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JUST PEOPLE
By Kathi Appelt
Photographs by Kenneth Appelt
(Absey & Co., Inc., 1997)
CREATING A POETRY CENTERED CLASSROOM
- Immerse yourself and your students in poetry--poetry is all around
us.
- Recommendations for your students--product-wise:
a. At the end of the course, plan a "coffee house" where students
can read some of their favorite works.
b. Have each student create a "poetry anthology." Have the
students illustrate these with their own photos, drawings, collages,
etc. (These can be theme-based or general. Examples of themes--my family,
a place, my room, friends, work, love poems, saints, animals, vacation,
foods, chores, cartoon figures, etc.)
c. Create a poetry anthology of the best works of the students. Give
each student a copy.
d. Bring poetry into the real world--
--Have them choose a product that they really like--jeans, a food product,
a fast food place, a soft drink, a kind of automobile, clothing, and
create a "jingle" for it.
--Make them aware of the poetry around them--both in speech and in advertising
and in songs.
e. Have them design greeting cards.
f. Have them take a song, keep the melody, and write their own words
for it.
g. Give them lots of opportunities to read their work out loud.
- Keep a "word basket" in your room, filled with juicy words,
free for the taking.
- Make copious lists--make list poems.
- Tune into the five senses--have your students write "odes"
to each of their five senses, e.g. "ode to touch," "ode
to my tongue," "ode to my ears," "ode to my nose,"
etc. Have fun with it.
- Don't forget fantasies (list some of the mythological figures and
write about them, or write letters to them.)
- Have your students bring photos of themselves and their friends and
family and write poems based on the photos. Do this with pictures from
magazines too.
- Tune in to the ordinary--have them write poems about chores--washing
dishes, washing the car, feeding the cat, sweeping the kitchen, vacuuming,
mowing the lawn, etc.
- Encourage them to "collect" poems by other authors, to keep
an album or notebook of poems they love. Show them how to use these
poems to write their own. Perhaps you could have them keep a "poetry
journal" of poems they can respond to.
- Most importantly--share your own poetry with your students!
If you have any other good ideas for using this book, please send them
to me care of Harper Collins Children's Books., 1350 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10019 or email me at
.
HAPPY WRITING!
Kathi Appelt
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