It's Poetry Month!

April is Poetry Month! Many students are less than enthusiastic when they are on the cusp of starting the poetry unit in their language arts class, but many students are excited. Students that are not excited see it as a daunting task, while students that are excited see it as the perfect opportunity for them to express themselves with limited writing rules. I was always a part of the group of students that dreaded poetry. In fact, I have the image of the poetry book we used in high school, Sound & Sense by Laurence Perrine, seared into my memory. It was not a fun time for me. I didn't like it, had difficulty writing it, and even more difficulty interpreting it. However, that all changed when I became a teacher and was on “the other side" of this creative form of expression. I attended a conference and one of the sessions I selected was about poetry. The woman who presented was amazing! She convinced everyone in the room that we are all poets. She had us complete two short poetry assignments during the session, and I surprised myself at what I created. I was hooked. I decided to use what I had learned at the conference in my classroom and my students experienced similar success. In honor of poetry month, I am going to write two different types of poems each week. At the end of April, I will have penned eight different original poems, and I will post them here each week. Below is the first of the two poems for week one.

Haiku

Springtime has arrived
Birds, green grass, pollen, and rain
Allergies galore

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