Chapter Eight

Poetry

• Identify reasons why children learn to dislike poetry
• Synthesize and apply strategies for building an appreciation for poetry
• List the NCTE award winning poets and their works
• Classify and appreciate different poetry
• Select resources for building a poetry collection

Why Children Learn to Dislike Poetry

• Teaching practices such as memorizing and reciting
• Teachers who don't appreciate it tend to ignore it
• Teachers may have negative attitude towards it
• Teachers who love poetry may overwhelm students
• Abuse of the Haiku
• Distaste for figurative language
• Teacher makes all the decisions about poetry

Building an Appreciation

• Teachers capitalize on the light verses
• Light verses should not remain childrens only experience
• Share poems daily with no ulterior motive
• Choral speaking to share poetry
• Rhyme is important! So read poems aloud
• Put poetry to popular songs

The National Council of Teacher of English Poetry Award

NCTE Award

• Encourage sharing of poetry with children
• Raise awareness of teachers about the quality of poetry available
• Recognizes a living poet
• Provide teachers with arsenal of poetry

Forms of Poetry

• Narrative Poems: Tell stories
• Lyric Poems: Melody or songlike
• Limericks: Humorous poems
• Haiku: Total of 17 syllables
• Free Verse: Lacks a consistant rhythm

Forms of Poetry

• Reversos: Two poems are created using the same exact words (read from top to bottom and bottom to top)
• Concrete: Written in the shape representing the poems subject

Building a Poetry Collection

• Include poems that meet the needs of children who are learning to appreciate poetry
• Variety of poems
• Do not rely on textbooks
• World of childrens books offers a large supply of poetry

Anthologies

• "books put together bu a anthologist to highlight a variety of topics with multiple poets" - Lee Bennett Hopkins

Collections

• Collections contain poems written about a particular topic written by a variety of poets
• Single topic written by single poets
• Single format collection with only poems of one type such as haikus, riddles, etc.

Single Poem Picture Books

• Another variety of poetry book that is particularly useful for giving children a taste of the more traditional and more sophisticated poet

Verse Novels

• Not written in prose
• Written in verse
• "cross boundaries"
• written in poetry but generally classified as another genre

Chapter Summary

• Children have a natural affinity for poetry
• Teacher can bring students back to the world of poetry through collections of light verse
• The words of poets who have won the NCTE award provide teachers with a great list of poetry
• The variety of patterns or forms makes poetry different from prose