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A small wish
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From: JoAnn Portalupi <bogus_at_does.not.exist.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:10:52 +0100
I second Ruth's wish for more paperback poetry. I'd like to point out a new edition to the list of available and affordable verse. "Room for Love" is a paper edition of the complete poems of two earlier volumes of poetry for young adults, I Am Wings and Buried Alive by Ralph Fletcher, published by Atheneum. At 4.95 these love poems are easily within reach (economically and otherwise) of their teen audience. The latter volume makes an interesting selection for readers theatre. Nothing brings poetry alive like the voice of a real reader.
As to the value of memorization, my thoughts stand on the thinking of a colleague, Liza Bianchi Lenz, who works with her students on developing their oral capacity to interpret poetry. Her first graders came up with their own schema for memorizing poetry. It goes like this. There are three stages in learning a poem.
Stage one: Learn the words. (Remember, when you are six you have to spend time figuring out pronunciation.)
Stage Two: mark lines you like, consider the meaning of the poem--the feeling, the tone, what the poet wants to say.
Stage Three: Learn it by heart.
The word "heart" is important here. Her students are quite clear about one thing. Only certain poems make it to stage three. To learn something by heart goes beyond memorization. It's a matter of taking the whole of the poem inside of you, into your heart, and owning it's meaning. The process is a form of interpretation and one they enter with a sense of joy. Which poems make it to stage three? The ones they choose!
Of course, all this implies a classroom where the teacher shares lots of poetry and has committed her own favorites to heart.
JoAnn Portalupi, Assistant Professor University of Alabama at Birmingham
(205) 934T19 jport at uab.edu
JoAnn Portalupi, Ph.D. UAB School of Education Department of Curriculum & Instruction 901 South 13th St. Birmngham, AL 35294 - 1250
phone (205) 934T19
fax (205) 934G92
Received on Thu 16 Apr 1998 04:10:52 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:10:52 +0100
I second Ruth's wish for more paperback poetry. I'd like to point out a new edition to the list of available and affordable verse. "Room for Love" is a paper edition of the complete poems of two earlier volumes of poetry for young adults, I Am Wings and Buried Alive by Ralph Fletcher, published by Atheneum. At 4.95 these love poems are easily within reach (economically and otherwise) of their teen audience. The latter volume makes an interesting selection for readers theatre. Nothing brings poetry alive like the voice of a real reader.
As to the value of memorization, my thoughts stand on the thinking of a colleague, Liza Bianchi Lenz, who works with her students on developing their oral capacity to interpret poetry. Her first graders came up with their own schema for memorizing poetry. It goes like this. There are three stages in learning a poem.
Stage one: Learn the words. (Remember, when you are six you have to spend time figuring out pronunciation.)
Stage Two: mark lines you like, consider the meaning of the poem--the feeling, the tone, what the poet wants to say.
Stage Three: Learn it by heart.
The word "heart" is important here. Her students are quite clear about one thing. Only certain poems make it to stage three. To learn something by heart goes beyond memorization. It's a matter of taking the whole of the poem inside of you, into your heart, and owning it's meaning. The process is a form of interpretation and one they enter with a sense of joy. Which poems make it to stage three? The ones they choose!
Of course, all this implies a classroom where the teacher shares lots of poetry and has committed her own favorites to heart.
JoAnn Portalupi, Assistant Professor University of Alabama at Birmingham
(205) 934T19 jport at uab.edu
JoAnn Portalupi, Ph.D. UAB School of Education Department of Curriculum & Instruction 901 South 13th St. Birmngham, AL 35294 - 1250
phone (205) 934T19
fax (205) 934G92
Received on Thu 16 Apr 1998 04:10:52 AM CDT
