Poetry In Schools
I’m a huge fan of teaching poetry in our schools. I’m a Kindergarten and first grade teacher, and I use poetry in my classroom in a variety of ways. My students read at least 2 poems a week in my classroom, and enjoy a variety of poetry center activities, such as illustrating them, piggybacking on them, and singing them. When I teach sight words, phonics skills, or science and social studies concepts, I try to teach or reinforce the concept through poetry whenever possible. Rhyming poems make great mnemonic devices for young children, and are just plain fun to read aloud. I actually teach a lengthy poetry writing unit in which kids learn how to distinguish between their scientific and poetic observations, and use both in their writing. It’s my absolute favorite writing unit, and it lifts their writing to a new level unlike anything else. I love how they begin to “hear poetry” in picture books and in each other’s writing…they simply begin to appreciate beautiful language for what it is.
But everything seems to be about the Common Core these days, and if you read the K and Gr. 1 standards, poetry is noticeably absent. Even Lucy Calkins has moved the Poetry Writing unit to second grade in her newly-revised Units of Study. Really, poetry isn’t for the very young anymore? How sad!
I recently bought The Poetry Friday Anthology (poems edited and compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong), and was delighted to see that not only does this collection of wonderfully-fun poems lend itself to easy use in the classroom, but the CCSS-aligned activities give teachers all the justification they need to teach poetry in schools, even at K and first grade. The poems are organized by suggested grade levels, although this is certainly adaptable.
I found this super duper article today about why we need poetry in our schools. I agree so strongly with all five of the reasons stated in this article that I could have written this one myself! But I’d like to add a sixth reason: Poetry makes us more aware. When you read a poem, you may see something extraordinary in the ordinary for the very first time. You may learn something new about something you knew everything about already!, or you may change your own perspective on something you’ve always known to be true and steadfast. Poetry is truth, revealed through words.
Eileen Spinelli’s poem (from The Poetry Friday Anthology, K-5 Edition) tells us why we need poetry in our schools, today and always:
TODAY by Eileen Spinelli
“Today I’m going to pay attention.
To the broken blueness of the sky.
To the high weeds in the vacant lot.
To the rusted pot in the alleyway.
Today I’m going to leap across puddles and steep in green
and all the wild colors in between.
I’m going to listen to
what the birds are singing about,
and to the happy shouts of toddlers on swings.
Today I’m going to gather all my heart can hold
of lemony light and yawning cats
and the bright blur of traffic on the bridge.
Today I’m going to pay attention.
Today I’m going to find myself a poem.”
Today’s Poetry Friday host is Betsy at I Think In Poems
Hear! Hear! Loved Eileen Spinelli’s poem too. You’re right about poetry enabling children to see something in a new way for the first time. What a gift poetry is!
Thanks, B.J. Yes, poetry is a gift to us all!
Liana, I love your post and I love that you incorporate so much poetry into your teaching. I agree poetry and young kids go together perfectly. And what a great poem to share. It’s perfect. I love the idea of paying attention to the sky and the vacant lot. We always talk as if this is lack of attention not a shift in attention.
Excellent point about the “shift in attention,” Liz. Well said!
You’re so right! Have you ever seen Heidi’s My Juicy Little Universe? She teaches kindergarten and talks about teaching her class to be poets: http://myjuicylittleuniverse.blogspot.com/2012/04/oik-tuesday-what-do-kindergarten-poets.html Thought you might like that.
Thanks for sharing, Tabatha! Excellent link!
I appreciate your passion for poetry and wish you a wonderful school year! Yes, poetry teaches us to be observers who dig deeper, excellent traits to develop in young children!
Thank you, Keri! I couldn’t agree more.
I agree with all of your words here. This was what struck me the most, “Poetry is truth, revealed through words.” Such a true statement.
Thank you, Betsy, and thanks for hosting PF!
Well said, Liana! Your students are so lucky to have a poetry advocate to guide them. One of the saddest things I remember about grad school was how many of my fellow future high school teachers said they would avoid teaching poetry — and even Shakespeare!! — because they were “afraid” of poetry. You can imagine how aghast I was to hear such things.
I hope there will be a Poetry Friday Anthology for high school, too, because the series is a stroke of genius, not only for how to incorporate this ridiculous Common Core business, but to take the fear out of poetry for teachers everywhere!
Agreed. I will be sharing my PF anthology in September with our librarian and with my fellow teachers. A high school edition would be amazing! I used to teach ninth grade English, and would have gladly used a source like the PF anthology with my high school students. Afraid of Shakespeare??? So sad!!!!
Liana, I am so glad you stopped my blog. I feel the same way aobut poetry in schools/ Have you seen the new Georgia Heard book about poetry and the CCSS?
No, I haven’t, but you’ve got my attention! Can you tell me the title? I’ve love to get a look at it! Thanks, Jone!
So true, Liana! We can all benefit from learning to be more present in our lives, kindergarteners and adults alike, and poetry is just the ticket! Eileen Spinelli’s poem is perfect for illustrating that beauty and heart are found in the details of everyday life, and thank YOU for being such a wonderful poetry advocate for your students.
Thank you, Michelle!
It makes me so sad to be reminded this. The poetry “unit” is a mere matter of 5 to 10 days out of the 180-day school agenda. As for me, a lover of math in my elementary education, had I not been introduced to poetry, I would have never started reading for the enjoyment of it, and subsequently wouldn’t have latched on to my love of language or my own writing. Poetry, with its patterns and surprises was a great bridge from math to English. It’s a shame that more educators don’t recognize this, or if they do, they make no repeated efforts to keep trying.
No doubt that the recognition of meter and patterns in poetry is a link to math. It is also such a natural extension of our language that children should be as immersed in it. Many parents, too, seem to have forgotten the value of poetry: songs, nursery rhymes, metaphors, lyrical language, wordplay…these are all like little language vitamins for kids! Thanks for stopping by, Samuel, and please continue to advocate for poetry by sharing it with others!