Poetry Break #9 - Poem with Refrain

This simple poem reflects the view of a bus driver who has driven the same route, performed the same routine, and how he sees his passengers as nothing but faces floating in and out of the bus. The only constant is the heavy bench on the corner of the Green that it's solidly there at the bus stop, empty now of people (Don't know where they come from / Don't know where they're going).


Bus Stop
By James Stevenson

Don’t know where they come from,
Don’t know where they’re going,
People on the bench on the corner of the Green. (refrain)

Don’t know what they’re thinking,
Don’t know what they’re hoping,
People on the bench on the corner of the Green. (refrain)

There’s the bus departing,
Trailing smoke and fumes….
Just an empty bench on the corner of the Green. (refrain)

Stevenson, James. 1995. Sweet Corn Poems. Illus. by James Stevenson. New York: Greenwillow Books.

Extension—
This poem is a great introduction to a lesson on different types of jobs. Discuss jobs in which interaction takes place and then where there might not be any. An example could be a gardener, pool cleaner, garbage collector, etc. Ask questions about the type of people who work at these jobs and why these types of jobs may appeal to them. Create a KWL chart to record information.

Poetry Book Review #8 - Science

Hollander, John. ed. 2004. Poetry for Young People: Animal Poems. Illus. by Simona Mulazzani. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.



Reviews—
School Library Journal
Grades 3-6–William Blake's "The Tyger" and Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" are just 2 of the 33 classic children's poems included in this collection, which is similar in style and format to earlier series titles. The book opens with an interesting five-page essay about different types of animal poems. Each offering is prefaced by information about the background of the poem or poet and some of the imagery used. The paragraphs are informative, but tend to overpower the shorter poems. Many of the pages contain a full-color illustration without borders or white space. The poems are superimposed on the art in small font, sometimes black on light, other times white on dark, which makes some of the entries difficult to read. However, Mulazzani's painterly style does a good job of mirroring the mood of each piece.

Booklist
Grades 5-7. Although animal poetry anthologies for young people abound, this one from the Poetry for Young People series sets itself apart by featuring a number of writers more commonly encountered in high-school and college literature courses than in elementary and middle-school classrooms. …….. Each poem is preceded by a short introduction commenting on the poet and the verse, and most are accompanied by brief notes defining words and phrases. Handsome, stylized paintings fill the pages with color. Varying widely in the accessibility of their language, the poems are occasionally difficult to read in a mechanical sense because they are superimposed on a patterned illustration.

Animal Poems is an exhilarating entry to an impressive lyrical menagerie. The poems are about natural animals, some common others rare, large and small, wild or tame found in zoos, the wild and everyday life. The whimsical paintings by the Italian children’s book artist Simona Mulazanni make every page a delight to see and read. The poets include classical and modern Dickinson, Frost, Tennyson, Whitman and Keats, Belloc and Swenson. The conglomeration of verse is energetic, real, mythical, playful, amusing and intriguing and is sure to capture young people and adults. The short and witty quatrain, The Elephant is accompanied by a whimsical picture of the creature sitting on a small stool. Holland in his introduction writes “poetry can be very careful in its observations, and yet report in strange ways on what has been seen. Emily Dickinson’s poem A Narrow Fellow about a snake suggests that a small snake slithering in the grass looks like comb as it separates the blades of grass/The grass divides as with a comb/A spotted shaft is seen. A Haiku from the sixteenth century poet Moritake has the reader thinking the poem is about fallen summer leaves and then realizes it is about butterflies/ Fallen flowers now/To their branch returning I/See—the butterflies!

The haiku, ballad, sonnet, fragment, and lyrical poetry in this book is a great introduction to any zoology or living science lesson!

Poetry Break #7 - Poem About Spring

Introduction―
Ahhhh...spring! After a cold winter, there is nothing that compares to walking outside and seeing and smelling the fresh new flowers. Moncure in her poem transcends you quickly into this exciting season. The poem with it’s rhyming verses is a wake-up call for spring. The full-page illustration by Marie Claude Monchaux is beautifully colored with pastels and an attractive spring border outlines the page.

Wake-Up Time
by Jane Belk Moncure

It’s wake-up time for flowers.
I find them every year,
growing in the sunshine,
knowing spring is here
How do they know
it’s time to grow?
They have a way to tell.
You can too.
Here’s what to do.
Just close your eyes
and smell!

Moncure, Jane B. 2000. In Spring. Illus. by Marie-Claude
Monchaux. Child's World Inc.

Extension
For this activity you will need to find poems that deal with spring
or any season. Next you will need 2 milk cartons with the bottoms
cut out to make a cube. Cut the bottoms according to the size
needed and put them inside of each other. Cover with colorful
paper or contact paper.

Each group (4-5 students) will be given a cube with poems written
on all sides. One person will roll the dice to see which poem their
group will be working on. They can then do one of two things to
present their poem to the class. Choral read the poem or act out
in front of the class.

The teacher and students will have fun listening and watching
the presentations of the poems.

Poetry Book Review #6 - Free Verse Novel

Hesse, Karen. (2001). Witness. Cover Art by Kim McGillvary. New York: Scholastic.

Reviews

Booklist
*Starred Review* Gr. 5-9. Using real events, Hesse tells a story of the Ku Klux Klan in a small town in Vermont in 1924 in the same clear free-verse as her Newbery winner, Out of the Dust (1997……Add this to the Holocaust curriculum, not because every racial incident means genocide, but because the book will spark discussion about how such a thing can happen even now.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2001
What Copeland created with music, and Hopper created with paint, Hesse deftly and unerringly creates with words...

