Summer school is over and the new fall semester begins today. Before I move forward, I'd like to share two digital poetry trailers created this summer by my students, Jennifer Curnow and Julia Vandiver (and shared with their permission). As it happens, they both choose works by Helen Frost, Keesha's House and Diamond Willow, respectively. I think they've done a good job capturing the tone of each book, in particular. What do you think? Here's Jennifer's trailer for Keesha's House.
And here's Julia's trailer for Diamond Willow below.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Poetry, toddlers, and pet peeves
I love it when poetry for children pops up in the news or popular culture. I recently encountered a video on YouTube of a sweet three-year-old boy reciting poetry from memory (thanks to a tip from poet Donna Marie Merritt). First, I watched the clip of him reciting “Litany” by Billy Collins which is very impressive. He manages to capture the staccato rhythm of the poem perfectly. Then I followed a link to another clip of him reciting one of HIS favorite poems, “The Eagle” by Alfred Lord Tennyson. He clearly LOVES this poem and his “performance” of it is so engaging. Check it out below (at the bottom of this posting).
My favorite CHILD_LIT listserv led me to an art
icle on SLATE last month that would support the contention that sharing classics with kids is a meaningful way to connect young people with poetry. It’s entitled “Wild Child” by Robert Pinksy and I loved the tagline: “The best poems for kids aren't the soft and saccharine ones.” He goes on to talk about the “bodily” form of poetry that “helps make one a more amusing or engaging reader vocally: The rhythms effectively coach us to read aloud well.” He then briefly discusses four poets who embody the “dual ideals of musicality and truthfulness”: Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear (1812-88), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), and Walter de la Mare (1873-1956). I couldn’t agree more and love the emphasis on the oral quality of poetry—particularly for young people.
My only quibble is the lack of current poets cited in a discussion of the musicality and truthfulness of poetry for kids today—much great poetry has been produced since 1956. What about David McCord’s “Pickety Fence"? Shel Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout”? Mary Ann Hoberman’s “Brother”? It’s one of my Poetry Pet Peeves—the notion that the best poetry for kids is by “dead” poets resulting in the neglect of contemporary poetry for kids. In fact, I’m currently working on an article about the last 20 years of poetry for young people and I was really struck by the emergence of several big name poets during that period (since 1990)-- Douglas Florian, Joyce Sidman, Naomi Nye, Alice Schertle, Calef Brown, Betsy Franco, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Carole Boston Weatherford, etc. In fact, it's hard to imagine the field of children's poetry withOUT their works-- despite how much I love David McCord, Karla Kuskin, Aileen Fisher, and other greats of the past. More to come on that topic…
Meanwhile, I’m honored to be mentioned on Laura Evans’ blog, Teach Poetry K-12, this week as she hosts Poetry Friday and features the benefits of poetry and nursery rhymes for very young children just learning language. Join her here.
Now here is that amazing three year old sharing his favorite poem (while wearing Superman pajamas!):
My favorite CHILD_LIT listserv led me to an art
icle on SLATE last month that would support the contention that sharing classics with kids is a meaningful way to connect young people with poetry. It’s entitled “Wild Child” by Robert Pinksy and I loved the tagline: “The best poems for kids aren't the soft and saccharine ones.” He goes on to talk about the “bodily” form of poetry that “helps make one a more amusing or engaging reader vocally: The rhythms effectively coach us to read aloud well.” He then briefly discusses four poets who embody the “dual ideals of musicality and truthfulness”: Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear (1812-88), Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), and Walter de la Mare (1873-1956). I couldn’t agree more and love the emphasis on the oral quality of poetry—particularly for young people.My only quibble is the lack of current poets cited in a discussion of the musicality and truthfulness of poetry for kids today—much great poetry has been produced since 1956. What about David McCord’s “Pickety Fence"? Shel Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout”? Mary Ann Hoberman’s “Brother”? It’s one of my Poetry Pet Peeves—the notion that the best poetry for kids is by “dead” poets resulting in the neglect of contemporary poetry for kids. In fact, I’m currently working on an article about the last 20 years of poetry for young people and I was really struck by the emergence of several big name poets during that period (since 1990)-- Douglas Florian, Joyce Sidman, Naomi Nye, Alice Schertle, Calef Brown, Betsy Franco, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Carole Boston Weatherford, etc. In fact, it's hard to imagine the field of children's poetry withOUT their works-- despite how much I love David McCord, Karla Kuskin, Aileen Fisher, and other greats of the past. More to come on that topic…
Meanwhile, I’m honored to be mentioned on Laura Evans’ blog, Teach Poetry K-12, this week as she hosts Poetry Friday and features the benefits of poetry and nursery rhymes for very young children just learning language. Join her here.
