Well, I know what you're thinking... It's poem week. Gross.
NO! It should be "It's poem week, YES!"
I get it, not everyone enjoys poetry, whether it be reading it or writing it. But I genuinely think that this negative stigma comes from people who don't actually UNDERSTAND poetry.
Just like Christensen says in the text, people automatically think "OH MY. POETRY! I MUST BECOME A SCHOLAR TO MAKE SUCH LITERARY GENIUS SUCH AS POETRY"
But NOPE, that is not the case in the slightest. Can you write the alphabet? Oh good, then you too can write poetry just like the scholars of Harvard and Yale.
Poetry is one of my favorite things, because it can be both personal and impersonal, as well as selfish and selfless. It can be anything that you want it to be. You can share it, or keep it hidden away to yourself. It's one of the most versatile forms of writing there is. There is no right or wrong answer when it's all about you. You can write poetry at age 5 or age 90, it really doesn't matter.
One of my favorite websites for poetry is ReadWriteThink. This website allows students of all ages to participate in all sorts of poetry building activities. Students can use a word mover program, an acrostic poem template, a diamond poem template, and more. This website has all sorts of resources for teachers. Even at the high school level you can use this stuff to scaffold your students up to more complex poetry.
As Christensen also mentions, I really enjoy the idea of the read-around and allowing the students to actually share their work with their peers. This will only help them in the future really. When I was younger, you only shared if you had to. And everyone was always afraid or too embarrassed to give anyone feedback on the things that were read, whether it was warm or cold feedback. We should be encouraging students to take the initiative and want to share their personal experiences! Too often students don't know how to react to feedback, and this is a way to get them used to the idea that they are not perfect, and that there is always room for improvement.
Clearly I love poetry. Which is why one of my goals as a teacher is to show students that poetry can be fun and personal and genuinely a good time!
So laugh at this with me?
NO! It should be "It's poem week, YES!"
I get it, not everyone enjoys poetry, whether it be reading it or writing it. But I genuinely think that this negative stigma comes from people who don't actually UNDERSTAND poetry.
Just like Christensen says in the text, people automatically think "OH MY. POETRY! I MUST BECOME A SCHOLAR TO MAKE SUCH LITERARY GENIUS SUCH AS POETRY"
But NOPE, that is not the case in the slightest. Can you write the alphabet? Oh good, then you too can write poetry just like the scholars of Harvard and Yale.
Poetry is one of my favorite things, because it can be both personal and impersonal, as well as selfish and selfless. It can be anything that you want it to be. You can share it, or keep it hidden away to yourself. It's one of the most versatile forms of writing there is. There is no right or wrong answer when it's all about you. You can write poetry at age 5 or age 90, it really doesn't matter.
One of my favorite websites for poetry is ReadWriteThink. This website allows students of all ages to participate in all sorts of poetry building activities. Students can use a word mover program, an acrostic poem template, a diamond poem template, and more. This website has all sorts of resources for teachers. Even at the high school level you can use this stuff to scaffold your students up to more complex poetry.
As Christensen also mentions, I really enjoy the idea of the read-around and allowing the students to actually share their work with their peers. This will only help them in the future really. When I was younger, you only shared if you had to. And everyone was always afraid or too embarrassed to give anyone feedback on the things that were read, whether it was warm or cold feedback. We should be encouraging students to take the initiative and want to share their personal experiences! Too often students don't know how to react to feedback, and this is a way to get them used to the idea that they are not perfect, and that there is always room for improvement.
Clearly I love poetry. Which is why one of my goals as a teacher is to show students that poetry can be fun and personal and genuinely a good time!
So laugh at this with me?
Crap you stole my meme, LOL! I have the same feelings as many other people, because prior to reading that chapter, I didn't really understand the point of poetry, other than it was a way for other people to express themselves. Christensen made this concept accessible to me, so maybe I will start to move my ideas from "boo...poetry" to "ok, poetry. let's do this"
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