Poetry Cafe

1. Poetry Cafe Presented by : Yolanda Anzewu Teacher Consultant

2. Objective and Purpose • Objective: The student will write for a variety of purposes and audiences. • Purpose: Students write poetry to play with words, create images, explore feelings, and entertain. • Focus: Establish a love for language. Read Lucky Me by Yolanda Anzewu

3. Classroom Applications • GT Students: The GT students will be able to research and produce a product. They will peer tutor the learning challenged students by teaching them writing strategies, how to navigate the internet, and how to type their final product. • Learning Challenged Students: Reluctant readers and writers will read poetry because it peaks their interest and it is short and to the point. They will enjoy writing poetry because they will realize they create poems naturally when they sing and play. • ESL Students: Second Language learners will enjoy poetry because its not laborious like writing a composition and they can express their feelings and emotions.

4. Research and Theory • All children are natural poets; poetry is a universal language that can offer children a viable outlet for confusing feelings that they long to express and make sense of. For the Love of Language, Nancy Cecil. • “To further underscore the infinite possibilities of what poetry can be you can share a wide variety of genre with your students including humorous poems, thoughtful poems, alliterative odes, rhymed verse, as well as free verse.” For the Love of Language, Nancy Cecil.

5. Who Am I • Name: Yolanda Anzewu (Anzoo) • School: John F. Kennedy Elementary (45N. @ Crosstimbers near Northline Mall) • District: HoustonISD (North) • Job title: 4TH Grade Lead Language Arts/ESL Teacher • Tenure: 1 year FBISD, 5½ years HISD • Classroom: I have 4 groups, and several centers • Community: Title I, CIS, SAY YES, URBAN

6. Best Practices • I believe reading and writing programs should be based on a balanced, interactive, social constructivist theory. • At the beginning of the research unit students create poetry journals. • First, we begin the day with the Reading Workshop during this time students read and respond in journals. • Then we share a poem we enjoyed reading. They can share their poem by acting it out, drawing a picture, or recording their oral reading on a tape recorder, etc.

7. Research and Theory • Authors such as Calkins(1991), Bomer(1995), and Fletcher(1996) have been advocates for the use of some type of writer’s journal. Regardless of what it is called, the ideal journal or writer’s notebook is uniquely useful in helping struggling writers develop fluency through short, focused writing experiences. After numerous journal entries have been recorded, it becomes a place where teacher and student can look together to find writing topics. Supporting Struggling Readers and Writers, Strickland, Ganske, and Monroe

8. Best Practices • The next step is to teach a mini lesson on poetic devices, the author, poetic forms, or researching. • Afterwards the students begin the Writing Workshop. They write poetry using the formula method as well as free verse. • Finally students share there original poems at the Poetry Café and present their poetry projects.

9. Research and Theory • “There is no trickery involved in reading poetry aloud. When a poem is read aloud with sincerity, boys and girls will enjoy its rhythm, its music, and will understand the work on their own level.” Pass the Poetry, Please!, Lee Bennett Hopkins

10. Research and Theory • “Georgia explained that in poetry there are two camps, the formalists, who teach and write poetry in terms of fixed forms and the free verse poets, who find their forms in the rhythm and content of what they are saying.” The Art of Teaching Writing, Lucy McCormick Calkins.

11. Research and Theory • “I’ve learned that in a safe free setting anyone of any age can gather words, play with language and write poems, sometimes with what poet Anne Waldman calls “goofy profundity.” Poemcrazy, Susan Goldsmith Woolridge

12. Research and Theory • “Beginning with formula poems will probably make the writing easier for young children or for older students who have had little or no experience with poetry.” Teaching Writing, Gail Tompkins

13. Research and Theory • “Poetry matters. At the most important moments, when everyone else is silent poetry rises to speak.” • “Mental pictures or images, are at the ear of poetry, just like emotions.” Poetry Matters, Ralph Fletcher

14. A List of Books to Get You Started • Books That Explain Why You Should Teach Poetry • For the Love of Languageby Nancy Lee Cecil • How to Write, Recite, and Delight in All Kinds of Poetry by Joy Hulme and Donna Guthrie • It Figures! Fun Figures of Speech by Marvin Terban • Let’s Do A Poem! By Nancy Larrick • Pass the Poetry, Please by Lee Bennett Hopkins • Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher • Poetry Projects with Pizzazz by Michelle O’Brien-Palmer • Teaching Writing by Gail Tompkins • The Poetry Break by Caroline Bauer

15. A List of Books to Get You Started • Multicultural Poetry • Latino Poetry by Globe Fearon • Make a Joyful Sound by African-American Poets (Scholastic) • Pass It On by Wade Hudson • Words With Wings by Belinda Rochelle

16. A List of Books to Get You Started • Books With A Collection of Poetry By One Poet • A Lucky Thing by Alice Schertle • A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Prelutsky • If I Were In Charge of the World by Judith Viorst • The Sun Is So Quiet by Nikki Giovanni • The Sweet and Sour Animal Book by Langston Hughes • Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo • Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein • A Book About the Poet • Shakespeare by Peter Chrisp

17. A List of Books to Get You Started • Theme Poems and Anthologies • Color Me A Rhyme by Jane Yolen • My America selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins • Never Take a Pig to Lunch selected by Nadine Westcott • Spectacular Science selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins • Tomie dePaola’s Book of Poems selected by Tomie dePaola • The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems edited by Donald Hall • The Random House of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky

18. Conclusion • Read the Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. • Assessment: Create a Rubric for the Poetry Project Guidelines • Are there any questions? • How can use this information in your classroom?