Mentor Texts with Lynne & Rose
  • Home
  • About Lynne & Rose
  • Our Books & Video
  • Grammar Matters
  • Presentations
  • Bookings
  • Blogging with Rose
  • Blogging with Lynne
  • Your Turn Lessons
  • Notebook Entries
  • Books Too Good to Miss
  • Endorsements
  • Links

On Poetry

1/17/2012

2 Comments

 
Over the holidays I had a conversation with my sister-in-law who was lamenting the fact that there is a poetry unit taught every year in her children’s school. 
            “What’s so important about poetry?” she asked. 
            “I hate poetry and so do the kids.”
I was surprised by her comments and taken a little off guard. I gave her the standard educational answer – that poetry helps kids play with language, practice fluency, and is a great vehicle for teaching many decoding and comprehension strategies. I talked to her about providing scaffolds that can be imitated and sparking ideas for further writing. The conversation soon ended and we were on to something else. But as I thought about it later, I realized I hadn’t given her the heart of what poetry is all about. I think poetry helps us discover ourselves as well as our world. It somehow connects us to our deepest emotions. In her collection of poems She Walks in Beauty, Caroline Kennedy says “When everyday life distracts us, poetry can help us feel centered.” She quotes Wallace Stevens as saying the purpose of poetry is “to help people live their lives.”

            I recently linked through another blogger at Markings to an NPR piece by author Alan Heathcock who speaks about the joys he has gotten from reading a poem a day (http://www.npr.org/2011/12/26/143853118/a-poem-a-day-portable-peaceful-and-perfect?sc=tw&cc=share). The idea has spread through Facebook and Twitter, so I think many people are trying it out, as am I.

            Lynne and I are working on a new mentor text book about poetry, so for the past several months we have immersed ourselves in all kinds of poetry books. It has been fun making new discoveries and thinking about old favorites in new ways. This morning I read the whimsical poem “The Little Turtle” by Vachel Lindsay. This was a poem I remembered from my childhood, so I was immediately transported to the double row house on 5th Street, sitting on the gray and yellow flowered sofa, reading with my sister. That’s what poetry can do.

2 Comments
April Silimperi
1/21/2012 05:43:55 am

Poetry is vital for giving students the opportunity to really see, appreciate and view the world with fresh lens…poetry mentors students to find those just-right words and to describe the ‘ordinary’ in fresh new ways. Poetry models a means for a 'writerly-stillness' and uses written word to describe the in-the-moment to look at things around us.

Last year I conducted my first in-depth poetry unit of study with my second graders as part of an author’s study of Joyce Sidman’s work. We delved into Sidman’s works to take a close look at ways she wrote in fresh new ways. I was completely amazed at the beautiful and appreciative ways that my second graders described ordinary objects as a result of studying poetry. For example, one young boy author wrote this about the ordinary classroom window:

“It’s a piece of silk
with a waterfall of sunlight
an invisible path
waiting for eyes
a world of nature waiting
behind the window”
~E. C.(age 8)

After witnessing first hand the growth strides poetry provided for my young students, I can’t imagine not studying poetry. I am a believer that poetry is absolutely a main-writing-artery for teaching students to write descriptively.

Reply
Rose
1/22/2012 08:33:48 am

Thanks so much for sharing your insights, April! What beautiful writing from your second grader, and what a great mentor in Joyce Sidman. I love your description of poetry as a "main-writing-artery for teaching students to write descriptively." I totally agree.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rose shares her observations and reflections on teaching and learning.

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.