Children's and Young Adult Literature: Poetry
Poetry in the classroom
"Teaching "great" poetry to students enhances their perceptions, improves their writing, challenges their minds, and enriches their lives."
"I have come to believe that if a poem is not good enough for an adult, it is not a quality poem for a child. Children, too, deserve a diet of poetry that blends laughter with elements of insight, human experience, and wonder so that they can make meaning of the world and their unique perspective."
Certo, J. L. (2004). Cold plums and the old men in the water: Let children read and write “great” poetry. The Reading Teacher, 58(3), 266-271.
Professional reading
Using Poetry Across the Curriculum by "This second edition of Using Poetry Across the Curriculum: Learning to Love Language offers a comprehensive list of poetry anthologies, poetic picture books, and poetic prose works in a wide variety of subject areas. While it maintains the original edition’s focus on ideas and resource lists for integration of poetry into all areas of the curriculum, it is thoroughly revised to cover current issues in education and the wealth of new poetry books available."--pub. desc.
How to Teach Poetry Writing, Ages 5-9 by ISBN: 9780415590136"Now in a fully revised and extended second edition, How to Teach Poetry Writing: Workshops for Ages 8-13 is a practical and activity based resource of writing workshops to help you teach poetry in the primary classroom. Designed to help build writing, speaking and listening skills, this book contains a wide selection of workshops exemplifying a variety of poetry styles and showing how their unique features can be used to teach key literacy skills."--pub. desc.
Reading Poetry in the Middle Grades by "Award-winning poet Paul B. Janeczko is the master for creating anthologies for pre-teen and adolescent readers, and here he’s chosen 20 contemporary and classic selections with step-by-step, detailed lessons for investigating each poem from the inside out. Kids learn to become active readers of poetry, using graphic organizer worksheets to help them jump over their fear and dive into personal, smart, analytical responses. There’s no better genre than poetry for helping students gain perspective on their own identities and their own worlds." --pub. desc.
Featured title
Can you lasso the wind? Can you whip it a-gale? Can you make oceans bend To cradle each lost whale? Lasso the Wind is the first collection of children’s poetry by renowned poet and playwright George Elliott Clarke. By turns absurd, witty, playful, and profound, Clarke’s poems speak to the vivid wonder, the bright joys, and the secret pains of growing up in this world.
Locating poetry for children and youth
Browse the USask Library Catalogue to locate:
Aboriginal children's poetry (North American)
*Hint: To locate children's poetry on a specific theme or topic, search the Library Catalogue for the subject, followed by the heading juvenile poetry--animals juvenile poetry ; cats juvenile poetry ; dogs juvenile poetry ; nature juvenile poetry