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Children and Adolescents: A Poetry Connection
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Over the four years that I worked at Charter Psychiatric Hospital, in crisis care, I taught
hundreds of children and adolescents. I was amazed at how many kids write poetry on their
own. If student after student are filling journals with poems, it must be that they have a need to
express their feelings, emotions, and perspectives in the language of poetry.
If my days stopped,
you would walk past.
Often I wish and dream of the angels.
From a students poetry journal-Charter
Teaching poetry to youths requires trust. Your students need to know that they can share their
poetry and not feel criticized for their style or their content. But without guidance students will
grow to recognize their limitations in their ability to express themselves and/or to change their
thoughts, emotions, and perspective. Their poetry will stop and a window will close.
Andrea Stark, poetry teacher at The Sycamores, a residence for troubled youths. She
encourages her students to write poetry and helps them get published. She has made an
impact on many students' lives.
BRINGING WORDS TO LIFE / AND LIFE TO WORDS
Poetry in the Classroom
An article for Teachers and Parents it's about expression. It's about control. It's about personal
freedom. It's about language. Poetry. Poetry in the classroom. What can it do for your
students? Is it just another day of abab rhyme scheme full of clichŽs? Is it just another writing
exercise? How on earth do you get those students interested in poetry in the first place? Are
the styles of Dr. Suess or Jack Prelutsky the only ones of interest to our younger students?
The first topic to tackle is why have poetry in the classroom? Why write a poem about the
Fourth of July in history class, or describe in poetic form what a plant looks like in biology?
How could this help with learning and or retention?
Well, first and foremost it is an art form that requires that a student think differently than usual.
It requires that the student use a different part of the brain. Remember all the left brain vs. right
brain materials that were published not long ago? Remember Drawing on the Right Side of
the Brain? Great ideas such as this encourage the use of both sides of the brain for learning.
This supports the idea that approaching school work in different ways and gaining a different
perspective on the work can help with comprehension and understanding. It may very well
help a student having difficulty with a topic with feel that they can relate to and subsequently
comprehend that difficult topic. Students who may not excel in other language arts may find a
renewed sense of ability when writing in poetic form. They may be able to express themselves
better in poetic form than in any other.
I have witnessed that working with poetry helps give new expression to everyday ideas, allows
a freedom of expression that is not found in other writing arts, creates a heightened sense of
language, and helps develop personal style which can lead to healthy feelings of individuality.
All this from poetry? Yep.
I currently teach poetry and creative writing to a population of level 14 boys in Southern
California. Level 14 boys are one step away from incarceration and represent a small but
unfortunately growing population of our American youth. These boys do not have traditional
homes and suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Suicidal Ideation,
Psychosis, and other issues created through abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Some of
these boys have difficulty sitting down in one spot for longer than 60 seconds and frequently
cannot do even that. These boys are frequently oppositional and verbally abusive. These boys
can be quite violent.
These boys are writing poetry.
In fact these boys have had their pieces published in a student anthology that sponsors a
national poetry contest for students. The best successes have been with the most difficult to
reach boys. With minimal coaching they are able to express a great depth of feeling and an
incredible range of creative thought. They have found great pride in their work and lasting
feelings of accomplishment. Many have written about feelings that had gone unexpressed in
therapy and have led them to make great self-discoveries or disclosures that were extremely
useful in their lives. These boys not always open to the idea of writing poetry but once
introduced to it were very willing to try. They are brining life to words.
So now, secondly, how do you do it? How do you get those students interested in writing
poetry? My suggestion is first to read poetry. Get the students exposed to more of what they
have already seen. It is likely that they have some of Dr. Suess',Shel Silverstein's or Jack
Prelutskly's work. Bring in all those books and let the students see how prolific these writers
are. These works never seem to fail to get the attention of any audience. Have the students
read these poems aloud and bring the words to life! Introduce poetry in the manner that is
most easy for your students to digest. Then start to bring in different forms of poetry. Show
them Haiku, show them Sonnets, show then Epic, show them modern. Let them know that
poetry is a highly valued art form that is as old as any other art they know, possibly older. Show
them poems written by students their age and older. Let them know about poetry contests for
their age range and get them inspired!
