Resources for Poetry Month (April)

"Poems are a form of music, and language just happens to be our instrument - language and breath." Terrance Hayes, 2017

So you might ask, "What's the big deal? Why is poetry so important?" Poetry is essential for children because it is 'the best words in the best order.'  The rhythm and rhymes can help children develop a love of language - and a love of reading. Once kids begin flexing their writing muscles, poetry can spark their creativity and let their imaginations soar! 

 J. Patrick Lewis, US Poet Laureate

Poetry can be a powerful tool for writers and readers.  Writers who are reluctant to tackle a larger piece may find a short poem a less intimidating task.  The structure of some poems such as haiku, cinquain, and others provide scaffolds for emerging creative writers.  Reluctant readers may be engaged by the wordplay, rhythm and rhyme of poetry.  Here are some poetry resources you may find helpful for you and your students:

There are lots of amazing lesson plans at ReadWriteThink.org  Here are just a few:

Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme Kindergarten to Grade 2
Composing and performing found poetry - K to Grade 2
Today is World Poetry Day Grades 3 - 12
Weaving the Threads - Integrating Poetry Annotation and Web Technology - Grades 6 - 12
Lonely as a Cloud: Using Poetry to understand similes - Grades 4 - 8

Lesson Plans using Interactive Tools
Theme Poems Using the Five Sense - Grades K - 2
Acrostic Poems - a range of lesson plans from K - 12 using an online acrostic poem tool
Diamante Poems - a range of lesson plans from K - 12 using an online diamante poem tool
Haiku Starter - Grades 2 - 5

Scholastic Poetry Resources 

Education World - comprehensive list of Poetry Month resources

Edutopia - another comprehensive list of poetry resources

Poems & Poets at Poets.org - a searchable database of over 7,000 poems

Research:

Research Into Practice: Performing Poetry: Using Drama to Increase the Comprehension of Poetry 

Research Into Practice: Poetry: A Powerful Medium for Literacy and Technology Development

Ten Poems for Teachers 

Let Me Teach Like The First Snow Falling

I posted this last year when I first start blogging. Very few people read it then, so I've revised and am reposting. 


This week we finally got our first snowfall of the season!  It wasn't much - just a light dusting, but it was still exciting. Whenever we get the first snowfall, I always am reminded of one of my favourite poems by Taylor Mali:

Undivided Attention

A grand piano wrapped in quilted pads by movers,
tied up with canvas straps—like classical music’s
birthday gift to the criminally insane—
is gently nudged without its legs
out an eighth‐floor window on 62nd street.

It dangles in April air from the neck of the movers’ crane,

Chopin-­‐shiny black lacquer squares

and dirty white crisscross patterns hanging like the second‐to­‐last

note of a concerto played on the edge of the seat,

the edge of tears, the edge of eight stories up going over—

it’s a piano being pushed out of a window

and lowered down onto a flatbed truck!—and

I’m trying to teach math in the building across the street.

Who can teach when there are such lessons to be learned?

All the greatest common factors are delivered by

long‐necked cranes and flatbed trucks

or come through everything, even air.

Like snow.

See, snow falls for the first time every year, and every year

my students rush to the window

as if snow were more interesting than math,

which, of course, it is.

So please.

Let me teach like a Steinway,

spinning slowly in April air,

so almost-­‐falling, so hinderingly

dangling from the neck of the movers’ crane.

So on the edge of losing everything.

Let me teach like the first snow, falling.

Mali. Taylor. “Undivided Attention.” What Learning Leaves. Newtown, CT: Hanover Press, 2002. Print. (ISBN: 1-­‐887012-­‐17-­‐6)

When I began my work as a curriculum consultant more than ten years ago, most of our professional development took place at the board office or a catering hall.  Teachers would leave their schools, come to a workshop, then return to their schools and be expected to implement whatever strategies had been 'covered' at the session.  As consultants, we were expected to have expertise in our area and to share our expertise with teachers, administrators, trustees and parents.

Since that time there has been a dramatic shift in how we support educators in their professional learning and much of our work is done at the school using a model of collaborative inquiry where the teachers and consultants engage as co-learners in action research based student learning.

This model of collaborative inquiry has pushed consultants and instructional coaches into uncomfortable territory at times.  No longer can we show up with our powerpoint and handouts and our agenda.  Instead, the learning is driven by the observations and analysis of what students are saying and doing and how they are representing their thinking.  There are times when I feel very much like I am 'so almost falling' and on the edge of losing everything, yet it is also exciting and invigorating.  Engaging as a co-learner has allowed us to build relationships in a completely different way.  There is still a time and place for a more directed presentation style workshop, but our work will never be the same, and that's a good thing!

More information on teaching through collaborative inquiry:

Collaborative Inquiry in Ontario 

Collaborative Inquiry for Educators
    Follow the author on twitter @Jenni_Donohoo

Journal of Staff Development, June 2016

More information on teaching through poetry:

All About Alliteration: Responding to Literature Through A Poetry Link

Cold Plums and the Old Men: Let Children Read and Write Great Poetry

Lonely As A Cloud: Using Poetry to Understand Similes

Poetry: A powerful medium for literacy and technology

A YouTube video of Taylor Mali reading Undivided Attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1MHVqAWGmI

(outdoors.org)