When poems are introduced into my present classes, I am transported back to the fourth grade when my school had poem week. Each day you had a different poem memorized or you could have them on hand and would orally recite them as beginning introductions. Students would recite them to friends, teachers, school staff, bus drivers, pretty much anyone who would cross your path. I was nervous about this week because I was not a strong reader, but in the fourth grade I discovered the poem Sick by Shel Silverstein. Because I thought that poem was so interesting, for the first time I picked a poem I actually liked not based on the least amount of lines in the poem.
Poetry is very insightful, but if not introduced over the years it can be a challenge to interpret like Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." I find poetry to be very releasing and connective, but for some it will just seem strange. I can see starting out with acrostic poems like I did with the title POEMS above. In my after-school programs in past I had students create them with their names and it provided insight into their personalities and was not overwhelming to try.
My daughter is a Silverstein fan. But it's hard to think of his work in the same light as the "boring" poems students are often supposed to read. If we could all stick with a little Prelutsky or Silverstein no one would hate poetry.
ReplyDeleteOr Ogden Nash. I think it would be great if we could raise a generation of poets who don't think you need to speak "poem-ese" to read or write poetry.
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