Over the last few weeks I have been reading many poetry anthologies and I wanted to share a few of my favorites!
The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems - The book will be such a good mentor text because it allows young poets to see you can really write about anything. Children can easily write how-to poems about their interest!
All the Wild Wonders - I like to call this the a 'Boone book' because it how poems about nature, animals, and environmental issues. A lot of students in Watauga County can connect to this book because of these nature aspects which they can find in their own backyard.
Wet Cement - Concrete poems are art both in the words and in the image the words create. These poems allow students to get creative and all the poems in the book are short which shows students poems do not have to be super lone.
No Matter the Wreckage - I found this book for myself. Sarah Kay does a lot of spoken word poetry as well but as a young adult in my early twenties I can relate to Sarah Kay's work. I have been enjoying reading her poems and then finding videos of her performing them.
Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard continues to amaze me with the useful resources for teaching poetry in the elementary and middle school setting. "Chapter 4: Crafting Poetry" discussed many exercises to help students get started with writing poetry (1999, p. 67-71). For example the six-room image poem which helps students break about the senses of a memory and attend to the whole scene. I also liked how Heard broke apart the two poetry toolboxes which students can use (1999, p. 65).
"Chapter 5: Sharpening Our Outer and Inner Visions" also provided many exercises teacher can use with their students. While reading about observational poetry in chapter 5, I thought about a poem I read in The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems. The poem can be found in the picture below. When I read it I was taken about and it really did make me take a look around and pay attention.
After reading about Observational Poetry I tried it out myself. Here is the outcome:
Daffodil
Standing
Tall
And proud
Dressed
like a
Yellow
Trumpet
Dancing
Slowly
To the
Sound of spring
Saying
"Hey,
Look
At me!"
References
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.