Oh my!
I just had my annual Poetry Night at our local Barnes and Noble
bookstore.
First, don't wait until April to do poetry. I love poetry because there
is NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWER and it can be a great comprehension tool! I
teach first grade and I have a WIDE range of ability levels and poetry
makes everyone equal.
My poetry program..
1. I send home poems beginning the second week of school for students
to keep at home
and memorize.
2. During the year I select poems and I copy them and put them on the
overhead and we
use these poems to try to determine what do you think the author
meant by this or
that, based on this poem can you imagine who the author might be,
etc. I've gotten
some great discussions from this activity that led to COMPREHENSION
DISCUSSIONS!
3. Four years ago I went to the local Barnes and Noble and ask them if
my class and
their parents can have an evening where they come and recite the
some of the poems I
sent home and some of the poems they wrote during the year.
4. This evening has been one of the highlights of the year every year.
I wrote a script and I select one girl and one boy to be like the
MCs.
I work it out where each students gets 3 times at the mike. Once as
a group and two
times as an individual.
5. To get the students excited about poetry I introduce poetry using
Regi Routman's
poetry book and then we eat snickers candy bars and we write poetry
about the
experience. We do the same for Pepperidge Farm goldfish.
6. During poetry night after we finish our snickers and goldfish poems
we give each
parent a goody bag containing a book of all the poems that I have
made at Office Max
and we give each parent a bag of goldfish and a snack size Snickers
bar. Then we
recite at least one poem that they wrote on their own.
7. I have all my students wear white shirts and blue jeans and I buy
each student a
black cap with I (heart) poetry on the front in white letters.
8. I video tape the evening and I burn a DVD for all the parents that
is given to them
at our district Portfolio Night.
9. NO YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND ALL THE MONEY I DID.
You can do the same thing FREE! The most important thing to
remember that you should do poetry all year long and tie it into your
reading so it just becomes a part of the curriculum. DON'T FORGET THAT
POETRY CAN BE A POWERFUL COMPREHENSION TOOL.!
Get Regie's book because it is an easy read and it will give
-----Original Message-----
From: mosaic-boun...@literacyworkshop.org
[mailto:mosaic-boun...@literacyworkshop.org] On Behalf Of Maureen Robins
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 10:47 AM
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Poetry Coffee House
A coffee house is really fun but requires some planning and rehearsal
with
kids. One year I appropriated space in school and had kids bring in
table
cloths etc and for the event I had milk etc and snacks. Students
prepared by
writing a poem and bringing one of their favorites in. I had an mc who
created an order for readers. After that was established the mc (s) took
over making sure they had copies of the poems and that the kids could
read
them with expressio). Of course there were some kids who didn't want to
write anything or bring anything in. For those kids I used Joyful Noise
(Fleishman) and had kids rehearse reading those poems (the voices
alternate
then join together at times, the line breaks provide not just visual but
aural cues). I must say when those kids read those poems in their sweet
voices I was knocked over.
So, plan plan plan, Rehearse rehearse rehearse and on the day, let the
kids
do it and enjoy the show!
Maureen Robins
On 4/4/09, W.Robertson <w...@shaw.ca> wrote:
>
>
> I'm writing for advice. At last week's staff meeting, I was telling
the
> staff that April is poetry month and all of a sudden I had the idea to
wrap
> up the month with a POETRY COFFEE HOUSE. I've never arranged one or
even
> been too one and because I said I would organize it, I think I better
get
> some advice and direction. Can anyone give me any suggestions on
having a
> coffee house? Format, set up etc..
> Thanks,
> Wendy
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to
>
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
>
> Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
>
>
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