Poetry

We have started our poetry unit. This is by far my favorite writing unit of the year. I am always amazed at the ability our students have to adapt their writing into this form. During our poetry unit I will be reading the class a book called Poetry Matters by Ralph Fletcher.

I cannot believe this book. It is filled with these little nuggets of brilliant advice to help poets. I do not know if any of you feel like writing some poetry but if you do I would pick up this book. So far we have just read the introduction. In the introduction Fletcher talks about the power of poetry. How it is this type of writing that is always there at the important moments in our life. Poetry finds it way into retirement parties, a wedding reception, a funeral, or inauguration day. 

Each day we will read a bit from Poetry Matters, read a poem that fits with the section we read, have time to write, and then time to share our writing. I love sharing poetry with the class. So far both the poems that I have picked came from the book This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort.

The first poem we read was called "Lullaby" and today's poems was "To You." These poems that we read not only introduce the class to some amazing poets, but they give the class ideas of what they can create with their poems. "Lullaby" was a poem that contained nothing but questions. When the class had time to write on Monday, many of them wrote poems that were filled with questions. Today's poem was filled with alliteration, so of course some students fit alliteration into their pieces.

I cannot wait to get further into this unit. The poetry the students write blows me away each year. We are hoping to have a poetry night in February when you will get a chance to come see the work. If you cannot wait that long, just grab their Writer's Notebook and enjoy.

Hope you are all having a great week and staying warm.