Now here is that amazing three year old sharing his favorite poem (while wearing Superman pajamas!):
Friday, July 30, 2010
Catching up on ALA
Here’s one more better-late-than-never report from the ALA conference in DC last month. I was lucky enough to have a proposal of my own accepted and led a presentation on Sunday morning (June 27) that included Children’s Poet Laureate Mary Ann Hoberman, Stephen Young, from the Poetry Foundation, and Amber Rose Johnson, a Rhode Island high school student and this year’s winner of the Poetry Out Loud competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. It was a great morning, if I do say so myself! It was entitled, “CELEBRATING THE SPOKEN WORD WITH POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE” and here was our initial proposal:
Why make poetry a priority when our shelves are full of many choices and our days are full with many tasks? Scholar Lissa Paul makes a case thus, “The history of poetry written for children begins in oral tradition” (Zipes, 2005, p. 1132). It’s a rich tradition that has stood the test of time and nurtured us from nursery rhymes onwards. Poetry provides a shared experience bringing adults and children together by virtue of its oral dimension. Poetry for children begs to be heard; to be shared aloud and talked about, providing a social connection as well as a language experience.
Poetry forms a bridge from children’s oral language development to their first steps in reading and writing, helping children move forward in their literacy development. Indeed, author and literacy expert Mem Fox writes, "Rhymers will be readers; it's that simple. Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they're four years old, they're usually among the best readers by the time they're eight" (2001, p. 85).
This session celebrates the oral quality of poetry for young people by showcasing the current Children’s Poet Laureate, Mary Ann Hoberman who will speak about her life, work, and creative process; inviting participants to join in on interactive reading aloud of children’s poetry using a variety of practical strategies, and concluding with a performance by teen winner(s) of the new Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, a program for fostering confidence and public speaking. Session participants will learn about resources available for selecting and promoting poetry with young people (e.g., poetryfoundation.org; poetryoutloud.org), as well as experience first-hand the special magic of the spoken word in sharing poetry aloud.
And that’s exactly what we delivered. I kicked things off by talking briefly about the importance of sharing poetry aloud and inviting young people to join in and participating
in that sharing. I used Mary Ann’s poetry to demonstrate 6 ways of “doing” poetry orally, from simply reading aloud to reading aloud in unison to joining in on the refrain to using two groups for back-and-forth reading to reading in a “round” to inviting individual volunteers to read single lines. I had created what I call a “magic book” of 6 of Mary Ann’s poems to demonstrate each strategy. This is a simple booklet made out of a single (8.5 x 11) sheet of paper- just fold, fold, cut, and refold. It’s the cleverest thing which I learned YEARS ago and kids love it. You can find directions at WikiHow and I’ll include a pdf of my page here.
Then the lovely, twinkly Mary Ann Hoberman spoke about her life, work, and th
e creative process. She shared fun childhood memories that made an indelible imprint on her love of the word, led us in performing more of her wonderful poems, and recited her favorite childhood poem from memory—“Seeing Things” by Eugene Field. It was such a treat and the audience was completely enthralled.
