Many teachers and librarians use poetry as a means to teach and encourage reading and over the years I’ve seen a lot of creative and interesting ways to include poetry in the classroom and library. Some methods strive to make it easy for kids to pick up a poem and read, taking a poetry break. We also know that many kids love poetry when it is not being forced on them and dissected. Poetry is important enough that it is included in the Common Core State Standards and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Of course, that importance also may mean that students are hit over the head with poetry and forced to consider “meaning” and “structure” instead of simply enjoying the beauty of the words.
Poetry Friday started in 2006 and, much like “casual Fridays” is intended to casually imbue students with poetry. To help the cause, poet Janet Wong and poet guru Sylvia Vardell have complied poems use from kindergarten through fifth grade for every week of the school year. From “Happy Song for the First Day of School” by Patricia Hubbell through “The Last Day of School” by Deborah Ruddell, there are 36 poems for each grade level (enough for the typical nine month school calendar) plus two for everyone to start and end the year. That is 218 original poems by 75 poets, a substantial anthology by any measure. But wait, there’s more!
In addition to the poetry, Vardell and Wong offer Take 5! ideas that focus on reading each poem aloud and for talking about the poem with follow up guidelines for oral and choral reading of more poetry. “When the Rain Falls” by Susan Taylor Brown, for example includes suggestions for choral reading where students would say three lines together to allow for increased volume and greater emphasis as Thunder trembles, or when Rainbows reappear. But wait, there’s more!
Vardell and Wong have actually prepared two anthologies. The poems and the Take 5! ideas are the same but depending on the volume you purchase (so be careful!) you will find information and guidance for linking poetry to either the Common Core State Standards or the TEKS. And yes, there is still more!
The appendices include suggestions for building a poetry library, lists of poetry web sites and blogs, professional resources, and a glossary of poetry terms. The poem credits serve as an index to specific poets and although there is no subject indexing, per se, the 36 week list at the beginning of each grade level chapter provides information about the topics and themes included in case you want to switch subjects around a bit.
This is a lot of resource and professional development for $29.99! So, as Stephanie Calmenson says in her poem for first grade, week 29:
A poem a day
keeps the blues away.
The Poetry Friday Anthology: Poems for the School Year with Connections… is published by Pomelo Books. Feel free to use more poems to make every day a Poetry Friday. And please share the ways you use poetry with the kids at your library and school. We want there to be even more! Poetry!