Chapter 24 Poetry (p. 410-422)

What is Poetry? Poems were created to communicate history as well as to entertain and inspire. Poems are best enjoyed when read aloud because of their musical sound, rhythm, and language. The best poetry frequently contains an element of surprise.

Figurative Language Poets use language in ways that tantalize our senses—touch, sight, smell, hearing, or taste. Figurative language helps us link one thing with another in ways that help us compare them. (Examples: metaphors, similes, personification) Hailstones and Halibut Bones offer poems about color which students can enjoy and use as models for their own poems.

Rhythm, Rhyme, and Sound Patterns The rhythm or cadence of a poem may be fast or slow. Each style conveys specific meanings. A fast rhythm indicates action, excitement, suspense, or tension. A slow rhythm suggests peacefulness, fullness, harmony, and comfort. Poems usually feature a repetition of sound which carries words along and gives pleasure to the listener. (Examples: alliteration, consonance, onomatopoeia, and assonance.)

Shape Poems are laid out in lines, stanzas, and verses. White space indicates that the writer wants the reader to pause or be silent for a second. Poets place line breaks strategically not only to shape the rhythm but to represent meaning. Some poems are laid out to look like the subject of the poem.

Forms of Poetry Poems can be fiction or nonfiction. Poems often suggest a theme or message. They typically adopt a special style or tone. Poems highlight historical events, a moment in someone’s life, current events, or fantastic journeys. A good resource of the great variety of poems is The Teachers and Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms. The most familiar forms of poetry are: free verse, narrative, lyric, limericks, cinquains, concrete, found, haiku, a list form, and formula poems.

Poetry Workshop It is recommended that you incorporate a 90-120 minute poetry workshop into each week or at least twice a month. Making a poetry workshop part of your weekly routine shows students how much you value poetry.

Structure of the Poetry Workshop Poet Talk: Share an insight about a poet—what he says in his poetry, and the aspects of his life and work that are revealed. Poetry Read Aloud and Poetry Minilesson: Simply read the piece aloud without analyzing it. Read it again, and ask for comments or invite partners to talk to each other. (Potential minilessons are listed in figure 24-3) Poetry Projects and Poetry Centers: Some activities include reading and responding to poems, collecting poetry seeds in writer’s notebooks, drafting, revising, and editing poems, illustrating poems they have heard, and working on their own anthology of poems.

Getting Started with Poetry Workshops (Phase One and Two) Choose a self-portrait poem: A self-portrait poem is one you choose because it tells something about your life. Allow students to choose poems that connect to their own lives and copy them into their personal anthologies. After two or three days of sharing poems that relate to your life, read poems you love and invite responses to two questions: What does that poem say to you? What do you notice about the way the author wrote the poem?

Poetry Workshop (Phase Three and Four) Connect your own poem: Invite students to choose a poem from their anthologies and comment on what the poems says to them. Ask them to write one that links to their chosen one in some way (topic, technique, favorite phrase, line or same mood). Finding poetry in your life: Create a heart map. Divide it into sections and label each with topics that are important in their lives. Glue the map in the back of their anthologies and use the topics to write poetry.

Make a Culture of Poetry Make anthologies readily available to students. Weave it through your curriculum. Post it on the wall. (On a window, a door, above a drinking fountain) Publish students’ poems and display them on classroom walls. Provide labeled baskets or tubs with different kinds of poetry, including poems written by students in the class.

Suggestions for Reading Poetry Read it to yourself first and consider what you will highlight to students. Convey the meaning with your voice. Allow them to hear it before they see it projected on paper. Read in a natural voice, letting your voice convey the mood. Don’t emphasize the beat. Enunciate each word and syllable clearly. Slow down from your normal pace so listeners can savor the words. Read the poem several times. Encourage students to reflect on the poem, but invite a short discussion rather than a long analysis. Avoid activity extensions of every poem—a few quick comments, a partner share, or a quick sketch are efficient, enjoyable options.

Encouraging Responses to Poetry What does this poem say to you? How does this poem make you feel? What did this poem make you think about? What did you notice? Were there any words or phrases that you especially liked? Does this poem remind you of anything in your life? Who’s talking in this poem? What did you notice about the way the author wrote this poem?

Poetry Activities A writer’s notebooks is a good place in which to collect thoughts about poetry. Students can sketch, make a list, or write freely to describe thoughts on a particular poem. They may memorize a poem or two a year and perform them for each other. “Owning the poem,” helps them step in the poet’s shoes for a moment and understand the world through his eyes. Collect poems in a folder. Later they may glue them on paper, and write an introduction to each group, and created an anthology. Students can perform poetry for one another, other classes, or younger students. They can add music in the background, conduct choral reading, or read in a round.

Ah Has I liked the way poetry workshops were phased in. It seemed to follow a natural progression. It seemed easy with the teacher picking a self-portrait poem first, and explaining why it was chosen. I think they will feel much more comfortable with just choosing poems they like and enjoy before they write. I liked developing a culture of poetry. I can see how this makes poetry have a home in your curriculum and seem valuable.

In the Classroom In the past, each student memorized a favorite poem and shared it at our poetry celebration. We served refreshments, and it made is a special event in the late spring. We also have written biopoems which included student pictures. We chose special paper and laminated them. We wrote “I AM” poems and color poems.

How We Can Implement This Concept We can easily display students’ poetry on boards throughout the school or in a special section in the library. In Writer’s Workshop, students could create their own anthologies where they collect their favorite poems and write original poems.