Using Poetry in the Classroom: Engaging Students in Learning

(Paperback)

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Description

Here, Ross Burkhardt explains how to reach students through poetry and how to help them develop their own appreciation for it. Drawing on the author's rich experience as a middle school language arts teacher, Using Poetry in the Classroom presents a comprehensive approach that focuses on both the how and the why of teaching poetry. This book offers explicit descriptions on how to deliver specific poetry lessons that will develop academic skills such as reading, writing, and critical thinking. Divided into three sections, this book teaches all aspects of poetrycomposing, memorizing, reciting, interpreting, listening, reading, and publishing.

Includes:
A range of effective strategies for instruction
Classroom-tested examples
Descriptions of how to teach poetry
Suggestions on how to introduce, engage students in, and help students learn the essentials of poetry reading and writing
Reflections from former students

This book is intended for teachers, teacher educators, and professors with an interest in language arts.

Reviews

This text will be beneficial to beginning language arts teachers who share the author's passion for poetry but may not possess the pedagogical knowledge to teach poetry to adolescents. Burkhardt, who was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame for his work as a middle school writing teacher, calls on over 30 years of personal experience in creating this cookbook-style text that emphasizes the importance of memorization and recitation in the teaching of poetry. He cites the works of the National Writing Project, NCTE, and Poetry Alive and embraces Rosenblatt's theory of reader response to poetry interpretation. The book includes student examples and letters to the author from former students. Jean Little's poem, 'After English Class,' reproduced in this work, epitomizes the author's theory that students must have the freedom to bring their own understandings to the study of poetry. The section 'General Assertions about Teaching Poetry' sums up the book nicely. This is not a text for experienced poetry practitioners, but neophyte middle school language arts teachers would find it both beneficial and comforting. Recommended. * Choice Reviews *
Drawing upon decades of experience as a language arts teacher, Burkhardt describes a number of classroom-tested poetry lessons aimed at developing reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. * Reference and Research Book News *

Author Bio

Ross M. Burkhardt, a consultant in writing and middle level education, taught English and social studies in New York State for 32 years. Inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1998, Ross is a past president of National Middle School Association and the author of Writing for Real: Strategies for Engaging Adolescent Writers (Stenhouse, 2003).