Let's Poem

This cutting-edge guide presents multiple approaches to teaching poetry at the middle and high school levels. The author provides field-tested activities with detailed how-to instructions, as well as advice for how educators can “justify” their teaching within a high-stakes curriculum environment. Let’s Poem will show pre- and inservice teachers how to preserve the fun of poetry while also developing critical writing and analysis skills, how to introduce students to the basic formal elements of classic and contemporary poetry, and how to expand their repertoires through the use of digital technology and the Internet. With an urban and multicultural focus, chapters cover choral reading of poetry, writing about race, jazz poetry and other cultural forms, hip-hop and spoken word poetry, multimodal “remixing” of canonical poems, the use of poems from international settings and authors, and more. Book features: Field-tested activities accompanied by step-by-step instructions, student writing samples, and teacher comments. Ways to extend and adapt lessons for diverse groups. Annotated online resources, including a book website with links to all sites in the book and to a social networking group.