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

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

<p>Are you searching for instruction that reinforces standards-based content in language arts, math, science, or social studies? </p> <ul>That generates student interest? <ul>That promotes critical thinking? <ul>That doesn't sacrifice time in your curriculum? </ul></ul></ul> <p>Then it's time for a new approach.</p> <p>In <i>Practical Poetry</i>, 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, <i>Practical Poetry</i> 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 <i>functional</i>. Even if you aren't a poet, you'll be ready to use poetry in your class tomorrow because each of Holbrook's lessons:</p> <ul> <li>describes the rationale for how and why the lessons work</li> <li>identifies the specific content standards you'll be addressing in your teaching</li> <li>includes exemplar poems to use right away or to guide you in weaving favorite poems into your lesson planning</li> <li>provides examples of student work from classrooms where poetry has been used successfully as a vehicle for learning.</li> </ul> <p>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, <i>Practical Poetry</i> 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.</p>