The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy March 27, 2010 Islands of Peace in a Long War


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The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
March 27, 2010
Islands of Peace in a Long War

In Georgia Heard's introduction to her classic text on teaching poetry, For the Good of the Earth and Sun: Teaching Poetry, she describes her sadness as she approaches an urban school where she will be a poet-in-residence. There is broken glass on the sidewalks and a tall wire fence - the neighborhood resembles a war zone or prison.   Heard writes:

I walked past the barred windows; the smell of garbage hung in the warm spring air. Inside, it was not much better. Many of the classrooms were overcrowded; in one room there were 35 first graders. But more than that conspired to make writing difficult: paper and crayons, scarce commodities, were kept in a locked closet.

How could anyone learn in this environment? How could anyone teach? Every day I felt despair threatening to overwhelm me. What could I possibly teach that would make a difference?

As time passed, I started to realize that while poetry couldn't solve these deep, systemic problems, it could help. It was the students who convinced me; the looks on their faces as they listened to poetry, what they said during the workshops, and most of all the poems they wrote pushed back my despair again and again. Sometimes it seemed as if the poems were islands of peace in a long war.

                              (p. xx - For the Good of the Earth and Sun)

It's striking to realize how little things have changed in the 24 years since Georgia Heard wrote these words - long war indeed. Yet as we head into the National Poetry Month of April, it's also surprising how much has changed when it comes to celebrating poetry. Because of technology, teachers have access to far more poetry than in the days when everyone was scrambling to borrow the same few anthologies in the school library. Even if you only have a few minutes a day or an hour during the month to savor poetry with your students, it's worth the time.   These days, the resources you need are just a click away.

1. 30 Poets/30 Days - 2010 Edition
(http://bit.ly/b0A8OJ)

Gregory at the GottaBook blog has corralled a different poet to contribute a new, previously unpublished poem for each day in April. The 2010 featured poets will include Georgia Heard, Ralph Fletcher, Jacqueline Woodson and Walter Dean Myers. And if you're looking for a few fresh poems to start the month with your students, the 2009 30 Poets/30 Days archive
(http://gottabook.blogspot.com/search/label/30%20Poets) is terrific. Many of the archived poems are about reading poetry and the writing process, so they can do double and triple duty in literacy workshops.

2. Writer's Almanac Poem a Day
(http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/)

A poem a day can help keep you sane and give you a momentary escape from the crisis du jour at your school. Jan Miller Burkins explains in her book Coaching for Balance: How to Meet the Challenges of Literacy Coaching why the first email she reads each day is a poem - the daily feed from The Writer's Almanac. She writes, "Even if I have 300 emails in my inbox and they are all flagged urgent, I read the poem first. The poems are rarely about education, so they let me start my day in a neutral mental space. I print out the poems that move me and put them into a notebook. Through this process, I have assembled a personal poetry anthology and have given myself a mental vitamin to jumpstart each day."

3. National Poem in Your Pocket Day
(http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/406)

If you only have time for one poetry celebration, consider marking "Poem in Your Pocket" Day on April 29th with students and colleagues. This event is growing in popularity because it's so easy to participate - just copy a favorite poem to carry all day with you, and pull it out to share with others whenever possible. I already have mine picked out - Douglas Worth's "Maybe We Had to Come This Far" about the renewal of spring after winter's (and life's) trials.   You can read it here:

http://www.dworthworks.com/catch_the_light.htm

What poem might you put in your pocket? How much could you learn about your students and colleagues by what they choose to tuck away in theirs?

There will always be plenty of curricular needs crowding out poetry, and it's a battle to find time to add anything to teaching schedules. But when you look at the power of a beautiful poem - from a personal "mental vitamin" for teachers to an "island of peace in a long war" for students - how can we afford not to read, write, and listen to at least a little poetry in our classrooms?

This week we've posted a slew of resources to help you plot out April teaching plans, plus more as always. Enjoy!

Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy

Free for All

We are so fortunate at Choice Literacy to have Shirley McPhillips, a poet and wise literacy teacher as a regular contributor. In "The Rolling Pin: Looking into Things" from the Choice Literacy Archives, Shirley shares how teachers can help students use objects to spark memories and poems:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/475.cfm

Click on your state in the National Poetry Map to discover featured poets, resources and events close to home:

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/382

The Education Oasis Calendar for April is simply the best calendar on the web for teachers, chock-full of daily links to literary events and websites:

http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/calendar/months/april.htm

Older students who are budding poets might enjoy the ReadWritePoem challenge to write a poem a day. This blog also has many wonderful resources for poetry lovers:

http://readwritepoem.org/

Join us this summer at our new location just outside Boston, Massachusetts July 27-30th for summer workshops. We have a full slate of presenters including Jennifer Allen, Aimee Buckner, "The Sisters" (Gail Boushey and Joan Moser), Katie Doherty, Clare Landrigan, Tammy Mulligan, Franki Sibberson, Andrea Smith, and Karen Szymusiak. You can download the workshop descriptions and registration form (a two-page PDF file) at this link:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/wrentham2010.pdf

Summer Events Update: The Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio CAFE in the Classroom workshops are SOLD OUT. Limited seating remains for the San Antonio Delight in Words workshop.   Thanks so much for your enthusiastic response - if you are interested in these summer workshop topics, please consider registering at our Wrentham, Massachusetts or Tacoma, Washington locales where there is still space available.

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Are you making the most of student book recommendations in your classroom? If peer book shares seem more perfunctory than powerful among your students, you might want to check out this week's video on Book Share Preparation. Katie Doherty helps her sixth graders plan for sharing books using a template. While Katie works with middle school students, the template can be easily adapted for older or younger learners. This is the first video in a two-part series:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1120.cfm

This week we've posted a trio of new Web 2.0 features for linking technology and learning.

Katie DiCesare introduces her second grade students to the world of blogging:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1119.cfm

Becky McCraw sees the power of technology in reaching a reluctant writer:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1071.cfm

Finally, Becky's article is the lead feature in our latest Digest on 21st Century Literacy, with over a dozen links to practical technology tools on the web for you:

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/1118.cfm

That's all for this week!