Just in case you’re not already familiar with her work, here’s my BRIEF introduction of her:
As a teenager, Mary Ann Hoberman wrote for her school newspaper and edited her high school yearbook. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Smith College and earned her master’s degree in English Literature from Yale University thirty-five years later. In the mean time, she married and had four children and eventually five grandchildren. She and her husband have lived for nearly fifty years in a house that her husband designed in Greenwich, Connecticut.
She has taught writing and literature at all levels and co-founded and performed with a children’s theatre group. But when her first book, All My Shoes Come in Twos, was published in 1957, she turned her attention to writing for children. Mary Ann Hoberman’s poetry often targets our youngest audience with rhythm and repetition, such as her “read aloud” rhyming “stories,” in the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series. Other inviting collections include The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems (Harcourt 1998), Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems (Little Brown 2001) and My Song is Beautiful: Poems and Pictures in Many Voices (Little Brown 1994). Her most recent anthology is The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination (Sourcebooks, 2009), a beautiful blending of classic and contemporary poems woven together via vivid science connections.
Her work has received many citations including a National Book Award in 1983 for A House is a House for Me, the National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Poetry for Children Award in 2003 for her entire body of work, and of course in 2008 the Poetry Foundation named her the Children’s Poet Laureate.
Then, it was time for Stephen Young, Program Director at the Poetry Foundati
on. He served as Senior Editor of Poetry magazine for many years before he became Program Director at the Poetry Foundation in 2003. He has co-edited several poetry histories and anthologies. As Program Director, he develops public events and runs the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest for high school students. He spoke briefly about the value of poetry today, of sharing poetry person-to-person, and about the Poetry Out Loud competition, in particular. It’s a nation-wide competition for high school students that offers an opportunity to learn and perform poetry from memory and earn a $20,000 cash award. This year 325,000 young people participated and it's growing each year.
Finally, Amber Rose Johnson was up and I was SO EXCITED to have a you
ng person as part of our panel—on poetry for young people! She won the 2010 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest last April, competing against 325,000 high school students nationwide. In the fall, she'll be a senior at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. She is active in state politics, and participates in Young Voices, a youth-led research and advocacy program. She’s this “slip” of a girl who is dynamic and charismatic and confident—an inspiration for anyone who’s worried about “today’s youth!” She spoke briefly about the process of the competition and her experiences and then concluded with her (winning) performance of “For My People” by Margaret Walker. Oh. My. Goodness. She used her voice, her face, and her whole body to bring those powerful words to life. It was the perfect way to conclude our session and the audience was swept away by her passion and belief. It was another wonderful poetry moment at ALA.
Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2010. All rights reserved.
Image credits: http://arts.ks.gov/pol/index.shtml;poetryfoundation.org;maryannhoberman.com
Why make poetry a priority when our shelves are full of many choices and our days are full with many tasks? Scholar Lissa Paul makes a case thus, “The history of poetry written for children begins in oral tradition” (Zipes, 2005, p. 1132). It’s a rich tradition that has stood the test of time and nurtured us from nursery rhymes onwards. Poetry provides a shared experience bringing adults and children together by virtue of its oral dimension. Poetry for children begs to be heard; to be shared aloud and talked about, providing a social connection as well as a language experience.
Poetry forms a bridge from children’s oral language development to their first steps in reading and writing, helping children move forward in their literacy development. Indeed, author and literacy expert Mem Fox writes, "Rhymers will be readers; it's that simple. Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they're four years old, they're usually among the best readers by the time they're eight" (2001, p. 85).
This session celebrates the oral quality of poetry for young people by showcasing the current Children’s Poet Laureate, Mary Ann Hoberman who will speak about her life, work, and creative process; inviting participants to join in on interactive reading aloud of children’s poetry using a variety of practical strategies, and concluding with a performance by teen winner(s) of the new Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, a program for fostering confidence and public speaking. Session participants will learn about resources available for selecting and promoting poetry with young people (e.g., poetryfoundation.org; poetryoutloud.org), as well as experience first-hand the special magic of the spoken word in sharing poetry aloud.
