Poetry? Why or Not? An

¶ … poetry? Why or not? An absolute YES, and for various reasons. From a practical standpoint, poetry allows students to experience the language, to make connections that are otherwise not apparent, and to entertain, get children to talk about language (and not just children), and to make intellectual discoveries that are not necessarily easy.

Party of being a teach is motivating children to learn -- what better way to teach reading than to use poetry? Poetry helps in other ways, too: memorization, public speaking, the ability to explain abstract thoughts, and a way to translate words into art. What better way to translate prose into images, and have the students understand and explain such (Paschen, et.al.

2005)? What has been your response to poetry and/or the students in your charge, and what do you think influenced such responses? Clearly, it depends on the poem, and the way it is presented. If poetry is used in regularly to help children understand the emotional response to literature, it can be an enlightening and empowering experience. For instance, using holiday poems, or poems that express a particular sense of the emotion the child is feeling, an event, etc. makes it all the more viable and robust.

The real power of poetry, though, is not just reading, but actually allowing the children to write and participate in the learning experience. There are so many different types of poems that children can use to express themselves, and frankly, once they are able to visualize that they can indeed express themselves in ways that are nonsensical, deep, meaningful, emotional, etc., they are often quite comfortable using this medium to help them understand and interact/react with their world (See also: Moore, 1999).

Poetry is meant to be seen on the page AND read aloud. Choose a poem from the anthology you read for this class. First, analyze how its look on the page - its font, the layout, the illustrations that accompany it. Then read it aloud, first to yourself and then to someone else, and analyze the effect of the poem? " your response to it - according to how it sounds. (Consider the items authors choose from on the "Lit Techniques and Elements" posted earlier in the term).

Source: Always Surprised -- Owl Started This. From Cowing, S. (1996) Fire in the Sea. 1. Page layout -- Childlike drawing of owl in brown tones with oriental script; page shows poem on right, laid out for easy reading as well as story line. 2.

Illustrations -- Almost primitive, one can tell it is an owl, but the wings, for instance, and the eyes are not equal, it would be easy to think that this was done by a child; even so, the owl is perched in an almost wise-like timbre, watching the reaction of the poem. 3. Effects of sound -- The sound of the poem is evocative of action, words like BEHIND, JUMPED, SPIT, combining humor and active verbs. 4.

Images -- The image makes the owl human, but part of nature; and an explanation for the natural world (rain) told in a way that children might think- cause and effect. 5. Emotions/Evocative, Alterative -- Teaches children that owls are wise, that nature is not meant to be captured; the poem is evocative and a journey. 6. Message -- a bit ecologic, owls part of nature, and not meant to be caught, but meant to be part of the world in which a child's imagination might inhabit.

Find and analyze TWO songs w/lyrics - these may be types or genre identified above, and/or holiday songs, hymns and spiritual songs, or patriotic. MAKE SURE THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT GENRE.

How might you present these as poetry to children or teens? You don't need to write out the entire "poem" but provide enough examples from the two poems to indicate how you might convince the students that these are "cool." Songs: Puff the Magic Dragon (Peter Paul and Mary); One Tin Soldier (Lambert and Potter) "Puff the Magic Dragon," is a spiritual journey of maturation, full of pathos and emotion about a little boy who has an.