Examines how works of art can function as media of deep communication between individuals otherwise separated by walls. Highlights poetry reading and writing in a fourth-grade classroom to show how public school classrooms can become places where children exercise real choice over the disposition of their intellectual energies and where children…

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)

Yale professor Harold Bloom has concluded that cultural guilt has resulted in a 30-year intellectual decline in which politics has come to dominate U.S. poetry. Four leading African-American poets comment critically on Bloom's conclusions. (SLD)

A former English professor describes his search for the author of a poem he first came across in 1970--a version of which appears in Stephen Chbosky's 1999 novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." He cites numerous dead ends, and various author identities, titles, and versions. His search ended after contacting the author, Dr. Earl…

Offers brief annotations of a wide ranging selection of 38 poetry books and 14 poetry anthologies of contemporary North American multicultural poetry, focusing on books most powerful and relevant to the work of poetry therapists. (SR)

Discusses four poems by William Carlos Williams used to teach creative writing to college students. Uses "Portrait of a Woman in Red" and "The Last Words of My English Grandmother" because they contain speakers who are clearly not the poet, which gives undergraduate students opportunities to discuss details Williams uses to…

Discusses the conflict over deconstruction, explaining its usefulness in reading, writing, and responding to poetry. After defining deconstruction, presents five approaches to deconstructive reading (self-referentiality, reading from different positions, binary oppositions, figurative/literal language, and intertextuality) and concludes that…

Considers the burgeoning field of poetry and verse for children now compared to the beginning of the twentieth century. Explores if there is genuine poetry in today's abundance of children's verse. Considers what critics and poets consider to be genuine poetry and where the children themselves stand on the subject of poetry. (SG)

Five classroom ideas are presented that foreign language teachers can incorporate into instruction. (Author/VWL)

Examines how art and poetry production intertwine with the daily life of a female inmate serving a life sentence. Discusses her perspectives on relationships and sexual identity, isolation, communication, social culture and status, dealing with stress, her institutional journey, and art and poetry. Notes implications for practice, policy, and…

Features books for all readers, emergent and proficient, demonstrating the various ways language of story appears within genre and format. Describes approximately 40 books that address literature such as: poetry; bridging books; intermediate chapter books; novels; informational books; and picture books. (SG)

Describes how Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" can be used to explore differences between biography and autobiography, and how a personal account can be used to change attitudes of others. Presents poems written by 10th- and 11th-grade students composed after reading Douglass's…

Discusses realism in children's poetry and a New Realism which dates from the 1960s. Suggests that the denial of realism occupies much of the efforts of Mother Goose reformers, who have carried on "for eons" over the violence, mayhem, and cruelty in the old nursery rhymes. (RS)

Discusses short, informal student writing assignments in chemical engineering designed to reinforce chemical engineering concepts relevant to course material, promote creative thinking, and lighten more serious students. (MKR)

Describes how a group of adults with autism, mental retardation, and other disabilities has accessed a means of communication and formed a bridge to the community through poetry. (SR)