Then, let them write. There are so many exercises that make writing poetry fun and accessible
to the younger student. First poetry exercises can be as simple and lovely as writing a
description in single word sentences of their favorite toy, or animal. They can create a Name
Poem, where each letter of their name is the first letter of a descriptive word about them. They
can write about a feeling and describe it with colors and shapes. They can write a poem for a
particular holiday. They can write a traditional Haiku and count syllables and sounds. (a good
exercise for any age)
Following a set of rules and coming up with a creative product is the challenge of poetry. Just
as the creation of a watercolor, or any specific visual art technique requires adherence to a set
of rules, so do certain forms of poetry. Using a structure often makes it much easier for a
student. Rather than offering "Write about anything you wish", which can be daunting, offering
the tight styles of traditional Haiku can give students an alluring challenge--a challenge that
can be very fun to tackle.
Writing about a feeling is also a good introductory exercise. The form can be open or you can
challenge them with a style. A theme for the day can be an inspiring idea. The students can
provide the theme or you can be prepared with one. Examples of themes are: Seasons,
Favorite Music, World Peace, Love, Friendship, A Life Experience, etc.
Some students will need coaching and assistance. I have actually been the scribe for some of
my students and had them simply speak what they were feeling about a particular theme or
emotion. I then show them what they have dictated and they entitle it. I also have them work on
editing it into a form if they wish. They have complete control and are never edited. I will also
ask them to take a descriptive sentence they have written and pare it down into images and
emotions. In this way I can get them to understand the basic notion of this form of poetry in
comparison prose.
The greatest element about poetry and its use in the classroom is that poetry is an art form
that specifically uses written language. In an age where students are graduating from High
School and are unable to write a coherent sentence, poetry can be of great use. If a student
can look at a modern poem and understand the minimal use of language that it features, then
he or she will likely be able to tackle other language forms with better alacrity.
I emphatically encourage all teachers to include poetry in their curriculum. It can only enhance
the learning process and help to create new understandings. It truly does bring words to life
and life to words. In addition to all that, it is incredibly fun.
(For information about a wonderful on-line poetry contest created by teachers for students,
please take a look at Creative Communication. I have found it to be useful and powerful in the
teaching of poetry. (I am not a part of this organization.) There is also on-line information about
Teen Poetry Slams, which are amazing!)
Art With Children by Shauna Edwards
I have been teaching children for over 14 years and I have never experienced any activity that
impacts children more than directed drawing. All children are successful! The best part about
teaching directed drawing is that children that are not able to attend in other areas of
curriculum are 100% successful in art. The children with special needs in my classroom are
all successful and proud of their accomplishments. I am convinced that directed drawing is a
pathway into the minds of our children that have learning difficulties in school. I venture to say
that I could take any special needs student and use this style of teaching and reach them in
ways that have never been discovered. I am so excited about teaching art. Directed drawing
envelops every area of curriculum and seems to open parts of the brain that have not been
tapped into. I see a permanent transformation in the lives of children that transfers into many
areas of their lives. I see their faces light up from the glow of their internal being that has been
awakened. The parents of these children are awed at their childrenÕs work. From parents, I
receive comments like, "My child would not even pick up a pencil, but now he will draw
anything with confidence." "My daughter was intimidated by his older brother because he could
draw so well, now my daughter draws with confidence." Best of all, my students are
empowered and confident in a new way. Shauna Edwards Educator
Writing is not Writing
by Penelope Torribio
I think that one of the biggest problems in teaching writing is that we use the same term for the
act of forming letters, for the process of spelling and grammar, as we do the creation of the
communication. They are not the same thing at all. We know that there are many people who
can not write-- due to handicaps or other reasons-- and yet they are great writers, they are
great communicators. When students are convinced of this, writing--communication-- greatly
improves. I learned about the power of oral group writing, many years ago, when I was
substitute teaching in a 2nd grade class. It was February. The students were to write a
paragraph at the beginning of the day. I was amazed at the quality of writing, every student was
writing complex sentences,filled with delightful adjectives and adverbs. When I went back to
that school to substitute for another teacher, I immediately sought out that 2nd grade teacher
and asked her why were her students writing so well as 2nd graders. I have seen 8th graders
who could write paragraphs as well as her students. She told me that until January she did
not ask her student to write sentences or paragraphs. Every day they would write a paragraph
on the board, together,as a group. They would make it the most colorful paragraph they could,
with as much description as they could pour into it. In January they would get to write their own
paragraphs. The group then moved to writing group stories. together, on the black board,
making these stories the most exciting and descriptive as they possibly could. I had seen the
amazing results of this kind of teaching and began to incorporate it into my own teaching.
