Fifth grade students explore the public and private dimensions of poetry through the medium of poetry banners. The author maintains that poetry belongs in public spaces and serves as a counter to the "junk text" that surrounds us. A poetry banner is a nice addition to other banners and messages that students, teachers, school…

In this article, the author presents a poem on the distribution and adaptation of blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria). The poem describes some of the diverse habitats of cyanobacteria including examples from extreme and unique environments such as hot springs, and polar bear hair. The poem also describes some of the adaptations of cyanobacteria…

In this article, the author presents a profile of Nikki Grimes, award-winning poet and author of children's books. Grimes spent much of her childhood in and out of foster homes, where she discovered that reading provided a much-needed escape. This love of reading eventually led also to a love of writing. Having no formal training as a poet, Grimes…

The sublime is a theory of aesthetics that reached its highest popularity in British literature during the Romantic period (c. 1785-1832). This article (1) explicates philosophers' different meanings of the sublime; (2) show how the sublime is relevant to education; and (3) show how the sublime "works" in literature by analyzing William Blake's…

It was most likely in the spring of 1966 that the late American Indian novelist James Welch wrote his first novel, predating his first published fiction by eight years. The titleless, hand-corrected typescript, stored in his Missoula home for many years, is 114 pages long and unfinished. The book is playful and experimental the way warm-ups…

Posing an alternate view to high stakes educational models, the thoughts, opinions and practices of four poetry educators are used to provide critical insights as how to infuse creative outlets in the educational process. In gathering the motivations of these poetry educators, a goal of this project is to encapsulate their philosophies through…

This article presents an interview with poet Helen Frost. Frost talked about how poetry can help at-risk children. She also related the challenges she faced when she wrote her latest book titled "The Braid."

Many literary critics describe Native American written poetry as inspired by oral tradition (namely storytelling). This seems a vacuous claim unless one can set out the features of the oral genre (tradition) and the written form, and establish a baseline for comparative purposes. It is not enough to claim that poetry is storytelling based on oral…

In today's increasingly diverse classrooms, it is essential for educators to provide students with the tools, dialogue, and experiences that will help them to know and understand the global village in which they live and also build their compassion, empathy, and appreciation for the diverse individuals and cultures who populate it. This book shows…

This curriculum guide, developed as part of a total English curriculum for pre-kindergarten through grade 10, suggests that students can best understand literature by understanding its recurring external forms or genres, and includes (1) an overview describing the four literary genres of drama, narrative poetry, narrative fiction, and lyric poetry…

The authors of this action research project report implemented oral reading fluency-based interventions for the purpose of improving students' reading comprehension. Six students in grade three, six students in grade five and six students in grade six participated in the study from Monday, August 27 through Friday, December 7, 2007. Researchers…

Assuming that readers' emotional responses can enhance readers' metacognitive experiences and inform literary analysis, this study of 11th-grade poetry readers features instruction that models both cognitive and affective reading processes. The author: (1) Presents a case for more explicit attention to emotion in language arts classrooms; (2)…

Sylvia Plath's confessional poem, "Lady Lazarus" can be used to illustrate a connection between autobiography and social critique. "You poke and stir" among the institutions that form social relations--the educational system, the court system, the economic system--to find individuals whose lives, whose joys and pains, and…

Asking the question "What Is Poetry?" these essays seek out the art of true poetry--differentiating between facile novelty and genuine originality; asserting the poet's ability to question and lay bare reality; and demonstrating the subtle power of language in the "fruitful ambiguities" of its most ordinary parts, such as the…

Writing must receive major emphasis in teaching-learning situations. There are important differences between creative endeavors and those that involve role learning and exact answers. Creativity emphasizes the novel, the unique, the original, and the open-ended. Creativity should stress writing across the curriculum, and should involve reading and…