Awards
2002 The Christopher Award
ALA Notable Children's Book
2001 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
2001 Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year

Witness is free-verse poetry, with a journal format that is divided into five acts. Written as a lyrical novel the story almost reads like a play. The story is told from the perspectives of 11 different voices that bring it to life. Of interest is the lack of capital letters, perhaps it is to illustrate the innocence and ignorance of those times. Although the book is written for grades 5-9, it may be more appropriate for middle and high school due to its format and content. The novel may be used to teach history, past and present, and to generate discussions about tolerance of indifference. Readers experience the events of terror and peace; witness the characters capacity for love, hate, kindness and change.

Hesse, in her novel tells the story of what happens to a small town when it is suddenly torn apart by the Ku Klux Klan. By using multiple perspectives of the same events she allows each character to tell their version. By doing this, personal biases are made known, and judgments about the temperament of the characters can be made. Witness as it is written helps the reader hear the voices and feel their emotions as you are drawn into the story. Although there are many voices being heard the story revolves around two children who are new to town Leonora Sutter, 12, who is black, and Esther Hirsch, 6, who is Jewish. The dialect of the two girls comes through vividly and contrasts both. Nonetheless, the story as it comes to life through the poems, is compelling and holds the reader's attention.

I have included excerpts from the novel to invite you in.

leanora sutter

separated on the stage from all those limb-tight white girls.
    The ones who wouldn’t dane with a negro.
    they went home in a huff that first day,
    but some came back.
    they told miss harvey they’d dance,
    but they wouldn’t
    touch any brown skin girl.

ester hirsh
    So I made a long walk by myself.
    I did follow the train tracks and
    pretty quick daddy did have comings after me. 

Poetry Break #5 - Poem in Unusual Form

Pearson, Susan. 2005. Grimericks. Illus. by Grimly, Gris.
Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish Corp.

Introduction –
This witty limerick can be read at anytime during the year, but would be great to use on Halloween. The poem is colorful, spooky, creepy, ghoulish, and humorous. The grimly illustration by Gris Grimly is cleverly done in watercolor and ink. The teachers are comically portrayed as ghouls. Although limericks are short they can say much.


A banshee named Mrs. O’Toole

Teaches wailing at Spookytime School,

Mr. Bones teaches dances,

Ms. Ghost teaches trances,

and grades are passed out by Miss Ghoul.


Extension –
Copy a life-size image of the illustration and tack to a wall before reading the poem. Set the mood for the poem by turning off the lights. Use a flashlight to illuminate while reading. Have students draw their favorite teacher in a ghoulish embodiment. Place the student’s creations on a wall. Have them guess the teachers by using post-its. Students can then choose their favorite illustration.

Poetry Book Review #4 - Author of Color

many colors of mother goose
adapted by Cheryl Willis Hudson
illustrated by Ken Brown, Mark Corcoran & Cathy Johnson

Most children in the United States grow up hearing and learning Mother Goose nursery rhymes. This book collects 31 classic rhymes, presenting them in a way that reflects a variety of cultures and races. The poems in this book are short, simple, and fun for young children. The upbeat rhymes reflect the music (jazz), rhythms, and lives of diverse people in a multi-faceted world. The poems seem to convey a message of happiness or lessons to be learned. (Rooster crows in the morning time/to tell all children to rise/for those who sleep late/will never be wise). The use of figurative language permeates throughout the books bringing the characters to life. In the poem There was an Old Woman the shoe could represent the world filled with people from all walks of life and nationalities living together peacefully.

There was an old woman
Who lived in a shoe.
She cared for lots of children
And knew just what to do.

She gave them hugs and kisses-
She shared happy dreams and good wishes.
And they lived, laughed and loved
All year through.

The illustrations for these well-known rhymes have traditionally reflected only a western European perspective. The illustrations seem to contribute to the overall tone of the collection The paintings are brightly colored filled with a plentitude of characters of color. There are also many elements of the African-American culture. For example, the jazzy poem Little Boy Lou is about a young boy, or perhaps the personification of the great jazz musician Louis Armstrong. As you read the poem you can almost feel yourself dancing behind the boy as he plays his horn.

Little Boy Lou,
Come blow your horn.
We’re jammin’ in New Orleans
Where jazz bands are born

In the poem Ole King Cole the author refers to musicians as happy cats who play a non-traditional type of music such as blue grass, soul, hop and rock n’ roll.

Ole King Cole was a partying soul
And a partying soul was he.

I recommend this book of poems as a fun, creative, good mood addition to any children’s library.

Hudson, Cheryl Willis, 1997. Many Colors of Mother Goose.

Illus. by Ken Brown, Mark Corcoran and Cathy Johnson. New Jersey: Just Us Books.

Poetry Break #3- A Poem by NCTE Award Winning Poet

Introduction –
The poem is simple and easy to read, and wonderfully humorous. The author uses colorful words, which help transcend beautiful pictures in a readers mind. In reading this poem to your students you can invite them to bite, touch, lick—to make the poem part of themselves.


How To Eat a Poem
by Eve Merriam

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon
or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core
or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

Extension –
Students and teacher will read aloud; the emphasis at this point is on the poem as a work of art meant to be heard. Several readings will allow the students to get the sense of the poem as a whole; the reading done by students will be a quick gauge on understanding.

Following the readings a lesson on metaphors and non-literal language can be introduced using a chart. Different fruit containing pits can be used as examples to differentiate between the metaphors in the poem and literal language.

Cullinan, Bernice E. 1996. A Jar of Tiny Stars, Poems by NCTE Award-Winning Poets. Illus. Andi MacLeod. Boyds Mills Press.