Final Review

What a semester, well I read a lot a children's books, which is actually something that I kind of missed out on as a child. When I was growing up I was so concerned with reading "the classics" of literature that I neglected all the wonderful books aimed at kids. Lately, reading children's books have become a guilty pleasure that I can simply call "professional research" as I wait for lectures to begin. I feel like I learned a lot from this class just from reading children's books, there are just so many more options that I am now aware of for lesson plans and literature groups, plus it has reignited my love for reading! In these last four months of this semester, it has occurred to me that while reading is important, that this class could stand alone in teaching prospective teachers about reading. Block A is very informational and all, but I feel that it has placed too much importance on measuring child ability level rather than finding quality literature in which to model to students how to read and find solid jumping off points for in depth text based units. I am not trying to dump on block A, I am simply stating that I am glad that this class is used to fill in the crucial points that it has missed. Perhaps the best part was the prompt to review all this children's literature, and begin forming opinions and insight to how I can use these books in my own classroom, it's all very exciting.

The Sea is Calling Me

The Sea is Calling Me, written by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Walter Gaffney-Kessell, is a poetry picture book for kids. This is a book full of the most calming poems I've seen in a while. The images are boring enough, a lot like the style of the Two voices; all ink lines, and no color. The text is almost like a Haiku, but without the three line and syllable rules. This book is very good at finding a voice that describes the sea, nature, and the world's rhythm. I'm not sure what else I could say about these poems, I mean they are good and everything, and are good examples of voice in poetry, but they do seem a little bit boring. I mean, they are pretty, but I do not live by the ocean, and have had only one occasion in my life to see it, so it makes these poems a bit unrelatable, they are ideas and voices that I can only imagine from a faint memory. It could be a cool jumping off point, have kids write poems in that style, but about settings or memories that they are more closely linked to. I suppose one should never overlook the traditional stylings of poetry, I just would want my students exposed to a larger variety of poetry to give them more options.

The Tamarindo Puppy

The Tamarindo Puppy, is a compilation of poems by Charlotte Pomerantz and illustrated by Byron Barton. This book is so cool! Not only does it have poems for kids in it, but along side each poem is it's equivalent written in Spanish! The poems are a lot like Love That Dog, in that when read altogether they tell a story about a puppy. The images that accompany these poems are a lot like the A Year on My Street, very cartoonish and colorful. I like the use of the Spanish version side by side next to the English version of the text, it seems very useful for English Language Learners in particular. When I was working with Kindergartners, I remember trying to explain the concept of rhyming words to a boy from Russia, who was still learning English; I found that the best way to explain this concept was to use words from the Russian language to help him understand. Experiences like this remind me that there are words that cannot be roughly translated to another langage and still keep the meaning intact. Poetry is notorius for phrasing words that are difficult to translate into other languages, so having the two languages side by side helps not only in language learning, but also the meaning.

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices

Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, is a poetry book written by Paul Fleischman and illustrated by Eric Beddows. We have all heard about the miraculous Paul Fleischman from our opening obsessed Block A classes, but I was unaware that he was a poet until recently. The poems in this book are simple, nature focused poems, particularly about insects that are only in our company during the summer. I really liked how the poems are set up, with two distinct voices that go back and forth in each stanza, so that the poems operate perfectly for any kind of reader's theater. The pictures in this book are simple line and ink drawn images of various insects, but the way the text is arranged brings me back to my thoughts of images as poetry. The text is almost like two serpents that go back and forth, fighting for the reader's attention. The inclusion of two voices rather than a sole reader brings new life and meaning in these poems that celebrate the summer night music of these most unappreciated life forms. I think that if the book's poems were not arranged in this unusual format, that it would not be nearly as interesting, but it does, and is a successful example for kids to see yet another way how poetry could look.

Soul Looks Back in Wonder

Soul Looks Back in Wonder is a poetry book illustrated by Tom Feelings, with a compilation of some of the most inspirational black poets of the 20th and 21st century, including Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. I really liked this book, both for the poetry and for the amazing art work. While reading this book to my reading study child. When my young student looked at the art work, she commented that she believed that maybe art was a form of poetry. I thought this to be a beautiful notion, what a great thing to say to someone in the art department. Art as poetry, when we originally defined poetry, we decided that poetry was simply an author using the words to create images in the readers' head to get their message across to the reader. Thinking about this I wonder, why not? Is art not simply poetry put into the visual realm of being? and do not some poets shape the words to create a literal image or picture of what their poem is about? I originally brought poetry into my reading workshop in order to shift our focus into writing, but I am beginning to think of writing, and even reading as a more ambiguous concept that humans are naturally inclined to participate in. While my reading child was not fully familiar with the likes of Langston Hughes or Maya Angelou, or even the fight for human equality in which their works or so pron to represent, she was able to see the images and find meaning in them as windows into the human self. So why are schools cutting art departments?

A Year on My Street

A Year on My Street is a poetry book written by Mary Quattlebaum and illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith. Okay, so I actually read this book with my reading practicum child in 2nd grade, and she really loved it. The poems are simple, fun, and very relatable for children, especially those living or who have lived in urban areas. There is a particular poem in their that my reading child liked about a girl going out in her new red boots. With this poem, I was able to get my child to think about the new coat she had just gotten and what made it so special to her, and from that a new poem began to emerge about what she loved about her new coat. The book follows the events of an urban neighborhood from spring until winter. The pictures are bright and interesting for the reader to look at, and relate well to the poems written. I'm not sure what else there is to say about this particular book, it's a picture book, it's a poetry book, it's meant just for kids! Use it, your kids will love it, and they will see how poetry can look, not just rhyming words together.

Love that Dog

Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech, is a novel written in poetry. This is the hurtle every literature teacher must go through at some point in their career, convincing boys that poetry is cool and okay to like. The poetry that composes this story is more of a prose or journal entry rather than the conventional notion of what poetry is. I did think that it was a little mellow dramatic about how the boy, Jack, obsessed over the blue car that killed his dog, Sky. It must have been a really recent incident for a young boy to obsess like that, else it seem too dramatic. Other than some skeptical drama, I thought the build up to the blue car was brilliant. I liked the William Blake poem that was included in the student's poetry study, but the rest seemed rather like the traditional Elementary School required poetry reading. I'm secretly glad that Walter Dean Meyer came to see Jack's class, I mean, I know it's a bit unrealistic, but it's a guilty pleasure when the main character does get what they want. I think that I'm going to show this book to my classroom kids to show them another way poetry can develop, and also so they can feel the wonderful rhythm of the way the sentences flow.