O'Connor offers new approaches to teaching poetry in middle and high
school with more than 25 writing activities that can constitute an
entire course or work as individual lessons.
John S. O'Connor offers exciting new approaches to teaching poetry in
middle school and high school classrooms with more than 25 high-interest
activities designed to sharpen students' writing and self-understanding
and heighten their awareness of the world around them. In the process,
he demystifies poetry for teachers and students by using students' own
life experiences as the basis for all student writing. The activities
can constitute an entire course in poetry writing or work as individual
lessons, depending on the teacher's classroom goals. Early lessons start
out with simple lists and wordplay; later lessons involve more
complicated forms and subjects. Throughout the book, however, the
emphasis is on fun and making sure that every student succeeds. In all,
O'Connor provides an impressive number of poetry models--more than 30
professional models and more than 80 models from students in his own
classroom. Students will also learn how to dramatize poems, creating
special effects in performance, both in the classroom and beyond the
walls of the school. Wordplaygrounds shows how students can move beyond
the traditional boundaries of English curricula, interpreting poetry
through a variety of media, including music, art, and dance--without
special talent and training in these areas.
