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Poetry in novels
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From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 19:58:53 -0500
When Sharon Creech's LOVE THAT DOG first came out, I read it to my sixth graders and wrote to another list serve about the astonishing response of unsolicited poetry I received in their reflection journals. That story was a springboard to an annotated bibliography of novels (mostly) in verse that will appear in BOOK LINKS this spring. Since I wrote that piece, of course, I've been especially conscious of new titles. I'm intrigued by Ron Koertge's SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP in which the rather transparent device of a bout with mono is the excuse for a boy's experimentation with an amazing variety of poetic forms. I'm not sure the story is strong enough to attract many independent readers, but I can imagine all kinds of classroom use. In our middle school, at least, there is considerable interest in poetry; students are enthusiastic about reading it and finding poems that speak to them particularly, making their own anthologies, and they enjoy writing it. This is quite different from attitudes toward poetry in middle school 15 years ago.
The increased use of poetry to tell stories (both fiction and non-fiction) seems a natural result of this resurgence of appreciation for this form.
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 19:58:53 -0500
When Sharon Creech's LOVE THAT DOG first came out, I read it to my sixth graders and wrote to another list serve about the astonishing response of unsolicited poetry I received in their reflection journals. That story was a springboard to an annotated bibliography of novels (mostly) in verse that will appear in BOOK LINKS this spring. Since I wrote that piece, of course, I've been especially conscious of new titles. I'm intrigued by Ron Koertge's SHAKESPEARE BATS CLEANUP in which the rather transparent device of a bout with mono is the excuse for a boy's experimentation with an amazing variety of poetic forms. I'm not sure the story is strong enough to attract many independent readers, but I can imagine all kinds of classroom use. In our middle school, at least, there is considerable interest in poetry; students are enthusiastic about reading it and finding poems that speak to them particularly, making their own anthologies, and they enjoy writing it. This is quite different from attitudes toward poetry in middle school 15 years ago.
The increased use of poetry to tell stories (both fiction and non-fiction) seems a natural result of this resurgence of appreciation for this form.
-- Kathy Isaacs kisaacs at mindspring.comReceived on Wed 02 Apr 2003 06:58:53 PM CST
