As you read in my last blog post, I have never been a confident reader or writer. I have become increasingly more confident in the past 5 or so years, but feel unqualified in teaching poetry because I am new to the art just like my students. I decided to use this post to share a couple mentor texts that I plan to use in my classroom when introducing and teaching poetry. This will help me in the future to serve my students as best I can and encourage a love and admiration of the art of poetry.
The Poem Where I Lie About Everything
from within I'll Fly Away by Rudy Fransisco
This poem encourages readers to think deeply about what they are reading and reflect on the author's point of view.
In my classroom, I would use this as an introduction to deeper meaning in poetry. We'd put the poem, in its entirety, on the projector or chart paper. In titling the poem "The Poem Where I Lie About Everything," the author has now told us that the truth is hidden behind the lies told in this poem. We'd read stanza-by-stanza noting what we notice in the poem and what we wonder.
below is an example of what our class' notes on the first stanza may look like
A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk
a forest of poems
by Deborah Ruddell and Joan Rankin
This book is packed-full of creative and fun poems that would appeal the interests of young readers and writers. Some of my favorites are "Biography of a Beaver," "Toad's Lunch," and "Nobody's Pet."
Biography of a Beaver
This poem uses repetition in the form of the suffix -er. This would be a fun mentor poem to encourage students in using powerful adjectives and verbs to describe an object or animal they are familiar with.
Toad's Lunch
This poem is from the perspective of a toad about his lunch of eating flies.
Nobody's Pet: A word to the wise from a red fox
This poem, like Toad's Lunch, is told from the animal's point of view. The video to the right shows the author, Deborah Ruddell, reading aloud her own poem. She also tells the story behind the poem, that inspired the story and perspective. The story is of a red fox, that she had seen in her yard and thought was a dog at first glance. The poem tells from the fox's perspective how he is nothing like a "spoiled little dog on a leash." Upon reading this poem, I would encourage students to think of an animal you don't often see as a pet. Possible animals to write a "Nobody's Pet" poem of could be bears, raccoons, slugs, and many other animals.
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