Poetry in February

One of the very best parts of my week was sharing poetry with 2nd grade. These young readers know my love of books, but I also wanted them to know that poetry is one of my most favorite genres of all.  I knew their teachers were focusing on poetry in language arts, so I decided to supplement/support their instruction with a mini-lesson during their library time.

My inspiration for this lesson came from the two books pictured below. I consider both to be must-haves for anyone using poetry in their classrooms or libraries.  (I will forever be grateful to Georgia Heard, Dr. Sylvia Vardell, and Janet Wong for their work.)

I had several goals (besides their language arts standards, of course). One was to establish the library as a place where poetry could be celebrated. My message: "We have poetry books and this is a place where you can read poems aloud and share them!" I also wanted to read poetry to them and help them hear the lovely music a poem can play. And, I wanted them to "discover" poetry that they liked on their own.

I had a lot of goals! 

We sat around my storytime area. I told them how much I loved poetry and asked if I could share one of my favorite poems with them: "The Library" by Barbara A. Huff. It's a wonderful ode to libraries! Then, because it was Super Bowl weekend, I shared "Super Bowl Sunday" by Jane Rush MacCulloch from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books, 2015). I had fun acting out the eating in the poem and we all joined in on the last word: "Touchdown!" 

I shared "Poem Like the Sea" by Patricia Hubbell next. They thought it was very funny that I was sharing a poem about a poem! I read it once aloud, then showed it to them. "Tell me what you think," I said to the class.  Slowly, hands went up with noticings about rhyme, repetition, line arrangement, and verses. During this discussion, I used teachable opportunities to tag on to their own learning. I celebrated their observations, asked questions for clarification, and connected one learner's answers to another. At just the right moment, I sent them off to our tables where I had placed poetry books -- hand-picked by me! I asked them to read poetry by themselves or with a partner. They immediately found poems about favorite topics like dinosaurs and chocolate and recess. And I noticed them walking over to each other to share what they'd found. I asked if anyone had found any poems they enjoyed. Hands went up immediately, and though I had not asked them to read the poems aloud, most wanted to do just that! And many did! And two boys came together in one class to read a 2-voice poem! With everyone that read aloud, I read right with along with them-- mainly, to provide support in case they came upon a word they didn't know, but also to celebrate with them.

After checkout, many came back to the poetry books to read more. Several brought me books from the tables and asked if they could check them out. I said "Of course!" with detectable joy in my voice. (Couldn't hide it.)

Now, the poetry section is a bit of a mess, and it looks depleted but to a school librarian, this is a very good thing! It means the books are being read!

The next part of the poetry lessons will continue next week. But I have already learned so much.