From: Anne C Oelke <acoelke>
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 21:49:22 -0600

Thanks, Mark for your comments. I have noticed that many of my elementary students, especially the boys (now isn't that sexist???) are intrigued by poetry of the type that Mark refers to. It's "O-K" to enjoy that kind of poetry. Yet, we all enjoy and chuckle at it. My final thought upon reading Mark's comments was that I needed to add more poetry to my elementary storytimes with students. I think that I will choose just a short poem or two to fit along with the story that I am reading. Perhaps it will not be every week, but it needs to be quite regular. Starting with the preK children, I hope that this will build more of an appreciation for poetry. After all, we all started with picture books and Dick and Jane etc. long before we grew into reading Shakespeare, Hemingway, Steinbeck etc. Why should we expect anything different for poetry? So, thanks Mark for motivating me to work with this area more with my students.


Anne Oelke | "Some days are like that, acoelke at peoples.net | even in Australia!" Cambria-Friesland School Dst. | Judith Viorst in _Alexander Cambria, WI | & the Terrible, Horrible,
                                                           | No Good, Very Bad Day_.
Received on Tue 11 Feb 1997 09:49:22 PM CST