Tuesday Tidbits: Thinking Out Aloud About Poetry
Just arrived home from teaching two sessions, “Incorporating Poetry in the Writer’s Workshop” to teachers at our first ever Summer Literacy Institute in my district. Both went well, I have to tell you though, I had butterflies in my stomach this morning as I drove to my destination.
It has been so long since I worked with adults in this capacity. Would they understand my intuitive apporach to teaching poetry? Would they understand my thoughts that you do not teach poetry units, that poetry is a format? To me it makes sense that a child might bring you a piece of writing, which would be a lousy story and a great poem. You, the teacher, have the task to facilitate and guide. I did not realize until preparing for this course, how much this might be a pet peeve of mine.
The day turned out well. People participated. No one sat there chatting with their neighbor out of sheer boredom. Everyone shared a poem draft they had written. The time flew and of course, we ran out of time.
My greatest frustration was when attempting to share some of the blogs I frequent and ran up against the “Websense” blocking of certain sites. Drat! Blogspot.com is one such site that is unilaterally blocked. Grrrr!
Oh, and this idea was raised: “a core collection of poetry books that should be in every school library.” Now there is a project! So I am thinking about creating a list of “The 100 Poetry Books Every School Library Should Have in the Collection”. This gave me pause as I have been intentionally developing my poetry section. Would I have any of the books on a given list?
What would you like to see in every school library for poetry? Leave in the comment space and I will add to the list.
I have begun listening to Gossamer by Lois Lowery. Wowee! I am hook and am realizing how much listening to stories is teaching me about writing stories.
What are you reading? What would you expect in the 100 list?
Happy Reading.
MsMac
August 12th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Love the idea of a list of poetry books. It would change but it is always fun to think of those “must haves”! My new favorite is HERE’S A LITTLE POEM by Jane Yolen. I have found that young children up through 5th graders love it!
August 15th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Oh that’s so hard. I mean easy, but hard…I second what Franki said. That anthology is excellent. Definitely need some of Mary Ann Hoberman’s works, too!
I wish I could see one of your workshops. I love the notion that a child’s work could be a lousy story but a great poem. You’re right.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Jules, always welcome to visit the northwest. I hope I got across the idea that poetry should not be taught in a 4 week unit in April! A pet peeve of mine.