Risking Intensity: Reading and Writing Poetry with High School Students. - Review - book review

Journal of Instructional Psychology, June, 1999

Risking Intensity: Reading and Writing Poetry with High School Students Judith Rowe Michaels

Don't be afraid to write and read poetry with your students is the message that Judith Michaels delivers in this new book from the National Council of Teachers of English. When you make a poetry assignment to your class, go through all the steps that you ask-associative thinking, dreaming, drafting, reading, rewriting, and sharing-yourself.

In this book aimed at junior and senior high school teachers and artists in residence, Michaels urges teachers and students to read and write poetry "as though their lives depended upon it," and to breathe life into classroom writing traditions that aren't hands-on or intense. It's vital she says, to feel the physical rhythm of the words and alert all your senses to the experience.

Risking Intensity: Reading and Writing Poetry with High School Students. Judith Rowe Michaels, author, 169 pages, soft cover. ISBN: 0-8141-4171-4. Price: $15.95, non-NCTE members; $11.95, NCTE members.

Audience: Teachers of junior high, senior high, and artists in residence. To request a review copy, contact Lori Bianchini 800-369-6283, ext. 3644; public-info@ncte.org NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096, 877-369-6283. National Council of Teachers of English A Professional Association of Educators in English Studies, Literacy, and Language Arts 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096. Phone: 217-328-3870 0 Fax: 217-328-0977