Why make time for poetry?
Writing poetry, particularly with elementary schoolers, is often limited to holiday acrostics and “easy” forms like haiku, or limericks. During a residency, I spend between three and six days at a school. It is a big commitment of time and resources for schools — but when we work deeply with poetry, students’ writing seems to leap off the page. Children begin to see themselves as poets, and many of them bring this new confidence to their regular classroom writing. Poetry in Elementary School Many Maryland elementary schools recently adopted the 6+1 Trait Writing Model (see source note below). Some of the teachers I work with have been amazed at the way their students synthesize several of these traits when writing poetry. Trait 1: “Ideas make up the content of the piece of writing – the message.” Poetry is often defined by its brevity. You’ll hear poets talking about “economy of language” – getting rid of extra words to hone an important image or idea. It sounds fancy, but this is a g
