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Product reviews for Teaching Poetry in the Primary Classroom
Yvonne Weatherhead, Headteacher, Educational Consultant, writer and poet
I was delighted to read this “treasure trove of dreams' written by Gervase Phinn and as a headteacher, writer and creator of poetry and rhythm myself, I was innovated once more to continue my constant struggle to remove the straight jacket of the Literacy hour and indulge more in poetry.
The innovative nature of the resource
The structure of this book makes it a very practical resource and has inspired me to revisit poetry in terms of anthologies of poems; this encourages children to be more creative towards their approach to writing poetry for different audiences. Children are now very adept at writing narrative and non narrative forms but not in terms of poetry. I have recently had published “Creative Circle time lessons for the Early Years' which is centralised around an alphabetical poetry bear theme, with a poem and rhythm for each letter of the alphabet. I was reminded that I wrote this for a very specific purpose of enthusing children's thirst for poetry. I collect poetry books and read them for pleasure and was encouraged from a very early age. This children's anthology will inspire teachers to discover different types of poetry such as ballads that are often under used, in particular, for performance. “The mermaid' was a wonderful example of a performance poem the children would love to be involved in.
The impact of learning and the work of the teacher in the classroom, to what extent and in which areas
Examples of this can be seen in the section Chapter 4 “Some starting points with Juniors.'
The main impact of learning is that Gervase reminds teachers of the specific teaching points for all types of poetry and orders it in terms of learning experiences. He also embellishes the learning with examples of how to use the poems by giving children's examples of their reactions to different poems. His open ended questions on page 27 enables teaching structures to be kept simple for maximum effectiveness with children. Some more detail is found on Page 30 when discussing other areas of focus such as alliteration, imagery and atmosphere and mood.
I particularly liked the examples of the “Farmgirl' and “The last in the Queue' as I thought these were examples of how to enable children to achieve the structures of poems in a fun way. I also liked “Our Town' as I thought you could encourage parental involvement in a group poem such as the structure of this. I feel parental poetry workshops would be great, using this as a resource and encouraging them to enthuse about poetry with their children.
How the resource supports or enhances the everyday life or work of teachers, pupils and or schools
Gervase has been very clever in the fact that he has given teachers a resource list for each category of poem and therefore enabled them to set up a library of poetry books for each specific purpose. The phrase “Look no further”' springs to mind and looking at the recommendations, these are very good examples for teachers and pupils. A school library full of these books would be an excellent start but even better, a team library age related in each Key Stage would be better, to enable immediate ACCESSIBILITY. What I particularly liked, was the check list at the front of the book for encouraging children to write poetry. This would be a good check list for all teachers, when teaching and enthusing about poetry, if everyone followed the 21 points on page 2 and 3 .
I also liked Gervase's insight into what is needed with the visiting poet to ensure this is a quality experience for children and a learning experience for teachers.
Cost effectiveness in terms of educational aims and results-not just the price for teachers.
This is priceless. It is not just another educationalist cashing in on the Literacy hour materials.
It is written by someone who:
I will certainly buy it for my school. It is a “treasure' but I also thoroughly enjoyed reading and indulging in it myself (in between the Xmas Turkey so it must have been good!).
A wonderful resource-not to be missed. Yet again-well done Gervase!
The innovative nature of the resource
The structure of this book makes it a very practical resource and has inspired me to revisit poetry in terms of anthologies of poems; this encourages children to be more creative towards their approach to writing poetry for different audiences. Children are now very adept at writing narrative and non narrative forms but not in terms of poetry. I have recently had published “Creative Circle time lessons for the Early Years' which is centralised around an alphabetical poetry bear theme, with a poem and rhythm for each letter of the alphabet. I was reminded that I wrote this for a very specific purpose of enthusing children's thirst for poetry. I collect poetry books and read them for pleasure and was encouraged from a very early age. This children's anthology will inspire teachers to discover different types of poetry such as ballads that are often under used, in particular, for performance. “The mermaid' was a wonderful example of a performance poem the children would love to be involved in.
The impact of learning and the work of the teacher in the classroom, to what extent and in which areas
Examples of this can be seen in the section Chapter 4 “Some starting points with Juniors.'
The main impact of learning is that Gervase reminds teachers of the specific teaching points for all types of poetry and orders it in terms of learning experiences. He also embellishes the learning with examples of how to use the poems by giving children's examples of their reactions to different poems. His open ended questions on page 27 enables teaching structures to be kept simple for maximum effectiveness with children. Some more detail is found on Page 30 when discussing other areas of focus such as alliteration, imagery and atmosphere and mood.
I particularly liked the examples of the “Farmgirl' and “The last in the Queue' as I thought these were examples of how to enable children to achieve the structures of poems in a fun way. I also liked “Our Town' as I thought you could encourage parental involvement in a group poem such as the structure of this. I feel parental poetry workshops would be great, using this as a resource and encouraging them to enthuse about poetry with their children.
How the resource supports or enhances the everyday life or work of teachers, pupils and or schools
Gervase has been very clever in the fact that he has given teachers a resource list for each category of poem and therefore enabled them to set up a library of poetry books for each specific purpose. The phrase “Look no further”' springs to mind and looking at the recommendations, these are very good examples for teachers and pupils. A school library full of these books would be an excellent start but even better, a team library age related in each Key Stage would be better, to enable immediate ACCESSIBILITY. What I particularly liked, was the check list at the front of the book for encouraging children to write poetry. This would be a good check list for all teachers, when teaching and enthusing about poetry, if everyone followed the 21 points on page 2 and 3 .
I also liked Gervase's insight into what is needed with the visiting poet to ensure this is a quality experience for children and a learning experience for teachers.
Cost effectiveness in terms of educational aims and results-not just the price for teachers.
This is priceless. It is not just another educationalist cashing in on the Literacy hour materials.
It is written by someone who:
- understands how children learn
- knows how to motivate
- understands how to creatively encourage children to move along the learning journey of poetry
I will certainly buy it for my school. It is a “treasure' but I also thoroughly enjoyed reading and indulging in it myself (in between the Xmas Turkey so it must have been good!).
A wonderful resource-not to be missed. Yet again-well done Gervase!
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02/03/2009 00:00
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