Poetry

Poetry is “the distillation of experience through the concentrated use of language and form that creates rhythm, sounds, image, and meaning in a way that helps us see the new in the ordinary.” (Johnson, 2012, p. 232). Having children engage and immerse themselves into poetry at an early age will benefit most from this form of literature. These children will also have a remarkable understanding of the genre as they learn to read and write on their own.

Critical Issues:

Poetry can be seen in many different ways. Knowing the types of categories of poetry will help in not only your understanding of the literature, but in your students as well. The categories of poetry are Mother Goose and Nursery Rhyme, Jump Rope Poems, Folk Poems, Lyrical, Narrative, Free Verse, Nonsense Verse, Sonnets, Ballads, Limericks, Concrete Poems, Haiku, Poetry Novels and Other forms/Elements of Poetry, such as Rhythm, Rhyme/Sound Pattern, Imagery and Shape. Also, learning how to evaluate and select poetry by Readability, Subject Matter, Language and Form is important when finding pieces that reflect the student’s own experiences and emotions as well as those of others.

Teaching Connections:

On page 236 of “The Joy of Children’s Literature” book by Johnson, there are many ways we, as teachers, can bring poetry into the classroom for the students and for ourselves. For the students, we can read aloud, encourage poetry writing, explore poets, etc. For the teachers, we can stay posted on new releases; collaborate with other teachers, etc. There are also several guidelines we can follow that are steps we can take when writing poetry with children. Found on page 258, some steps include selecting a purpose for writing, share, celebrate and reflect, publish, etc. Lastly, for connecting with the curriculum, in math, we can look for patterns, in geography, we can explore history and historical figures, and in science, we can capture factual information with vivid pictures.

Literature Examples:

Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, 1995, Grades: 1-2/Picturebook

In the big red barn, there were lots of farm animals; pigs, horses, sheep, donkeys, geese, goats, a scarecrow, field mouse, rooster, pigeon, hens and eggs, cows, cats and dogs, but no children today, they were away. They all lived together and played all day. When it was night, they all went inside the barn to sleep.

Many Luscious Lollipops by Ruth Heller, 1998, Grades: 3-4 
This book takes your ordinary things and adds/explains why adjectives, comparatives, superlatives, proper adjectives, articles, possessives, demonstratives, predicate adjectives enhance what you are trying to explain.

Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes by David Roessel & Arnold Rampersad, 1994, Grades: 5-6

Since this book had a lot of various poems by Langston Hughes in it, I decided to pick his most famous poems/theme, which was about African-American Identity; My People, Dream Variations, Afro-American Fragment, Words Like Freedom, Still Here, Drums.