Catching Readers Before They Fall

When students are writing poetry we often encourage them to choose a poet as a mentor and to try on what the poet is doing.  Sometimes students notice how a poet uses rhythm, a patterned rhyme, repetitive lines, alliteration, or onomatopoeia.  Sometimes they notice that the poet seems to be talking to someone or something; [...]

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What teacher of writing has not been influenced by the work of Ralph Fletcher?  I know I have.  I’ve read just about everything that he has written for teachers and have experimented with dozens of his lesson ideas.  His series of books for kids on writing are also fabulous and I have taken many an [...]

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I recently heard Katie Wood Ray at the Ohio Reading Recovery Conference.  She told us that kids need to read a hundred poems before they start to write poetry.  Her point is that kids need models – mentor authors and mentor texts. She wants kids to apprentice themselves under a poet, notice what that poet [...]

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There is nothing more fun than getting kids to move with poems to enhance the meaning!  Here is how I do this lesson on creative dramatics and poetry.  Since it’s always important to gradually release responsibility when you are teaching something new, I start with modeling one poem, next I teach them how to put [...]

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In my post on Jan. 25th I promised to write up some poetry lessons that I’ve done. I often begin with the idea that many poems should be read out loud.  On an overhead projector or Smartboard, I put up my first example, “All My Hats” from Richard Margolis’s Secrets of a Small Brother.  First [...]

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I had a discussion the other afternoon with a teacher who wanted to work on a poetry unit with her students.  I dug out all my notes from workshops I had given on poetry over the years and shared ideas with her.  First off, we talked about gathering up as many poetry books as she [...]

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