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Reading and Writing PoetryReading and Writing Poetry

By Yolanda AnzewuBy Yolanda Anzewu

Objective and Purpose• Objective: The student will write for

a variety of purposes and audiences.

• Purpose: Students write poetry to play with words, create images, explore feelings, and entertain.

• Focus: Mother to Son by Langston Hughes.

Classroom Applications• GT Students: Gifted and talented students will enjoy the

research and they are able to produce a product. They also like to peer tutor the learning challenged students by helping with their writing, navigating the internet, and typing their final product.

• Learning Challenged Students: Reluctant readers and writers will read poetry because it peaks their interest, and poetry is short and to the point. They will enjoy writing poetry because they realize they create poems naturally when they sing and play.

• ESL Students: Second Language learners enjoy poetry because its not laborious like writing a composition and they can express their feelings and emotions.

Research and Theory• All children are natural poets;

poetry is a universal language that can offer children a viable outlet for confusing feelings that they long to express and make sense of. For the Love of Language, Nancy Cecil.

Who Am I• Name: Yolanda Anzewu (Anzoo)• School: John F. Kennedy Elementary (45N. @

Crosstimbers near Northline Mall)• District: HoustonISD (Northwest)• Job title: 4TH Grade Language Arts/ESL Teacher• Tenure: 1 year FBISD, 4 ½ years HISD• Classroom: I have 5 groups, and several

centers• Community: Title I, CIS, SAY YES, URBAN

Best Practices• I believe reading and writing programs should

be based on a balanced, interactive, social constructivist theory.

• First, we begin the day with the Reading Workshop during this time students read and respond in journals.

• Then we share a poem we enjoyed reading. They can share their poem by acting it out, drawing a picture, or recording their oral reading on a tape recorder, etc.

Research and Theory• To further underscore the infinite

possibilities of what poetry can be you can share a wide variety of genre with your students including humorous poems, thoughtful poems, alliterative odes, rhymed verse, as well as free verse.

For the Love of Language, Nancy Cecil.

Best Practices• The next step is to teach a minilesson on

poetic devices, the author, poetic forms, or researching.

• Afterwards the students begin the Writing Workshop. They write poetry using the formula method as well as free verse.

• Finally students share there original poems in the Poetry Café and present their poetry projects.

Research and Theory• There is no trickery involved in reading

poetry aloud. When a poem is read aloud with sincerity, boys and girls will enjoy its rhythm, its music, and will understand the work on their own level.

Pass the Poetry, Please!, Lee Bennett Hopkins

Research and Theory• “Georgia explained that in poetry there

are two camps, the formalists, who teach and write poetry in terms of fixed forms and the free verse poets, who find their forms in the rhythm and content of what they are saying.

The Art of Teaching Writing, Lucy McCormick Calkins.

Research and Theory• I’ve learned that in a safe free setting

anyone of any age can gather words, play with language and write poems, sometimes with what poet Anne Waldman calls “goofy profundity.”

Poemcrazy, Susan Goldsmith Woolridge

Research and Theory• Beginning with formula poems will

probably make the writing easier for young children or for older students who have had little or no experience with poetry.

Teaching Writing, Gail Tompkins

Research and Theory• Poetry matters. At the most important

moments, when everyone else is silent poetry rises to speak.

• Mental pictures or images, are at the hear of poetry, just like emotions.

Poetry Matters, Ralph Fletcher

Conclusion• Read the Road Not Taken by Robert

Frost.• Assessment: Poetry Project Guidelines• Are there any questions?• How can use this information in your

classroom?