At Charter Hospital I taught K-8th in one classroom. Many of the young children were ADDH
and were definitely of all different academic levels. I had to find ways of teaching that would
cross all of the different grades and abilities. The group story turned out to be one of the most
fun and effective techniques. I found out that every student took ownership of the story, that they
were individually proud of what had been created, no matter how much or little they had
contributed. In addition group story writing built a group identity and often the story included the
names of the students in the group.
Spelling Word Stories
Here is an example of a great technique. It is particularly good in a class with kids that have
different spelling lists. Since I had relatively small classes I would have each student pick a
word from his or her spelling list. We would put all the words on the board and write a group
story containing all of these words. Following is a real example.
precaution, resurfaced, pond, test, socks, bewildered, rock, eight, dived, night, bent, assistant,
animals, sight, completely, real, mounted
It is a cool night. The trees are swaying gently in the breeze. The moon is bright and yellow
and completely full. There, in the moonlight, shines a giant greenish pond. A huge, flat,
weathered rock crouches like a tremendous frog at the edge of the water. It casts its black
shadow across the pond. A unicorn, white as snow, with its golden horn sparkling in the
moonlight drinks from the pond. Nearby eight children are camping. Sal said, "We need water
to wash the dishes." The children raced towards the pond. They stopped suddenly,
bewildered by the sight of the unicorn drinking. Everyone had told them that these animals
were imaginary. A young bull frog dived into the deepest end of the pond. He resurfaced in
time to catch a dragon fly.
Sal said, "Let's take precaution so that we don't scare the unicorn away. I need an assistant.
Robert stepped up. "Take your shoes and socks off," Sal whispered. "We'll walk through the
water." Jason asked, "How can we test if it is real? Maybe we are dreaming or something." Sal
bent down and picked some alfalfa grass and gave some to Robert. "If it eats this, its real.
Then if the horn's real, it is a unicorn! " exclaimed Sal.
Robert and Sal crept through the water, around the large weathered rock, hiding in its shadow.
They approached the unicorn, holding out the long fresh alfalfa stock. The unicorn nibbled at
the grass. Sal touched the golden horn. "It's real!" he said. All of the children gathered around
the white unicorn. It neighed softly, almost like a laugh. Then seven unicorns, each white as
snow, with their golden horns shining in the moonlight, stepped out of the dark woods. Each
kid stood by a unicorn, then mounted and rode off into the moonlight.
Elementary Class, Charter
Puppets in the Classroom
"Carol Greene"
I used my puppets from the first day that I taught. If you aren't using your puppets in the
classroom, you're missing a great opportunity. The kids will actually listen to your puppet and
REMEMBER the info the puppet teaches. You don't have to prepare a dialogue beforehand
either. My puppets have taught math, given sentences for spelling tests, etc. Just start talking
to the puppet and the puppet will take over. You think I'm kidding? No way.... Kids nowadays
are used to being entertained by TV, special effects in the movies, gorgeous illustrations in
books, etc. How boring to them for a teacher to stand up there and just teach. The minute the
puppets started teaching, interest went way up and so did their grades. Parents were very
pleased. I dropped in on Frank Frazee who lives in the state of Washington a few years ago
just as school let out for the day. (We were driving up to Seattle do visit my daughter.) He had
all kinds of pictures, etc. about vent up in his classroom. He uses his puppets too.
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