfortunately those words were the truth of my existence for many years. They prevented me from becoming an English major, steering me toward science -- give me biology and chemistry, not symbolism and personification. Embarrassingly, I even taught for a year while still hating poetry. I had never learned the point of… Continue reading The Big Picture Series: Poetry Matters.
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A Thought + A Poem
Around Indiana, Kindergarten Round Up is in full swing. This personally effects me since my red-headed flair of a five year old will be entering kindergarten next year. She is so excited. She's unable to keep still just thinking about going to kindergarten. I watch her pretend and imagine and dress up as a ninja-dentist-ballerina… Continue reading A Thought + A Poem
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Poetry Friday: An Original Acrostic.
With the start of the year, I've noticed several teachers having students use their names to make acrostic poems. I was reminded of a post Stacey wrote * about encouraging meaning in acrostic poetry. So, on my drive to work this morning, I composed one. I had to dig my notebook out of my bag and… Continue reading Poetry Friday: An Original Acrostic.
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Poetry Friday: Writer’s Notebook
Here's a poem from Ralph Fletcher's book, A Writing Kind of Day. Writer's Notebooks My brother Tom says he's a hundredaire with two hundred fifty dollars in his bank account. Dad's a thousandaire. I gave baby Julia two pennies so now she's a pennyaire. When I look at Julia her little bald head reminds me… Continue reading Poetry Friday: Writer’s Notebook
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 