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"By heart"
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From: Robin Smith <smithr>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 13:57:11 -0500
A couple of years ago, I attended a small group coffee with Naomi Shihab Nye. She recounted the story (many of you have heard it) of her second grade teacher. Each child had a section of the blackboard on which to record poetry. The poems could be published by a published poet or by the second grade. The students would recite the poems every day and change them weekly. The picture of that room stayed with me. I could just smell all that chalk dust and imagine the whole room filled with poetry all day long. I could not get it out of my mind. And, since I teach second grade, I was especially moved by the image of that class.
Well, my second grade classroom doesn't have that kind of space, but I did borrow an idea from Naomi's grade two teacher. One of the children is the poet of the week. She is in charge of reciting an opening poem each morning as part of the morning ritual. I have an ample collection of poetry books to peruse or they can write their own poems if they wish. It is a nice, calm way to start the day and the children also enjoy have their "own" poem.
The first graders have a Poetry Parade each April. They learn a poem by heart and share it with the older children. They sometimes dress up as a character in the poem or they often carry a prop to act out the poem. I watched a first grade class perform their poems for an eighth grade class and it was a lot of fun to hear how many of the eighth graders still remembered their poem from their first grade Poetry Parade.
I am really enjoying this discussion.
Robin Smith
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 13:57:11 -0500
A couple of years ago, I attended a small group coffee with Naomi Shihab Nye. She recounted the story (many of you have heard it) of her second grade teacher. Each child had a section of the blackboard on which to record poetry. The poems could be published by a published poet or by the second grade. The students would recite the poems every day and change them weekly. The picture of that room stayed with me. I could just smell all that chalk dust and imagine the whole room filled with poetry all day long. I could not get it out of my mind. And, since I teach second grade, I was especially moved by the image of that class.
Well, my second grade classroom doesn't have that kind of space, but I did borrow an idea from Naomi's grade two teacher. One of the children is the poet of the week. She is in charge of reciting an opening poem each morning as part of the morning ritual. I have an ample collection of poetry books to peruse or they can write their own poems if they wish. It is a nice, calm way to start the day and the children also enjoy have their "own" poem.
The first graders have a Poetry Parade each April. They learn a poem by heart and share it with the older children. They sometimes dress up as a character in the poem or they often carry a prop to act out the poem. I watched a first grade class perform their poems for an eighth grade class and it was a lot of fun to hear how many of the eighth graders still remembered their poem from their first grade Poetry Parade.
I am really enjoying this discussion.
Robin Smith
--Received on Thu 24 Apr 2003 01:57:11 PM CDT
