A plethora of poetry

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 2003 by Swartz, Elizabeth

Poetic possibilities abound during National Poetry Month - and beyond

Poetry can be a respite as well as curriculum if it's handled well. Read it aloud often. Be surprised by it. Play with it. Illustrate it. Enjoy it.

Poetry needs to be rolled around in your mouth so you can taste it. It needs to float through the air to be heard properly. It needs to be twirled and danced with, laughed and cried with, to become part of you.

The funnier, the better. Bruce Lansky has some good suggestions in the introduction to his book, Poetry Party (Simon & Schuster, 1996). He suggests taking any poetry book, the funnier the better, to a place where there are people, like the cafeteria or library, and just begin reading aloud. A crowd will gather and trust me, the kids will love it.

Finding the time. When can I possibly do all of this, you ask? Have poems ready for when the lunch line slows to a stop, the buses are late, the nurse is doing head lice checks, or when your students' eyes start to glaze over during your mid-morning lesson.

Start, of course, with your very favorite poem and poets. Always have the children on the look out for poems to share. They may find some in magazines, on greeting cards or in books from home. Keep the enjoyment of poetry away from grades and assignments as much as humanly possible.

Put poems on the bulletin board and in scrapbooks. Keep them handy for children to enjoy whenever their work is finished. Design a learning center for poetry. Decorate it with sky blue wallpaper and attach butterflies or fill it with pictures that the students can write poetry about or poetry the students can illustrate. This is the perfect place to introduce different kinds of poetry or to give the kids a quiet spot to read and write particular types of poetry after you have introduced them.

Poetic possibilities. The reproducible on the next page can be used in the learning center, with group work or individual work. Challenge your students to write the titles of particular types of poetry onto the pattern.

I like to plan a poetry "Juice-House" and invite a different class to come and enjoy the afternoon with me. I ask the kids to select appropriate background music for some of the poetry readings and design backdrops and invitations that will illustrate the poetry being celebrated.

I also like to have students take turns reading poetry into a tape recorder for others to listen to at various times. Try poems for two voices like Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (HarperCollins, 1992). You can assign or let students choose poetry partners to practice with before performing the choral reading.

I like to send my students out into the school to interview teachers and staff members about their own favorite poems and poets. They can also interview relatives and friends. We use the information to make bar or line graphs or we build a Venn Diagram with some poems that cross category lines.

Help your students to enjoy poetry as a way to see and express life by living it every day in your classroom. IRA/NCTE Standards for the English Language Arts #2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g,, philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience,

Elizabeth Swartz is librarian at Watsontown Elementary School and Turbotville Elementary School in PA, and a Teaching Editor of Teaching K-8.