To Friendship - Poetry as a tool for reflecting on—and celebrating—friendship - Brief Article

Instructor, Sept, 2000 by Paul B. Janeczko

Poetry as a tool for reflecting on--and celebrating--friendship

The start of the school year is the perfect time to encourage students to think about friendship. "To You," by Karla Kuskin, offers young writers a chance to explore the facets of friendship in a poem.

Reading and Discussing the Poem

"To You" is a wonderful poem to read aloud. You might read it aloud yourself, have one or two students read it, have different children read different parts, and even read the poem in unison.

Ask if children notice any patterns. Some may notice how the poem is divided into four sections, each beginning with the phrase "I think I could." These same sections each end in a phrase beginning with "if." In effect, section says, "I think I could endure something unpleasant if you were with me. The final two lines, after the break, sum up the main idea of the poem: "I think I could do anything at all, / if you were there."

While reading the poem aloud, children may have heard how Kuskin uses sound in her poem. Draw attention to these sound devices:

* alliteration (repetition of initial consonant sounds): simmering sand; swim the skin shivering sea; run on ragged, rugged rocks; held your hand

* assonance (repetition of vowel sounds): the short i sound in swim, skin, shivering

* end rhyme: sand / hand, sea / me, air / there

Teaching With the Reproducible

Ask children what qualities they think make a good friend. Write their answers on the board before distributing the reproducible, page 52, a graphic organizer to help them brainstorm for a poem about a friend. Children should choose one friend and write his or her name in the middle of the web. The rest of the web is for specific details about that person.

Have children look carefully at their completed webs to see if any themes emerge. What few details from the web might together make a coherent verse? A child who notices that she and her friend have done some exciting, fun things together might write a poem called "We Have Done It All."

Poems about friends can take any form. "To You" is a poem of address, written to someone. Other amenable forms include a story poem, or an acrostic poem in which each letter of the friend's name begins a line describing him or her in some way.

Since friendship is about sharing, be sure to find a way for children to share their completed poems with one another through drawings, collages, or a book.

Paul B. Janeczko is a poet and teacher of poetry whose many books include Easy Poetry Lessons (Scholastic Professional Books, 1998).

Pooms About Friendship

* A Time to Talk, edited by Myra Cohn Livingston (McElderry Books, 1992)

* You and Me, edited by Salley Mavor (Orchard Books, 1997)

* Very Best (Almost) Friends, edited by Paul B. Janeczko (Candlewick Press, 1999)