This blog post is part of聽,庐聽a new initiative focused exclusively on helping teachers build their book knowledge and their classroom libraries. It was written by 起点传媒member Michelle聽Schaub.
Poetry and grammar? An unlikely combination, perhaps. But, like peanut butter and chocolate, when paired together, they yield surprisingly appealing results.
As a middle school teacher, I like to make my grammar lessons appetizing. I prescribe to a functional approach to grammar. This method, explained in by Constance Weaver, focuses on how language works in real-world contexts. It maximizes the use of examples from mentor texts and encourages students to explore concepts in their own writing. As a poet, I believe in the power of verse, and I鈥檓 always looking for ways to weave poetry into the curriculum.
I had my first taste of pairing grammar and poetry when reading by Jeff Anderson. In this book, Anderson suggests using the picture book by Lola M. Schaefer to reinforce the concept of simple sentences. In An Island Grows, Schaefer uses short, rhymed lines to reveal the story of an island forming from a volcanic eruption. Most of Schaefer鈥檚 lines contain one subject and one verb, such as 鈥渨ater quakes鈥� and 鈥渕agma glows.鈥� I tried using Schafer鈥檚 book at the beginning of one school year. Students perused the poem, looking for simple sentence examples and nonexamples.
I followed this up by having students find simple sentences in another terse verse poem, 鈥淥cean Engine鈥� by Leslie Bulion from . Finally, my students wrote their own terse verse poems, combining two-word sentences in rhyming pairs. It worked deliciously.
After this initial success, I found more ways to reinforce grammar concepts with poetry. Poets love using crisp, precise verbs. It鈥檚 not hard to find mentor poems that reinforce the power of action verbs over 鈥渂e鈥� verbs. When selecting poems, I like to focus on picture book collections because the illustrations make the poems even more enticing. Joyce Sidman鈥檚 is a poetry collection that celebrates colors as they kaleidoscope through the seasons. Sidman鈥檚 poems burst with vibrant action verbs. I have students conduct a 鈥渧erb hunt,鈥� making a list of all the verbs Sidman uses to bring colors to life. Then I have students use this list to write their own action verb poems. (No 鈥渂e鈥� verbs allowed!)
I also use poetry to reinforce the versatility of prepositional phrases. The picture bookby Helen Frost is one long free verse poem embedded with prepositional phrases. After students identify the prepositional phrases within the book, I ask them what they notice about the placement of those phrases: How do they connect ideas? Help the poem flow? Students then imitate the form of Frost鈥檚 poem with new subject matter, highlighting the prepositional phrases they used.
A similar plan can be followed when teaching participial phrases. Two mentor poems packed with participles are 鈥淪nowflake Wakes鈥� from by Joyce Sidman and 鈥渞unning water鈥� from by Ralph Fletcher.
Poetry can appeal to a more sophisticated grammar palate as well. Need to reinforce the ways dependent and independent clauses can combine to form compound and complex sentences? Try using by Julie Fogliano. This is another collection of breathtaking poems about the seasons. Fogliano鈥檚 poems are all unpunctuated, creating a stream-of-consciousness feel. Challenge students to rewrite the lines of one of Fogliano鈥檚 poems as if they had been written as prose, adding proper punctuation to create compound and complex sentences.
I hope you enjoyed this sampling of poems and poetry collections that make tasty pairings with grammar instruction. Bon app茅tit!
Michelle聽Schaub is a children鈥檚 author, veteran middle school language arts teacher, and poetry in the classroom advocate. She is the author of the picture book poetry collections聽Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers鈥� Market (Charlesbridge 2017)聽and the upcoming聽Finding Treasure: A Collection of Collections (Charlesbridge 2019.) You can visit her at聽听辞谤 .