Poetry is one of the most powerful ways that people communicate their feelings. Jim Mahoney and Jerry Matovcik are going to prove to you that it can also be one of the most powerful ways to fully engage students in reading, writing, and analysis.
In Power and Poetry, veteran teachers Mahoney and Matovcik discard the scary parts of teaching poems—the symbolism and the technical language—and instead focus on poetry as a natural expression of individual curiosity, emotion, and observation. They show how, by gradually integrating poetry into the curriculum, you can help students uncover powerful, personal meaning in the form and lead them to creating poems of their own.
Mahoney and Matovcik include numerous examples of student work and smart, practical ideas for weaving poetry into your lesson planning, including instructional suggestions for:
- helping students understand poems and generate content through journaling
- studying and writing poems intertextually
- forming poetry circles for literature study
- creating prompts that engage student poets
- holding a poetry reading to celebrate student voices
Power and Poetry will allay your fears about poetry and inspire you to give students a new way to find meaning on the page and in their world.
