Yes, poetry is in me. I seek out a daily poem from The Writers' Almanac, save the ones that I like in a folder, print some out and post them by my desk. My favorite poets are (not in any particular order) Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Ted Kooser, Kim Addonizio, Billy Collins, and Kay Ryan, and oh, Robert Frost! There are poems I return to time and again : Courage by Anne Sexton, Haley's Comet by Kunitz, Winter Morning Walks (book of poems by Kooser), Things Shouldn't Be So Hard by Ryan, to name a few. One April a few years ago, I posted daily a favorite poem on a blog with my reasons why it was my favorite...like the favorite poem project. I am eager to begin the Georgia Heard book. I justed started feeling my way towards 'teaching' poetry with a small group of sixth grade girls. I asked them to browse through a selection of poetry books and tab the ones they thought looked interesting and would like to read. I copied the poems and compiled them in a stapled book. We read the first one last week: LOVE by Shel Silverstein. Boy! That was an eye opener! As I prepared for how I would lead the discussion, I was surprised by how much I discovered under the layers in this short poem. And, it was so eye opening to hear what the girls discovered! Very much what one might expect from this age group, but since I usually work with K, 1st, and 2nd graders, I didn't see it coming! I asked them to think of one word that they could write a poem about...responses: Boyfriend, Dustin, Dillon...! I think I will try the 'heart' mapping Georgia uses to tease out other valued parts of their lives.
Mary Title I Reading Specialist On Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 4:00 PM, Sally Thomas <[email protected]>wrote: > Some of my thoughts to start us off with the Introduction and Chapter > 1..... > > Georgia mentions hearing a woman asking her husband if she has poetry > inside > her. > Do you have poetry inside you? Do you think it¹s vital that a teacher has > or learns to have poetry inside to teach children to love poetry?? If you > don¹t think you have it, how would you go about growing it?? > > > > Georgia comments on the importance of listening deeply so we can hear the > poetry seeds inside our students. I think about the pressures we are > facing in schools at this point in time and that those pressures make me > field hurried, and sadly that pressure seems to make me actually talk too > much. How do we carve out that time to listen? And to see our children > with new eyes that can find the important seeds that are theirs? > > Georgia talks about the importance of choice and time. She suggests poetry > centers. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive > > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive
