Keep Reading and Writing Personal and Powerful

1. Keep Reading and Writing Personal and Powerful Bring Poetry Writing and Bookmaking Together

2. Learning and Teaching are Personal • Teachers can instill in their students a love or a fear of language when they are first learning to read and write. • Reflecting ones first time one was engaged in the process of writing can reveal a personal part of ones educational history • It can be a powerful and not always a positive experience that can influence ones educational practices. • Using poetry, accompanying illustrations, and bookmaking can make learning more meaningful.

3. Literary Arts and Language Arts • Literary arts, specifically poetry are not thought of or included in the visual or performing arts. • Part of the reason is that the literary arts are or are not valued in schools. • They are crammed within the language Arts block which is centered around teaching the mechanics of reading. • Not all teachers feel comfortable teaching poetry. • The pressure of TEST scores is pronounced! • Poets should be looked at as Artist both culturally and historically. • Poetry unleashes one to the past, future, and to ones emotions. • Allowing the experience to become personal is a must while reading aloud poems and teaching poetic devises.

4. How Making Books Transforms The Written Word • Bookmaking offers a beautiful frame work which can showcase students’ writings or poetry. • Having students created poems visible in a book is a powerful and gratifying experience. • Teachers need to discover how powerful bookmaking can be to all areas of the curriculum.

5. Asking Questions, Making Discoveries • The process of writing poetry needs to be addressed. • Use poems that ask questions to promote interest. • Use different colored index cards with a question and then the answer. • Collect the questions in one box and the answers in another. • Read one randomly selected from each box or place all the cards writing side up. Pick up one of the question colored cards. Students write a poetic reply. • Juxtaposition or the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side, such as a mismatched question and answer, is an important element in poetry. • Read poetry aloud. • Use a Slat book to instill interest.

6. Bringing Poetry Writing and Bookmaking Together-Ode to Ode • The writing of Odes, inspired by Pablo Neruda, using common place objects such as fruits and vegetables, is a poetic art. • Students are first introduced to a Model book. –Pop-Up Book. • An example such as “Ode to the Watermelon” can be read and discussed. • A fruit is chosen. Odes are first written in pencil then rewritten by using felt tip pens in the fruit’s color and are then placed on paper divided into sections. • An accordion flag book is used and decorated. • Bookmaking invites students to revisit basic art and math concepts. • Fruit can be brought in to taste and research. • Sharing is a positive experience.

7. Reclaiming the Acrostic • Acrostic poems offer opportunities for students to learn line lengths and breaks. • They have spines, the acrostic words. • They encourage inventive word choice. • The most common acrostic is a poem in which the initial letters of each line have a meaning when read downward.

8. The End!! So-------- • Make a place for poetry and bookmaking in YOUR classroom!!