As modeled after Routman () and Heard ()
Poetry is important because it connects student to others and to their own feeling and thoughts. It lets us get our thoughts that are easy to say in our head out into the world.
Poetry is way to get words and feelings down that may often be more difficult to convey otherwise. Poetry is for all people of all types. Poetry is not subjective to a gender or an age but can be a way for people to connect across differences and who may otherwise never have had the opportunity.
When inviting students to start writing poetry for the first time - there are many strategies to engage them. As we know that poetry starts with us and our inner reflections and connections to the world. When we invite students to discuss and write poetry we have to show them where others are poets are coming from. We can do this by first showing our young poets what is in their heart and how those feels and connections can be reflected into the hearts of others.
We can do this by inviting students to create a heart map. These heart maps can "[Emanate] the jewels that lie within" (Heard, ).
We can do this by prompting students with questions like:
and we should first start by demonstrating what our own heart maps may look like.
From here students can have a collection of ideas to refer back to as they begin writing poems. They also have the opportunity to reflect back add on to their heart maps as the year progresses.
Transforming observations (Outer Vision)
(Heard, )
Finding the inner Poet (inner vision)
Heard, Georgia. () Awakening the Heart.
Routman, R