Provides annotations of 35 easy-to-read picture books, informational books, easy-to-read chapter books, and poetry collections that serve as bridges from one type of reading to another. (RS)

Provides an account of a class discussion of the poem, "Grace" by the Native American writer Joy Harjo. Describes how students systematically investigated the meaning of the title. Asks teachers to use Native American poetry more and provides sources of such works. (HB)

Describes how one teacher/poet communicates to students the feeling of spontaneity and ease with language, a similar sense of poetry as activity, gesture, and flight, and the notion that both words and sounds carry poetic meaning while letting students know it is acceptable to explore on paper while creating poetry. (MG)

Argues that William Blake's illustrations for Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat" testify to the contradictions in Gray's poetry. States that Blake's designs offer another language, a contra-diction, that deconstructs Gray's conscious discourse and liberates his unconscious discourse. (RS)

Describes picture book editions of single poems. Discusses appropriate classroom uses of the poem picture books. Suggests ways of involving children with poem picture books. (MG)

Looks closely at the words of Whitman's "Song of Myself" to get a closer look at the mystery of poetry. Discusses how Whitman's work can be used with students to inspire their writing. (MG)

Offers a 20-item list (put together by high school students) of features characteristic of Whitman's poems. Uses the list of features to write original poetry. Offers additional writing ideas for use with Walt Whitman's poetry. (MG)

Describes a program that used art and poetry therapy with terminally ill patients. Presents the creative writings of two patients. (SR)

Provides an account of how one English teacher fosters awareness of the metaphorical nature of language and the sensory experience of poetry. Shows how the poem "Bullfrogs" was used to instruct students concerning point of view and the various perspectives from which a story can be seen. (HB)

Suggests that published critical analyses of literary works can be used as a pedagogical tool to expose students to informed literary perspectives. Outlines strategies that incorporate these resources into instruction by addressing several interpretations of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken." (RS)

Examines the verse of poets who have been inspired by their wartime experiences, to reveal how poetry can serve as a therapeutic function for individuals under combat conditions. (SR)

Describes how a patient with Borderline Personality Disorder underwent significant regression in response to poetic material during a therapy session. Offers a prototypical questionnaire (Poetic Response Assessment Scale) to assess a patient's response to a particular literary work. (SR)

Presents tips on leading poetry sessions, organized around the actual classroom "hour": preparation; manner of presentation; the session itself; afterwards; and remarks on the poetry of it. (RS)

Presents a poem inspired by the experience of a course in language across the curriculum for teachers in training in which students were offered the opportunity to take risks with their writing, to "bungee-jump" with pen and paper. (SR)

Describes a method of teaching writing that asks students to locate a proper epigraph for their completed essays. Discusses the function of epigraphs, especially as poetic expression. Shows how some students revised their work according to the content of their epigraphs. (HB)