Module 5- The Gooch Machine (Performance Poetry)

(Credit)

Bagert, Brod, The Gooch Machine: Poems for Children to Perform: Boyds Mills Press: Pennsylvania, 1997.

ISBN: 1-56397-294-8

Bagert wrote this book of poetry a LONG time ago. I usually don’t use materials that are this dated. Though this collection of poems shows it date, it is still a very fun group of poems. Either a group of children or an individual child can perform these poems. These poems are rather silly in subject—we read about things like behavior at school, aliens and misguided teachers. My students would really enjoy reading them, especially to each other.

The illustrations remind me a lot of caricatures. The different characters, human or not, are draw disproportionately. I like the mood these illustrations give, they match the poems; fun and different. Other than the humor of these poems, I do not think that this enriches the reader’s knowledge. I would venture to say that children may think that these are silly and fun so they would continue to read them and gain fluency.  Unfortunately, I feel that the appeal of this book of poetry is narrow but really offering a significant challenge for students.

I could see using this book of poetry to target reading fluency, as I mentioned previously.  A few activities that we could use these poems for could be performance… students could put these poems to music or put motions with them. The poems in this book really lend themselves to a charade type performance. They also could be used to practice speed-reading, in preparation for DIBELS, a reading fluency test.

Overall, I could definitely fine a lot of use for Brod Bagert’s The Gooch Machine. Any poetry for students to be exposed to is helpful. I would not rank it very high with the other pieces of poetry that we’ve been reading and that I’ve reviewed on this blog.

The Poet Tree

One day I saw a cypress tree

with knees just like the knees on me.

I saw a pine tree tall and green

That made the air feel fresh and clean.

I saw a giant oak.

And a quite, stately palm.

With leaves like fans to cool the sky

In places where it’s warm.

But in all the world, from pole to pole.

My eyes may never see

Branches with leaves that sing to me

Like my lovely poet tree. 

Module 5- Red Sings from Treetops: A year in colors (Sidman Poetry)

(Credit)

Sidman, Joyce, Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors: Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company: New York, 2009.

ISBN: 978-0-547-014949-4

I have to start my review with my favorite part of this book, the illustrations. Oh my goodness. The illustrations stretch from one end of the page to the other full of vibrant colors representing all the different seasons. The text even seems to be a part of the illustrations in a way. Sidman incorporates the text by highlighting the colors when spelt, in the color it is describing. For example:

IN the winter woods,

GRAY and BROWN

hold hands.

Their brillant sisters—

RED, ORANGE, and YELLOW—

I admire the consistency of this book. Each page, while offering a completely different version of the seasons, gives subtle descriptions and illustrations that create a familiarity when reading. It keeps the reader in tune with the content of the poetry and keeps us from getting lost in the beautiful illustrations! For example, on many pages, Sidman uses actual text... looking a lot like they come from a dictionary page in the characters outfit or the setting some how. It's cool to see how it will be used on each page!

I would love this book of poetry for younger students who are learning about the seasons. Sidman describes the seasons so vividly and Zagarenski creates illustrations that would help any young reader or listener help imagine the different seasons. Students could also be introduced to just the poem and create their own illustrations using the colors and words described by Joyce Sidman. There are a lot of opportunities with this book because the imagery is so great! Overall, I would really highly recommend adding this to a collection. My students love hearing the descriptions and seeing the beautiful illustrations! 

... I also found this blog to offer interesting ideas of way to teach using Red Sings from Tree Tops. 

http://abcsofreading.blogspot.com/2010/12/red-sings-from-treetops-year-in-colors.html

Module 5- Won Ton (Hopkins Award Poetry)

(Credit)

Wardlaw, Lee, Won Ton: Henry Holt and Company: New York, 2011.

ISBN: 978-0-8050-8995-0

What fun little book of poetry with one heck of an attitude! Won Ton is ‘a cat tale told in haiku”. Won Ton or Haiku, the cat, is selected to be a boys pet from the animal shelter. We read as Won Ton becomes accustomed to his new home and learns the right and wrong way of doing things.

Visually, Won Ton is a great read for younger students, as the illustrations aren’t busy and difficult to follow. The poetry itself is in a large, basic font. You read a few stanza’s per page. Overall, I like this book for haiku for young readers and old!

The language of this book really gives great emotional impact. As I mentioned previously, this book has a lot of attitude! Won Ton goes back and forth with his attitude of being wanted and not needing anyone! I really like that this is a consistent mood throughout the entire book. The reading never loses the character of Won Ton! We can always depend on his silliness! This is also a very relatable familiarity to this story. Many children’s pets come from the pound or shelter and also, many children want to adopt pets. When the material is easily related to, the reading comprehension is more successful!

