This piece was about the importance of bringing quality children’s literature into the classroom. The main focus of this piece was the misguided understanding of what children’s poetry is. Many of the poetry anthologies put together for children are really collections of what adults consider to be the “great poems” and are intended for the adult canon. According to Gill, pieces like these “teach children that poems are written by “great poets” which can only be understood and evaluated by academics, whose job it is to tell the rest of us a poem’s meaning” (Gill, 622). In reality, poetry for children is not meant to hold some secret meaning, but instead to show children that “people write poems to share their experiences” (Gill, 623). To help children enjoy poetry, we have to show children “what poetry is:” “a concise and memorable case of language, with intense feeling, imagery, and qualities of sound that bounce pleasingly off the tongue, tickle the ear, and leave the mind something to ponder” (Gill, 623). As Janine Certo advises, poems children read should have “clarity of thought, evidence of technique, and sincerity of tone” and that they should “sensitize young students in their reactions and responses to literature.”
I actually took a course at MSU co-taught by Janine Certo and Laura Apol, which focused on integrating poetry into the literacy curriculum for elementary age children. Because of this, I am excited to work on the fifth grade poetry unit during my internship year! What is somewhat unfortunate however, is that poetry is only addressed in its isolated “poetry unit” as it is in so many only schools and curricula. It is my hope that I may be able to integrate examples of poetry in mini lessons for writing – similar to the topic of “beautiful writing” in Mark White’s fifth grade classroom. It is my opinion that appropriately selected poetry anthologies may be beneficial mentor texts for children on this topic because poetry is all about selecting the “most meaningful” and “descriptive” words (hence, word choice). This article is full of title suggestions for poetry that is written for children, that could in fact be used as mentor texts.
As I mentioned previously, I have already had a semester’s worth of training in integrating poetry into the curriculum and I have created several lesson plans for this purpose in the process. I have not however, been able to determine which poems are appropriate for fifth graders in particular. I am still in contact with my instructors from MSU (Laura Apol in particular) who is always happy to help and offer advice and I plan to utilize her as a resource!
In terms of assessments and this module and how they relate to my unit, I think I need to change how I observe my students. I really need to focus on how I can help my students along this “continuous path” of writing progress and what my students “do well in writing” specifically. Because of MEAP preparation, I really have not had too many opportunities to conference with students. Actually, because my CT does not typically conference with students, it is going to be difficult for me to use her assessment strategies as examples for my own. During my unit, I hope to focus heavily of conferencing with my students as my main point of assessment and I plan to use Mark White as an example of how to assess students effectively so that they too can benefit from the process. Because my unit is not yet set in stone (due to MEAP chaos) I am not yet sure of how much writing my students will be doing during my unit – as much as I would like to implement a writers workshop.
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