Friday, July 15, 2011

Have You Ever Considered Poetry Friday?

I have to tell you there have been many times in my teaching career that I have been surprised but most of my surprises come from Poetry Friday.  No matter what and I mean no matter what I commit to at least 30 minutes every Friday for students to share poetry.  I start in the beginning of the year just singing poems along with my class and then sharing some fun poems that I tab to allow my students learn about our different poetry books in our classroom. We just enjoy poetry.  Once we have established that Poetry can be fun-which is sometimes hard to prove to 5th graders.  We then begin to have mini focus lessons on Poetry Friday.

*What is Poetry?
*Sounds of  Poetry
*Forms of Poetry

When I first started Poetry Friday, I was really unsure about how to make the shift in my teaching.  I heard of an amazing book by Georgia Heard:  Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School.  The ideas for the classroom really changed my teaching especially the heart mapping activity (p. 108).  I typically do that the first three weeks of school, and I leave my heart map up as a model for the class for quite a while. We have had some great conversations from my heart map.  We use these heart maps all year not only in Poetry Friday but also writing workshop. If you haven't read this book I would suggest you move it to your To Be Read pile..my favorite chapter is Making a Poetry Environment.  Poetry Friday round up is at A Year of Reading-thanks Mary Lee.
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10 comments:

  1. MandyJuly 15, 2011 at 8:40 AM

    Hands down this is a great book and a great resource to post. I also did poetry early in the year after launching writing notebooks. It's such a great way for students to fell success within their writing.

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  2. Mary LeeJuly 15, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    Huzzah for Poetry Friday! Just like read aloud -- it's a time when kids can learn without trying!

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  3. Amy L VJuly 15, 2011 at 9:30 PM

    What an invitation! Georgia's book is marvelous, and I am wondering if you might be willing to write a bit more about how you host Poetry Friday in your classroom at my blog? I'm always looking to highlight interesting ways that classroom teachers share poetry with students...and what better than classroom Poetry Friday? (The "Poetry Peeks" are in the right hand column if you'd like to see what I mean.) I will tweet a link to your post. Thank you! A.

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  4. GatheringBooksJuly 15, 2011 at 9:51 PM

    I am always on the look out for resources such as this being a teacher educator back in Singapore. Thank you thank you for this beautiful recommendation. I will definitely check this out and would recommend as well to my teacher-students. Poetry is love. =)

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  5. Nancy BarlowJuly 15, 2011 at 9:57 PM

    I love this book. I used to feel intimidated by teaching poetry. Now, it is my go-to book. Nice idea for Fridays.

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  6. CathyJuly 15, 2011 at 11:21 PM

    Amy,
    This is one of my favorite books to support the teaching of poetry. Your site is another one of my poetry favorites.

    Cathy

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  7. TabathaJuly 16, 2011 at 6:30 AM

    Great post. Thanks for the tip about that book.

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  8. MariaJuly 16, 2011 at 9:31 AM

    Thank you for your kind comments as I said this book really changed my thinking. I would be happy to post more about what we do in our classroom for Poetry Friday. Here is another post about starting it.
    http://teachingin21.blogspot.com/2010/08/poetry-friday.html

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  9. Mary Catherine ShminaOctober 8, 2012 at 9:31 AM

    I'm a huge poetry fan. Thanks for the post! I'm also going to read that earlier post in the comment above.
    Thanks again!

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  10. BarryNovember 6, 2012 at 2:31 AM

    I love Georgia Heard and totally enjoy teaching poetry. This book is a must for 4th grade.

    Thanks for the reminder and enjoy your kids.

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