Offering activities for secondary school students and amateur creative writers, this book demonstrates how teachers can break out of "high culture" stereotypes that make students think poetry has no connection with real life. Part one discusses the essentials of poetry and the roles of poets from ancient oral cultures to the present. The…

There appears to be a problem in the way students in introductory, nonmajor literature courses read poetry that affects the way they write about it. One widely accepted belief among students is that there is a hidden but identifiable meaning in the poem that they are supposed to discover. The problem with this strategy is that most students lack…

Using a college course on William Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" as a case study, this book presents an alternative approach to teaching poetry. Divided into seven sections with 19 chapters, the book describes how students can develop and exercise an historical imagination in the…

The responses of 422 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students were analyzed in a survey that sought (1) to determine what poems selected for the survey were most enjoyed by the students; (2) to analyze the most popular poems considering such characteristics as the form, content, certain poetic elements, and age of the poem; and (3) to determine any…

Discusses the negative impact of poetry instruction based on scansion, biography, genre theory and formal principles. Describes three alternative lesson plans using imagist poetry, specifically that of Williams, because it rejects formal traditional rules and provokes student response. Concludes that students appreciate stylistic traits and that…

Presents arguments to researching response to poetry that attempts to track the process as it occurs. Describes procedures designed to ensure that the responses that are recorded come close to representing the process by which adolescent readers go about making sense of a poem. (EL)

No instructional technique has brought introductory students in literature at Tidewater Community College (Virginia) closer to the genuine in poetry than writing their way into a work, in particular, writing combined with individual and collaborative activities that engage multiple senses and establish learning communities. Adapting to a computer…

This book, the third volume in the NCTE High School Literature Series, explores the joys of reading and teaching the stories and poems of noted Mexican American author Sandra Cisneros. Already a fixture in many high school English classes, her works resonate with the challenges and promises of living in a multicultural society, and they appeal to…

Examines how literary criticism exploits and marginalizes the poem as printed artifact. Argues that the author-centered, phonocentric premise of close reading neutralizes spatial dynamics and reduces material identity to the status of a transparent medium. Suggests that appreciation of silent visual form is a convention of post modernist writing.…

Describes the author's experience of taking two creative writing courses. Stresses the values that are taught: self-investment; avoidance of premature closure; seeing revision as discovery; experimentation; and trusting your own creative power--all necessary for good writing, whether academic or creative. (RAE)

Reviews 31 collections of children's poetry that help students see the world from a fresh perspective. Notes how they were used in a variety of classrooms and how children responded to them. Organizes the books in terms of: making the ordinary extraordinary; looking at relationships in new ways; new views of the world; and a fresh look at animals.…

An alternative approach to the teaching of literature views the reading of a poem, short story, novel, or other literary work as an opportunity for a person to create his or her own immediate response. The approach suggests that there is no constant, objective meaning for a piece of literature, only individual responses reflecting the…

This 19th issue of "Notes Plus" contains descriptions of original, unpublished teaching practices, and of adapted ideas. Under the Ideas from the Classroom section, the August 2001 issue contains the following materials: "Imitation: The Sincerest Form of Flattery" (Anna M. Parks); "Stories That Make Us Who We Are"…

Maintains that, for each child, an initial contact with a poem through a sensitive and skillful teacher can be an individual dialogue with thought and feeling, reforming and deepening with time. Examples of poems are used to illustrate this point. (BB)

Focusing on children's books identified as "notable" for their rich use of language, this book presents essays that discuss literary genres and literary language, responding to the language of Notable Books, and developing an appreciation for language diversity. The book also presents brief essays by well-known children's authors…