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[CCBC-Net] Poetry
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From: Dean Schneider <schneiderd>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 19:56:56 -0500
I think poetry is essential. As Joan Bransfield Graham says in her poem "A Kick in the Head," in Paul Janeczko's book of the same title, "Poetry jumpstarts my imagination." That's what poetry can do, whether you're introducing it in second grade of eighth grade or high school. It gets kids thinking in images and lines and rhythms.
And I don't worry about whether verse novels are really poetry, and I don't try to come up with other cute names for it. In a recent Horn Book interview, Virginia Euwer Wolff, author of the wonderful Make Lemonade and True Believer, wasn't so sure herself of what to call her writing. Maybe it's just writing in "funny shaped lines," she said. Regardless of what it is or what to call it, the really good novels in verse have a power and an immediacy, almost as if the words on those lines have an energy that goes straight to the narrator's mind, or heart. As Nikki Giovanni says in her poem "Poetry," "a poem is pure energy horizontally contained." I use verse novels and that power in my seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms to get them experimenting with poetry. I make no claims that my students are professional poets, but I do see frequent flashes of poetry that are exciting. To see big, too-cool 8th-grade boys get up and read the first poems they've ever written, and be proud of them, is a wonder to behold. And my approach is to use books such as Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust or Angela Johnson's The Other Side: Shorter Poems. Jacqueline Woodson's Locomotion would be great for ages a bit younger than I teach, grades 4-6, I'd say. I describe this approach and offer a bibliography in an article I wrote for Book Links (May 2004). Once students (and teachers) get the hang of this kind of writing, poetry ideas can come from novels, photographs in good nonfiction, and books on poetry such as Janeczko's Opening A Door and Seeing the Blue Between. A novel such as David Almond's Skellig has lines that might suggest poetry, and it also has lines from William Blake that ought to send teachers and their classes into reading some of William Blake's poetry. So, one thing can lead to another, and our tidy distinctions as to what really is poetry might not be so important, as long as we keep the whole range and world of poetry -- including classic poetry -- at our fingertips, ready to bring in to our students.
Though I teach 7th- and 8th-grade English, I often teach poetry to second or third graders and have developed an approach using picture books to inspire poetry writing (Book Links, April/May 2001; update May 2006). There are many picture books that are excellent read-alouds. Through them, young writers are hearing good language and making early attempts at a new kind of writing, getting them away from worksheets or canned activities to playing with language and imagery. Books such as Charles R. Smith's Rimshots, Eve Merriam's Quiet, Please, Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones, Bryan Collier's Uptown, and Steven Schnur's Winter are just a few of the picture books that can be models for kids' writing. And I like the wonderful illustrations; why not have poetry and art as a one-two punch in the elementary school classroom? I love introducing Bryan Collier's watercolor-and-collage art or Charles R. Smith's photography alongside the poetry I'm reading aloud.
Two of my favorite poetry guides of recent years are Paul Janeczko's A Kick in the Head and A Poke in the Eye. I see them as indispensable books for teachers' collections. And Chris Raschka's illustrations are an integral part of the wonder of these books. And I like using Janeczko's Opening A Door for weekly lessons on reading poetry with middle school students.
All of this said, I wouldn't recommend a whole year or semester on one genre or sub-genre of literature. As much as I like the sparsity and energy of novels in verse, I also like the power of the big novel with full developed characters, big themes, and a plot that pulls you in, such as Nancy Farmer's The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm, or great short stories as in Graham Salisbury's Island Boyz, and Richard Peck's novels in stories: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. And superb nonfiction such as Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth. Students exposed to this range of literature, with an occasional classic novel, too, are getting an education that encourages reading, writing, thinking, and imagining.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Thu 06 Apr 2006 07:56:56 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 19:56:56 -0500
I think poetry is essential. As Joan Bransfield Graham says in her poem "A Kick in the Head," in Paul Janeczko's book of the same title, "Poetry jumpstarts my imagination." That's what poetry can do, whether you're introducing it in second grade of eighth grade or high school. It gets kids thinking in images and lines and rhythms.
And I don't worry about whether verse novels are really poetry, and I don't try to come up with other cute names for it. In a recent Horn Book interview, Virginia Euwer Wolff, author of the wonderful Make Lemonade and True Believer, wasn't so sure herself of what to call her writing. Maybe it's just writing in "funny shaped lines," she said. Regardless of what it is or what to call it, the really good novels in verse have a power and an immediacy, almost as if the words on those lines have an energy that goes straight to the narrator's mind, or heart. As Nikki Giovanni says in her poem "Poetry," "a poem is pure energy horizontally contained." I use verse novels and that power in my seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms to get them experimenting with poetry. I make no claims that my students are professional poets, but I do see frequent flashes of poetry that are exciting. To see big, too-cool 8th-grade boys get up and read the first poems they've ever written, and be proud of them, is a wonder to behold. And my approach is to use books such as Karen Hesse's Out of the Dust or Angela Johnson's The Other Side: Shorter Poems. Jacqueline Woodson's Locomotion would be great for ages a bit younger than I teach, grades 4-6, I'd say. I describe this approach and offer a bibliography in an article I wrote for Book Links (May 2004). Once students (and teachers) get the hang of this kind of writing, poetry ideas can come from novels, photographs in good nonfiction, and books on poetry such as Janeczko's Opening A Door and Seeing the Blue Between. A novel such as David Almond's Skellig has lines that might suggest poetry, and it also has lines from William Blake that ought to send teachers and their classes into reading some of William Blake's poetry. So, one thing can lead to another, and our tidy distinctions as to what really is poetry might not be so important, as long as we keep the whole range and world of poetry -- including classic poetry -- at our fingertips, ready to bring in to our students.
Though I teach 7th- and 8th-grade English, I often teach poetry to second or third graders and have developed an approach using picture books to inspire poetry writing (Book Links, April/May 2001; update May 2006). There are many picture books that are excellent read-alouds. Through them, young writers are hearing good language and making early attempts at a new kind of writing, getting them away from worksheets or canned activities to playing with language and imagery. Books such as Charles R. Smith's Rimshots, Eve Merriam's Quiet, Please, Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones, Bryan Collier's Uptown, and Steven Schnur's Winter are just a few of the picture books that can be models for kids' writing. And I like the wonderful illustrations; why not have poetry and art as a one-two punch in the elementary school classroom? I love introducing Bryan Collier's watercolor-and-collage art or Charles R. Smith's photography alongside the poetry I'm reading aloud.
Two of my favorite poetry guides of recent years are Paul Janeczko's A Kick in the Head and A Poke in the Eye. I see them as indispensable books for teachers' collections. And Chris Raschka's illustrations are an integral part of the wonder of these books. And I like using Janeczko's Opening A Door for weekly lessons on reading poetry with middle school students.
All of this said, I wouldn't recommend a whole year or semester on one genre or sub-genre of literature. As much as I like the sparsity and energy of novels in verse, I also like the power of the big novel with full developed characters, big themes, and a plot that pulls you in, such as Nancy Farmer's The Ear, The Eye, and The Arm, or great short stories as in Graham Salisbury's Island Boyz, and Richard Peck's novels in stories: A Long Way from Chicago and A Year Down Yonder. And superb nonfiction such as Susan Campbell Bartoletti's Hitler Youth. Students exposed to this range of literature, with an occasional classic novel, too, are getting an education that encourages reading, writing, thinking, and imagining.
Dean Schneider Ensworth School Nashville, Tennessee schneiderd at ensworth.com
Received on Thu 06 Apr 2006 07:56:56 PM CDT
