Tracing the history of well known nursery rhymes can be a stimulating means of introducing children to poetry.

Presents 25 poems written by junior high school students in imitation of seven poems by Ogden Nash. (DD)

In order to help children appreciate poetic surprises, teachers should select poems which appeal to the predictive sense by means of such devices as rhyming words, thematic twists, and surprise endings. (DD)

Uses poetry and poetic prose to remind readers of the power of poetic language. Discusses the author's experience as a poet and her work with teachers to bring poetry into children's lives. (SR)

Children's rhymes are one way of introducing children to the world of print and reading instruction. (DD)

Explores (from the point of view of the writer, a children's author) one aspect of learning about language that is present in the picture books he writes: the relation between sound and sense. (SR)

Traces the author's own literacy development to her girlhood in a village in rural Jamaica. Looks at storytelling, singing, and rhymes in the rhythm of the village; reading from the Bible and stories told at home; rhythms of song and language in church; and the rhythm of poems and stories in school. Looks at implications for literacy instruction.…