A List of Poetry Resources For Older Primary Students.

A recent request for poetry resources for older primary students has prompted me to consider some of the resources I use for this age group.

I have developed an extensive list of resources over the years. I keep many of these books in my poet’s suitcase  and regularly share these resources as an initial poetry tasting with students. The idea behind this approach is based on the belief that young poets need to read a lot of poetry in order to successfully embark upon the writing of poetry. I want to do more than immerse them in poetry, I want to ‘dunk’ them in poetry and all it involves.



An observant young poet told me this week after spending an hour investigating and researching a plethora of poetic forms, - ‘When you write poetry, you can make your own rules, but then you have to stick to them.’ This is the kind of awareness we need to develop among our inexperienced poets.

So, here is a list of some of the poetry books I use to assist young writers to better understand and hopefully embrace poetry as part of their writing lives:

Narrative/Free Verse Poetry
Quick Let’s Get Out of Here, Michael Rosen
The Hypnotiser, Michael Rosen
Mind Your Own Business, Michael Rosen
Hey World, Here I Am, Jean Little
Water Bombs, Steven Herrick

Verse Novels
Pookie Aleera Is Not My Boyfriend, Steven Herrick
Pearl Verses The World, Sally Murphy
Witness, Karen Hesse
Love That Dog, Sharon Creech
His Name Is Fire, Catherine Bateson

Personification
I Am The Ocean, Suzanna Marshak

Poems For Two Voices
Joyful Noise, Paul Fleischman

Poetry Books embracing a single theme
Poetrees, Douglas Florian
Comets, Stars, The Moon, and Mars, Douglas Florian
Heard It In The Playground, Allan Ahlberg
Machine Poems, Collected by Jill Bennett
Honey I Love, Eloise Greenfield
  
Poems Written by Children
Salting The Ocean, 100 poems by poets, Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye

List Poems
Bing, Bang, Boing, Poems and Drawings by Douglas Florian
The Important Book, Margaret Wise Brown

Anthologies
Michael Rosen’s A to Z –The Best Children’s Poetry from Agard to Zepeniah
Poems To Perform, Julia Donaldson

Humor
The Dog’s Been Sick in The Honda, Colin Thompson
Unspun Socks From A Chicken’s Laundry, Spike Milligan

Professional Reading:
Poetry Mentor Texts, Making Reading and Writing Connections, K-8, Lynne. R. Dorfman & Rose Cappelli
Poetry Everywhere, Jack Collom & Sheryl Noethe
For The Love of Poetry, Mandy Tunica

Websites

Putting Pizzazz Into Poetry -http://alanjwrightpoetrypizzazz.blogspot.com.au/

Michael Rosen –
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/

Steven Herrick –
http://www.stevenherrick.com.au/

















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular With Other Visitors

Writing Opposite Poems

Image
 O pp o s ite  P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not eve...
Read more

Writing About Reading - Reading Reflection Journals:

Image
UPDATED February 2022 Writing in response to literature can be a great way for students to organize their thoughts, explore what they think, and generate ideas. One of the strengths of writing in journals is that it allows students to capture all of those great ideas that generally float off into the air during the discussion.  Journal writing can also become drudgery if students are asked to write too often, given little choice or inspiration in what to write, or if they simply don't have anything to say. While some students eagerly share their impressions about selections they have read in class discussions, others are less comfortable and keep their thoughts to themselves. In an effort to encourage all students to think more about what they read and confidently share their observations and opinions, some teachers are turning to the reading reflection journal and are gaining insights they never anticipated.  The Value of Reflection Journals   Journals assist teachers...
Read more

Learning How to 'Zoom In' When Writing

Image
It is important for young writers to understand that not all parts of a story are equal. There are parts through which a writer moves quickly, and important parts where the writer slows down and lingers a while. This is where the writer might intensify the action or reveal the character’s reactions in greater detail. Young writers need to know that this is a deliberate strategy on the part of the author. The author consciously zooms in. The writer uses a magnifying glass to view a part of the story more closely; to focus on a moment and to slow down time. When an important part of the story is enlarged upon, it   is a signal to the reader, that this part of the story is important. The strategy of ‘zooming in’ goes by many names: ‘exploding a moment’ ‘magnifying a moment’, ‘hotspot’ ‘snapshot’, ‘adding detail’ or ‘slowing the action.’  What ever the name, the idea is the same. The author writes in a way that expands a significant part of the story with the intentio...
Read more

Slice Of Life Story-The Trials Of A Left Handed Writer

Image
Amazingly I learnt to write using my left hand. An achievement against the prevailing beliefs of the day. My very first teacher saw it as her mission in life to ‘fix’ the poor, wretched little boy suffering from what she clearly diagnosed as left handed disease. She must have thought, 'This child must be re formatted! If he remains left handed he will be forever condemned to writing in a scrawl that no one will be able to read. Ugly hand, ugly hand.' ...They tried to say it couldn't be done, it mustn't be done. They took the pencil out of my left hand and placed it in my right hand. It felt unnatural. It felt weird. It was not right. More to the point it was not left. I was not about to conform. At least they didn't try tying my hand behind my back. Watch me I said. I may be an oddball, left handed scribbler but I am a determined oddball. I mean how boring would the world be if everyone wrote with their right hand? So I dug my toes in –and my hands to...
Read more

Exploring Themes in Poetry With Emerging Writers

Image
There is so much more to poetry than haiku and acrostics. Yet, so many young poets never get to experience the rich breadth of poetry beyond these highly structured forms. Why? Primarily, it’s about their teachers comfort levels with poetry. We often teach to what we know, meaning that being adventurous and taking young poets into new realms is not part of the poetic landscape for many. This sells young poets and poetry itself short. Last week I had the pleasure to again work with a group of young poets from Derrimut Primary School grade 5/6 in Melbourne’s west. We have been exploring patterns and repetition in poetry. We have explored personification as a literary device to develop the writing of poetry. We delved into the idea of writing through a mask to provide inanimate and animate entities with a voice. They told stories in words from their own perspective. On this occasion we again went to the edges and began to explore poetry through themes. We discussed a range ...
Read more