The Forgotten Genre of Children's Poetry by Sharon Ruth Gill (Jen Flanagan)

          This piece is about how poetry has become a forgotten genre. After attending a book fair made Sharon Gill think about how children’s anthologies seem to be more in the past and focused on “classics” rather than the 20^th century. She explains that there are many 20^th century children’s poems, but these books aren’t easily seen in bookstores and are definitely not at book fairs. If children became more educated on understanding what poetry is—“a concise and memorable case of language, with intense feeling, imagery, and qualities of sound that bound pleasingly off the tongue, tickle the ear, and leave the mind something to ponder,” then they will appreciate the works of poetry. In the end, it is up to teachers to make it a point to not let poetry become a forgotten genre when teaching in a classroom. It’s up to teacher’s to make a difference and to speak up for a forgotten genre.

            In Kindergarten, poetry can fit in any language arts curriculum. In my classroom, we have read a book almost every day. This is where I could teach my students about poetry and read poems by a variety of poets—both “classic” and 20^th century poets. I would further this approach by having students write their own poems or writing a poem as a class (since my Kindergartener’s have a hard time writing solo.) Incorporating poetry into any language arts curriculum can enrich writing instruction. It makes students think more deeply about what they are trying to express. Poetry is a different kind of expression in terms of writing. It has a unique set of guidelines and “rules” to follow. If students learn to read and write in this context, writing instruction can be enriched.

In order to use this approach successfully with my students, I think that I need to learn how to facilitate a classroom discussion as well as the approach I take to explain a new genre to my students. Explaining something new to Kindergartener’s takes a lot of practice and repetition. I think I will need to learn how to approach this topic in a simplistic manner. In terms of thinking about types of assessments for my unit development, I thought that the “Record-Keeping Form” from the article, “Assessing Writers” was a great way to keep thoughts about student’s and their writing. For Kindergarten, it might be hard to do this because my students can’t write stories of even sentences. However, just watching them write letters and talking to them about their writing, I can learn about what I need to do to teach my students about writing and the writing process.

            As writers, I think about the capability of my students. I know that some of my students can write, but I know that a majority of them can’t because they don’t know how to spell, let alone write words or even sentences. I think I need to know what my student’s are capable of writing even though they might not be able to write it. As long as they can verbalize it, they can one day write it on paper, as writers.