I LOVED teaching poetry to my high school students. I'm not sure that they were as excited as I was about reading poems, but my goal was to show them that poetry is about playing with language in sophisticated ways, which is something that youth do daily. I encourage my methods students to start off reading poetry that is short and relatable with their students. Once students become more comfortable reading poems, teachers can help students transfer those specific reading concepts to more complex poetry. One of the poems that I have had success teaching is "This Is Just To Say" by William Carlos Williams. It's short, accessible, and relatable. For a lesson using this poem, I have done the following: 1. Listen to poem and ask students to underline any words or phrases that they think are important. This Is Just To Say William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold 2. Ask students to write down initial thoughts. Share. 3. Listen to poem again and add/change annotations and initial thoughts. Discuss as a whole class. 4. Share a few poems from This Is Just To Say by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. The book is divided into two parts. First are the poems of apology followed by response poems. Each pair of poems reveal a relationship between a child and the person they are writing to. Here is an example from the book. To my Mom: Brownies - Oops! I smelled them from my room a wafting wave of chocolate-ness. I listened for movement, ears pricked like a bat's. I crept down, stepped over the sleeping dog. I felt the cold linoleum on my bare toes. I saw the warm, thick, brick of brownies. I slashed a huge chunk right out of the middle. The gooey hunks of chocolate winked at me as I gobbled them. Afterward, the pan gaped like an acusing eye. My head said, Oops! But my stomach said, Heavenly! by Maria 5. After students have read a few examples, ask them to write an apology poem of their own. Share in pairs or as a whole class.
6. Ask students to write their own response poem OR ask the other person to write a response poem. Share response poems in next class. 7. Publish poems on StoryJumper.
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AuthorProfessor in English Education at UNC Greensboro Archives
June 2016
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