Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves
Review: I have taught poetry-writing for years and have found little on the market of any use until The Moves. Before using this text, I relied on a gut sense of what exercises might work with high school kids and on reading them lots of examples of poetry I thought they would enjoy. What is exceptional about this book is, first of all, its eloquence: teaching aside, I'd recommend this text to anyone who simply loves rich, sensual language; clearly, honest-to-God poets wrote it. (How often has anyone been inspired by a textbook?) The exercises ask the student to examine professional poetry in fresh ways, and each chapter deals with a specific writing skill; for example, narrating, organization, endings. The chapter called "Architecture" is especially well done. Highly recommended for high school English teachers and for any student of poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves
Review: I have taught poetry-writing for years and have found little on the market of any use until The Moves. Before using this text, I relied on a gut sense of what exercises might work with high school kids and on reading them lots of examples of poetry I thought they would enjoy. What is exceptional about this book is, first of all, its eloquence: teaching aside, I'd recommend this text to anyone who simply loves rich, sensual language; clearly, honest-to-God poets wrote it. (How often has anyone been inspired by a textbook?) The exercises ask the student to examine professional poetry in fresh ways, and each chapter deals with a specific writing skill; for example, narrating, organization, endings. The chapter called "Architecture" is especially well done. Highly recommended for high school English teachers and for any student of poetry.

Rating:
Summary: Essential for English Classrooms
Review: Imagine this: In an inner city classroom, students examining a haiku debate over denotation and connotation of words (one boy looks up a word, then cross-references all words in the definition), mood and atmosphere, use and significance of rhyme, syntax and word placement, purpose of and meaning from punctuation marks, imagery, shape and symbol. How does this happen? With activities from Baron Wormser and David Cappella's book Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves. No magic or experience required.

Based on the premise that poetry contains all the essentials for understanding language and how we use it, Teaching the Art of Poetry explains how teachers can create "poetry-based classrooms" to raise language learning to higher levels of critical thinking and analysis. Compact and easy to use, each chapter begins with an essay on an element of language/poetry from grammar, punctuation and capitalization to details, metaphor, image and sound as well as techniques specific to poetry such as stanzas and form. Wormser and Cappella, however, understand the plight of overburdened teachers; those who have little time for reading may skim the essay and skip to each chapter's classroom exercises, lesson plans and bibliography. The application exercises are clear, simple and easy to implement without the use of extra planning or materials, yet they guarantee to change the way students think and learn about language, which influences everything else they do in an English class. The potential is exponential.

After carefully perusing almost every book for middle and secondary English found at the National Council of Teachers of English, November 2000, Teaching the Art of Poetry clearly wins as the most useful book exhibited. Rarely does one find such an invaluable gem in educational literature, containing sound pedagogy, brave technique, and practical applications to transform the language classroom. Teaching the Art of Poetry is a must for all teachers of English!

Rating:
Summary: Essential for English Classrooms
Review: Imagine this: In an inner city classroom, students examining a haiku debate over denotation and connotation of words (one boy looks up a word, then cross-references all words in the definition), mood and atmosphere, use and significance of rhyme, syntax and word placement, purpose of and meaning from punctuation marks, imagery, shape and symbol. How does this happen? With activities from Baron Wormser and David Cappella's book Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves. No magic or experience required.

Based on the premise that poetry contains all the essentials for understanding language and how we use it, Teaching the Art of Poetry explains how teachers can create "poetry-based classrooms" to raise language learning to higher levels of critical thinking and analysis. Compact and easy to use, each chapter begins with an essay on an element of language/poetry from grammar, punctuation and capitalization to details, metaphor, image and sound as well as techniques specific to poetry such as stanzas and form. Wormser and Cappella, however, understand the plight of overburdened teachers; those who have little time for reading may skim the essay and skip to each chapter's classroom exercises, lesson plans and bibliography. The application exercises are clear, simple and easy to implement without the use of extra planning or materials, yet they guarantee to change the way students think and learn about language, which influences everything else they do in an English class. The potential is exponential.

After carefully perusing almost every book for middle and secondary English found at the National Council of Teachers of English, November 2000, Teaching the Art of Poetry clearly wins as the most useful book exhibited. Rarely does one find such an invaluable gem in educational literature, containing sound pedagogy, brave technique, and practical applications to transform the language classroom. Teaching the Art of Poetry is a must for all teachers of English!