And that’s exactly what we delivered. I kicked things off by talking briefly about the importance of sharing poetry aloud and inviting young people to join in and participating
in that sharing. I used Mary Ann’s poetry to demonstrate 6 ways of “doing” poetry orally, from simply reading aloud to reading aloud in unison to joining in on the refrain to using two groups for back-and-forth reading to reading in a “round” to inviting individual volunteers to read single lines. I had created what I call a “magic book” of 6 of Mary Ann’s poems to demonstrate each strategy. This is a simple booklet made out of a single (8.5 x 11) sheet of paper- just fold, fold, cut, and refold. It’s the cleverest thing which I learned YEARS ago and kids love it. You can find directions at WikiHow and I’ll include a pdf of my page here.Then the lovely, twinkly Mary Ann Hoberman spoke about her life, work, and th
e creative process. She shared fun childhood memories that made an indelible imprint on her love of the word, led us in performing more of her wonderful poems, and recited her favorite childhood poem from memory—“Seeing Things” by Eugene Field. It was such a treat and the audience was completely enthralled.Just in case you’re not already familiar with her work, here’s my BRIEF introduction of her:
As a teenager, Mary Ann Hoberman wrote for her school newspaper and edited her high school yearbook. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Smith College and earned her master’s degree in English Literature from Yale University thirty-five years later. In the mean time, she married and had four children and eventually five grandchildren. She and her husband have lived for nearly fifty years in a house that her husband designed in Greenwich, Connecticut.
She has taught writing and literature at all levels and co-founded and performed with a children’s theatre group. But when her first book, All My Shoes Come in Twos, was published in 1957, she turned her attention to writing for children. Mary Ann Hoberman’s poetry often targets our youngest audience with rhythm and repetition, such as her “read aloud” rhyming “stories,” in the You Read to Me, I'll Read to You series. Other inviting collections include The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems (Harcourt 1998), Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems (Little Brown 2001) and My Song is Beautiful: Poems and Pictures in Many Voices (Little Brown 1994). Her most recent anthology is The Tree That Time Built: A Celebration of Nature, Science, and Imagination (Sourcebooks, 2009), a beautiful blending of classic and contemporary poems woven together via vivid science connections.
Her work has received many citations including a National Book Award in 1983 for A House is a House for Me, the National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Poetry for Children Award in 2003 for her entire body of work, and of course in 2008 the Poetry Foundation named her the Children’s Poet Laureate.
Then, it was time for Stephen Young, Program Director at the Poetry Foundati
on. He served as Senior Editor of Poetry magazine for many years before he became Program Director at the Poetry Foundation in 2003. He has co-edited several poetry histories and anthologies. As Program Director, he develops public events and runs the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest for high school students. He spoke briefly about the value of poetry today, of sharing poetry person-to-person, and about the Poetry Out Loud competition, in particular. It’s a nation-wide competition for high school students that offers an opportunity to learn and perform poetry from memory and earn a $20,000 cash award. This year 325,000 young people participated and it's growing each year.Finally, Amber Rose Johnson was up and I was SO EXCITED to have a you
ng person as part of our panel—on poetry for young people! She won the 2010 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest last April, competing against 325,000 high school students nationwide. In the fall, she'll be a senior at Classical High School in Providence, Rhode Island. She is active in state politics, and participates in Young Voices, a youth-led research and advocacy program. She’s this “slip” of a girl who is dynamic and charismatic and confident—an inspiration for anyone who’s worried about “today’s youth!” She spoke briefly about the process of the competition and her experiences and then concluded with her (winning) performance of “For My People” by Margaret Walker. Oh. My. Goodness. She used her voice, her face, and her whole body to bring those powerful words to life. It was the perfect way to conclude our session and the audience was swept away by her passion and belief. It was another wonderful poetry moment at ALA.Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2010. All rights reserved.
Image credits: http://arts.ks.gov/pol/index.shtml;poetryfoundation.org;maryannhoberman.com
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