Overall, I can definitely see why Won Ton was award the Hopkins award. This book is a lot of fun, attitude, and quality literature. I would recommend adding this to any collection! 

Poem:

Help! I've been catnapped,
dressed in frillies, forced to lap
tea with your sister.


Letmeoutlet
outletmeoutletmeout!
Wait-- let me back it!


This book gives great opportunity to discuss character traits. Students could extend this book by creating a list of character traits about Won Ton. How is he conflicted? From the book, what are examples of Won Ton being torn between his old life and his new life?

Module 4 (Social Studies)- Pirates

(Credit)

Haarison, David, Pirates: Boyd Mills Press: Pennsylvania, 2008.

ISBN: 978-1-59078-455-6

Pirates is definitely intended for a mature audience! Harrison makes it well known that we (the reader) do not know pirates like we think we do! They are a much more rough-around-the-edges bunch than Peter Pan. These poems are, for the most part, short and to the point. Each one discussing different parts of a pirates life like theft, punishment, exile, and riding the high seas. Each poem is embedded in its own illustration, created by Dan Burr. My favorite characteristic of Burrs illustrations are that they seem so much like actual pictures. The people’s faces seem so realistic. The title of each poem is written in a grave, older, blood red font. He gave such great attention to detail which really helps keep focus on the content of each poem.

I have taught elementary school for many years and never once have to taught my students about pirates, nor do I think I will ever. However, I did really enjoy this collection of poems. We have discussed that poetry does not have to be the center piece of a lesson but can be a great extension to any topic. In third grade we learn a great deal about immigration and people who have homes away from where they were born. This book, though it may be a little intense at times, is a useful resource for a teacher or a student to use.

Another useful aspect of this book is that it offers at of features about the topic. There are several authors notes as well as a biography. It is very important for students to become familiar with nonfiction text features and Pirates does a great job of this. Just identifying different text features and their purpose could be a cool lesson in itself. Throughout these poems you can find a lot of literary elements like onomatopoeia- see example poem below.

Overall, I would recommend this poetry to any library or classroom, 5th grade and older. It’s fun, versatile, and real. It’s not very often we get to see in to the life of a pirate, ARG!

Poem:

Fog Attack

Easy lads…

Fog has ears.

Shh.

Let no man move,

no cutlass rattle.

Swallow your cough,

sneeze not lest that be

the last sound

ye make on this earth.

Ah!

The fog lifts.

Our surprise party is spoilt!

Jolly Roger grins in the sun.
They turn their cannon!

Hurry, they see us!

We turn quicker!

Steady, gunner…

Await my signal…

Easy…

Ready…

Now!

Module 4 (Science Poetry)- Spectacular Science

(Credit)

Hopkins, Lee Bennett, Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1999.

ISBN: 0-689-81283-3

I seem to have a large collection of Lee Hopkins Bennet resources! This just goes to show how versatile and wonderful of an author he is. Spectacular Science is a fun collection of poems chosen by Bennet. The poetry in this collection focuses on different topics in science. For example, the reader can read about topics like seeds, microscope, and magnetism.

The illustrations are by Virginia Halstead. Oh my gosh, they are amazing! The colors are bright with lots of yellows, oranges, and teals. I really love how resilient she made them. These illustrations make reading about science even more interesting! My favorite characteristic of Halsteads work in this book, aside from the colors, is that she stretches her illustrations across several pages. This really draws interest to the topic being discussed.

Spectacular Science is one of my favorite books of poetry thus far in our class. The reason being is that it is so very interesting for children. I can imagine my 8 and 9-year-old students reading through these poems and loving the illustrations. I think reading a poem to students and having them illustrate the poem could be a fun activity! I could also see having a scavenger hunt and ‘doing’ the activities described in each poem. Overall, Spectacular Science is a must have in any collection, especially science. I would highly recommend this Bennett classic!

Poem:

The Seed

Aileen Fisher

How does it know,

this little see,

if it is to grow

to a flower or weed,

if it is to be

a vine or shoot,

or grow to a tree

with a long deep root?

A seed is so small,

where do you suppose

it stores up all

of the things it knows?

Module 4 (Biographical Poetry)- Lives: Poems about Famous Americans

(Credit)

Hopkins, Lee Bennet, Lives: Poems about Famous Americans. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.

ISBN: 0-06-027767-X

This collection of poetry describes the lives of fourteen people who are famous to American history. Through this collection we learn about people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Langston Huges, and Harriett Tubman. These people left such a major impact of American culture. Hopkins, along with a few others did a great job of highlighting these accomplishments. Each poem is roughly about 5-8 stanza’s long and gives a short recap of an important accomplishment. It is a very readable collection of poetry for young adults. I really like that there is a table of contents and a type of glossary! Students can really use these type of text features in order to better understand these poems content.

