Guide Entry 89.02.04

Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute

It Doesn’t Have To Rhyme, by Pamela M. Fowler

Guide Entry to 89.02.04:

This unit uses the knowledge that the students already have, their life, and simply refocuses this knowledge. The writing of poetry is introduced in the forms of wishes, lies and dreams. I ask the students to read and write poetry every day that they are in school and together we discuss the meaning of the poems, the feeling the author wanted to get across, but most importantly how they, the children, feel after they have read these poems.

They write on a daily basis and learn the making of sonnets, sestinas, limericks and other poem forms. At the same time the students learn of various poets. Poets from Langston Hughes to Shel Silverstein. Children need approval. They need to know what they are doing is acceptable. By giving a tea to perform their work they receive approval from parents, and school personnel as well as from their peers. The poems are then photocopied and bound into a book which each child will receive at the end of the year.

(Recommended for English, Reading, Language, and Writing classes, grades K-12)

Key Words

Poetry General Literature Writing Instruction

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