Power and Poetry: Best Practices for High School Classrooms » (1st Edition)

A former teacher and English department chair, Jim Mahoney has retired several times, having been called back to serve for one more season at different schools. He currently works with school districts on curriculum and staff development. The recipient of New York State English Council's Teacher of Excellence and Programs of Excellence awards, plus two CLASS awards for curriculum design, he has also been awarded three NEH Fellowships. He encourages readers to write to him at campyhits@aol.com.

Jerry Matovcik, a former English department chair, continues to teach English on the secondary and college level. In 2002, his writing portfolio program was recognized by the New York State Legislature as an exemplary program at sharingsuccess.org. He was selected as a potential reader for the "Favorite Poem" project initiated by Robert Pinsky, the former Poet Laureate of the United States. The recipient of the New York State English Council's Teacher of Excellence, he has also been awarded three NEH Fellowships. He also encourages readers to write to him at JMatovcik@aol.com.

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.

Prologue: The Mountain Whippoorwill The Power of Poetry-Food for the Soul Play in Teaching and Learning Writing Small The Writer's Notebook Quick Writes and Observing Remembrance Things Past: Early Memories Gift Poems Peer Conferencing and Revision: Revision Is Re-Seeing Writing an Extended Metaphor More Extended Metaphors Write Before Their Eyes: On Nature Poems Getting Outside: Poems About Nature Scaffolding Poems Rollicking with Breugel: Responding to Art Finding Out When You Write Best Think Along: Unpacking the Poem Poetry Circles Poems Speaking to Poems Poems About Writing and Creating Autobiographical Poems Evaluation Holding a Poetry Reading Appearing in Print Epilogue: On Caring