Re: Teaching Poetry in Middle and High School

Here are a couple of poem-novels I've loved and used in classrooms, probably best for 5th or 6th grade, but also could be all be used creatively with older students in a two- or three-lesson mini-unit.

• Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech
• Locomotion, by Jacqueline Woodson
• Make Lemonade, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

The poetry is extremely teachable, and the stories are extremely compelling.

Dialog: Poets and Teachers on Teaching Poetry in Middle and High School

Here's a wonderful exchange--beginning with an email from a high school English teacher--on the poet John Gallaher's blog. Questions/discussion topics include:

• elements of poetry that should be included in middle and high school classrooms; 
• successful poetry lessons/activities from middle/high school classrooms; and
•  how to get beyond the need to decode poetry in order for teachers to teach it and students to appreciate it.

It's an important pedagogical issue, and a there is a fascinating discussion about it unfolding in the comments section of the post. To my mind, the most essential elements of poetry to teach in secondary schools are word play and word choice. 

• Word Play: There are so many poems from so many eras that demonstrate just how much fun the English language can be. From Catullus to Shakespeare to William Carlos Williams to Billy Collins, poetry can teach students to enjoy words in a way that no other use of the English language can.
• Word Choice: The words in a poem do more work than the words in any other subset of literature. Diction is, of course, critical to all good writing, but the importance that each word carries its weight is especially evident when seen in the context of a poem's structure and rhythm.

A side benefit of focusing on these aspects of poetry is that this kind of approach gives us another way into the poem. Job one does not have to be to decode the poem, but in exploring the way the words work and play together, some meaning is more likely to come organically from it.

For anyone interested in finding lesson plans for poetry for all grade levels and content areas, I highly recommend the Louisiana Poetry Project (for which I periodically contribute lesson plans). As the name suggests, the organization is focused on poets and poetry from Louisiana, but of course the poems are relevant anywhere. There is a poem and at least one lesson plan for every school day of the year, and some of the plans could be adapted to fit other poems as well. It's a great place to start if you want help and ideas for teaching poetry.

And don't forget to check out the exchange on Gallaher's blog, and to share your thoughts both here and there!

HT: Thanks to The Rumpus for publicizing the question.

Review: WHEN YOU REACH ME | Rebecca Stead

TITLE: When You Reach Me
AUTHOR: Rebecca Stead
PUBLISHER: Wally Lamb Books
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2009
PAGES: 208
GRADE LEVEL(S): 5-7
RELEVANT CURRICULA: English
CLASSROOM USES: Required reading, Summer/Independent reading, Literature Circles
BRIDGE TEXTS: A Wrinkle In Time


The first time I wrote anything--in fact, the only time I wrote anything--about When You Reach Me, I could hardly think of words to do the book justice. I quoted from commentary from Nancy Pearl on NPR (which was how I first learned about the book), and then wrote:

When You Reach Me is a wonderful descendant of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time; it never once even comes close to imitation, or cheap knock-offery.  No, it's the classiest of descendants--it's an evolution.

One of the most beautiful aspects of fantasy is how completely it takes the reader from her/his own world into that of the novel. What better way for students to learn first-hand of the magic of literature than by being transported to the planet Uriel? Or to Narnia? Or Middle-earth? Or Oz?


But Stead's novel takes place in New York City. (No doubt, NYC can be magical and unreal, but it's no outer space...) Miranda, Stead's protagonist, is a relatively normal girl, living in a relatively normal world, with the everyday drama that inhabits the world of every 11 year-old. 


The fantastical elements of When You Reach Me are subtler than magic or space travel. Stead's fantasy world is more mysterious than magical, as Miranda receives unexplained notes about events yet-to-happen in her life. Miranda is understandably skeptical; this could as easily be a prank as it is magic, and neither Miranda nor the reader has to take a huge leap of faith to feel that life is carrying on more or less as usual.


This fantasy-based-in-realism approach is sheer brilliance. By staying firmly rooted in real-world places and problems, Stead's novel will appeal to students who may already possess a bit of world-weary reluctance to get fully sucked into a novel. Any reader unwilling to blast into outer space will slowly but surely get sucked in by the bully on the block or the struggles of growing up with a single parent. But magic will just seep in, slowly but surely--and before long, When You Reach Me will make readers out of kids today in the same way that A Wrinkle In Time made readers of them in 1962.

Welcome to TeachYALit.com - The YA Lit Review!

Greetings and welcome!

At the moment, this website is just a kernel of an idea. It's an offshoot of my current reading/writing/book review blog, which can be found here.

While I include YA Lit on my other blog, I wanted to create a different vehicle that would focus exclusively on young adult literature. I'd like this site to serve several different purposes:

• Be a resource for teachers/educators who want to find and share great ideas for books to include in classroom libraries, bridge texts to canonical literature, or any other lesson/unit plans that would benefit from the inclusion of great YA lit.
• Be a resource for students who devour books faster than the publishers can print them, can't find a book worth reading that feels real and relevant, or need suggestions for books to read for school projects, book reports, or just plain pleasure
• Be a resource for parents who want to read with their kids, steer their children towards some great books, or relive their own middle and high school glory days by reading books for teens.
• And, of course, I hope the format and content of this site proves to be useful and welcoming to anyone who has an interest in young adult literature.

The primary content for a while will focus on reviews and commentary on individual books, authors, or series. For now, this site is hosted by blogger, and it will likely stay that way for the early part of its life, while we let it evolve and adjust to the type/amount of traffic it generates. In the not-too-distant future, however, I anticipate migrating this to a larger and more flexible hosting service in order to add features and functionality. Possible additions include a wiki for lesson/unit planning, file storage for media and other ancillary materials, and user forums to promote more flexibility in organizing and contributing to discussions.

As a former teacher and administrator in both middle and high school settings, I have a huge collection of YA lit in my own personal library, so I have a pretty large backlog of books to review here. I'll start posting those immediately, but in the meantime, please comment with suggestions for books to include, lesson/unit topics, or anything else that seems relevant! Guest posts are most heartily welcome; if interested, you can email me here.