The illustrations are by Leslie Staub.  Every illustration sits opposite it’s poem. The illustrations are portraits of the subject of each poem. Staub does an amazing job using narrow lines and a lot of bright color that really cause the pictures to come off the page and seem as though the constituents had never aged!

Overall I felt that this book of poetry would be an asset to any collection. First, biographical pieces that are worth their salt can be difficult to find, let alone biographical poetry. Bennet is well known for wonderful poetry for young adults and I am always impressed with his work. This piece is no different. My expectations were met and I would highly recommend it.

As I mentioned previously, valid biographical resources for children are very difficult to find, let alone poetry. This resource would be great help in a research project. Using this book and pebble-go, I think students could really learn a lot about people that were important to America’s grown and current standing.

Poem:

ABE

Alice Sehertle

And so,

young Abe

            of the too-short pants

            and too-long legs,

young Abe spitting into his palms,

wrapping his bony fingers aroung

            the handle of an axe,

sinking the bright blade deep

            into heartwood,

young Abe splitting the rails apart

grew into Abe

            of the sad eyes,

            of the face carved deep

            by sorrow,

wrapping his stong hands

            around a nation,

trying to hold the bleeding halves

together

until they healed.

Module 3- Verse Novel (Locomotion)

(Credit)

Woodson,Jacqueline, Locomotion. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, 2003.

ISBN: 0-399-23115-3

Locomotion is a novel written in verse poetry by Jacqueline Woodson. Woodson has received many awards for her work like the Coretta Scott King Award and two Coretta Scott King honors. She is a wonderfully talented author who writes so vividly and descriptively you feel as though you are the character in her book. Locomotion has won several awards including:

National Book Award Finalist

Coretta Scott King Honor

2003 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award (Fiction Honor)

Horn Book Fanfare List

School Library Journal Best Book

IRA-CBC Children’s Choice for 2004

2004 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts (sponsored by the Children’s Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English)

2005 New Mexico Battle of the Books (Middle School/Grades 7-9)

2004-2005 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Master List (children’s choice award for Vermont)

2005 Kentucky Bluegrass Master List (Grades 3-5)

2006 Louisiana Young Readers Choice Award Nominee (Grades 3-5)

2004-2005 Maine Student Book Award Nominee (Grades 4-8)

2004-2005 William Allen White Children’s Book Award Nominee (Kansas children’s choice award)

To summarize, Locomotion is the story of a young boy, Lonnie or Locomotion, who loses his mom and dad in a house fire, and is separated from his sister due to foster care. We walk with Lonnie as his teacher teaches him and his less cooperative classmates how to write different types of poetry. Lonnie learns that writing poetry is a way for him to express his feelings and actually enjoys himself. This story is deeply personal and offers a wide variety of moods for the reader to be immersed in. I felt like I knew Lonnie, like he was a friend of mine. I hurt when we hurt, I laughed when he laughed. Woodson really grabs the reader with her relatable content and as odd as it may seem, she had such good placement of her lines that it set the mood of the poems.

This is such a fast read! It’s very interesting and I am positive that children, about 5^th grade and older would really enjoy this book. There are poems about playing basket ball, losing friends, finding a girlfriend, and deeper stories about loss and raw, uncontrolled emotion. The poetry is delivered in many different forms like haiku, sonnets, epistle and list poetry. Another reason Locomotion is a great teaching tool! There are a wide variety of examples of poems.

The inside cover of this book describes Woodson’s voice as “lyrical”. I agree, very much! There is something about her dialog that is smooth and flowing. Many times with verse novels, the content is choppy and difficult to follow in a story format but in Locomotion, it was just the opposite, very smooth and easy to enjoy. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy this novel and would really encourage everyone to have a copy or two of this on hand. The content can be a little heavy in places but I would still, highly recommend it!

As for its use with children, I think it would be more appropriate and better used with older children. The content is not graphic, but there are many ‘moments’ in this novel that some younger children just will not understand. I would love to work on writing activities using this book. Lonnie is very self conscious about his writing. He doesn’t want to share his works with anyone because he keeps his memories private. Hakiu Poem is a great example of this on page 59:

                                                                                                                                    Haiku Poem

Ms. Marcus wants to

see all my poems. No way.

Some things just your own.

Over the years, I’ve noticed that students are very sensitive about their work. Although they know I love them and am trying to help them, they still feel attacked, like they just didn’t live up to their expectations. It breaks my heart to correct their work via one on one conferencing! I would like to share this poem with students and show them that it’s okay to be private about your writing!