Practical Poetry: A Nonstandard Approach to Meeting Content-Area Standards

by Sara Holbrook

Are you searching for instruction that reinforces standards-based content in language arts, math, science, or social studies? That generates student interest? That promotes critical thinking? That doesn't sacrifice time in your curriculum? Then it's time for a new approach. In Practical Poetry , Sara Holbrook shows you how the precise language and keen observations of poems can be used as nuts-and-bolts tools for addressing content and language standards in four key subject areas. Whether you teach one or several subjects, Practical Poetry includes chapters specially written to show you how to promote content understanding and meaning-making in language arts, math, science, and social studies by taking poems out of the artsy ether and making them functional . Even if you aren't a poet, you'll be ready to use poetry in your class tomorrow because each of Holbrook's You might think you don't have room in your standards-based curriculum to teach with poems, but with applications to content standards woven throughout, Practical Poetry will prove that you do. Take Sara Holbrook's advice. You'll energize your students, reinforce their topical understanding over a variety of content-area standards, and build their critical-thinking and language skills. Poetry has never been so practical.

Genres: Poetry, Teaching

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 2005

Reviews

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sara Holbrook holds the same philosophy as I do: poetry is about exact word choice, observation, description, and connections - and those skills have their place in all subjects' curriculums. Consequently, in 2005, she wrote this book about how she approaches writing poetry with teachers and students in a variety of classrooms, mostly in the Cleveland suburbs in Ohio. She writes about how poetry writing can deepen students' knowledge and understanding of language arts concepts (stuff on "the test," like vocabulary terms), math, science, and social studies concepts. She offers examples of her own writing for most lessons, plus student examples and some famous examples. Some poems are structured, like haikus, or rhymed, but others are just free-form. There are many good ideas in here, even nearly 2 decades later. I'd say the book is aimed more at elementary and middle school classes, but as a high school teacher, I could definitely see how I could adapt and modify the poetry ideas for teenagers.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara Holbrook's book helps to remind teachers that poetry's place is not simply during one month of the year (if that), and that poetry teaches our students to be better at communicating their ideas. I am someone who likes to think I have a good handle on exposing my students to poetry, but while reading this book, I realized that simply is not the case. Holbrook provides many different types of activities that work across content areas and will seem much less threatening and more worthwhile to kids rather than the "We're writing poetry" mantra of old. I jotted many notes as I read this book about units I am working with right now where some of these activities would not only fit, but also improve the learning my students are doing. I look forward to incorporating the use of more poetry in my classroom throughout the school year so it isn't relegated to the back-burner for "when we have time."

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome so far. This is THE poetry book I have been looking for.