Poetry

1. Poetry Jessica Dockter, Fall 2009 Adapted from Beth Brendler University of Minnesota

2. Why Poetry? • Pay attention to words • “a poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom” -- Robert Frost • Understand how language works • Reading aloud to HEAR & revel in language • Choral reading to improve fluency

3. Poetry • Poetic language is innovative & surprising • Careful word choices & original comparisons • Sounds are combined in ways that make words sing • Engaging content

4. The Blue Between Everyone watches clouds, naming creatures they’ve seen. I see sky differently, I see the blue between – The blue woman tugging her stubborn cloud across the sky. The blue giraffe stretching to nibble a cloud floating by. A pod of dancing dolphins, cloud oceans, cargo ships, a boy twirling his cloud around a thin blue fingertip. In those smooth wide places, I see a different scene. In those cloudless spaces, I see the blue between Kristine O’Connell George

5. Checklist for Evaluating Poetry • Purposeful form and sound elements • Rhyme, rhythm, repetition • Words, lines, stanzas • Convey meaning about the subject or mood • Engaging subjects speak to intended readers • Verbal & emotional intelligence • Anthologies are inclusive, purposeful, & logical

6. Forms of Poetry • Narrative poetry – tells a story • Lyric poetry – statement of mood or feeling • Free verse – unrhymed verse with an irregular pattern

7. Forms of Poetry • Haiku– nature or a particular event 3 lines and 17 syllables • Concrete poetry – uses the appearance of words on a page to suggest or illustrate the meaning

8. Forms of Poetry • Limerick – 5 lines and a rhyme scheme of a-a-b-b-a • Ballad – tells a story in verse, often sung • Riddle poems • Novels in verse

9. Poetic Elements • Word play • Outrageous situations • Unexpected viewpoints • Sensory imagery • Figurative language • Commonplace experiences become extraordinary

10. Poetic Techniques Makes the imagery vivid • Simile - like or as • Metaphor - something is stated as something else morning is a new sheet of paper Eve Merriam – Metaphor

11. Poetic Techniques • Repetition of consonants – Lickety, pickety, rickety • Personification - representing a thing or abstraction as a person Rising Like a fresh loaf Sun rises, Tempting dawn To break Her golden crust Taste morning!

12. Poetic Techniques • Alliteration – repetition of initial consonants sounds at close intervals Timothy Tompkins had turnips and tea. The turnips were tiny. He ate at least three. Karla Kuskin from The Meal

13. Poetic Techniques • Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds at close intervals Susie’s galoshes Make splishes and sploshes And slooshes and sloshes As Susie steps slowly Along in the slush. Rhoda Bacmeister from Galoshes

14. Poetic Techniques • Onomatopoeia – words created from natural sounds associated with the thing or action Splishes, sploshes, slush

15. Poetic Techniques • Rhythm – recurrence of specific beats of stressed and unstressed syllables Over and over the tumblers tumble with never a fumble with never a stumble Jack Prelutsky from Circus

16. Poetic Techniques Runover rhyme – the last word of one line rhymes with the first word of the next line Who am I now? How am I to be? Looking behind To find the future me. David Harrison from The Future Me End rhyme – the last word of the line rhymes

17. Poetry Anthologies • Specialized Anthologies • Generalized / Collective Anthologies • Picture books • Novels in verse

18. NCTE Award for Poetry for Children • Started in 1977 given every third year • David McCord • Aileen Fisher • Karla Kuskin • Myra Cohn Livingston • Eve Merriam • Jon Ciardi • Lilian Moore • Arnold Adoff • X.J. Kennedy • Mary Ann Hoberman • Nikki Grimes • Lee Bennett Hopkins

19. Teaching Poetry • Teaching poetry throughout the year – interspersed in other units • Allow students to dip in and out of poetry • Kids are taught to be afraid of or to dislike poetry