Poetry Author's Visit

You Play the Expert Author in Class with These Helpful Hints

by Marian Brover, special to NEA.org

Using Mary O'Neill's classic collection of 12 poems about colors, Hailstones and Halibut Bones keep this book around; it is invaluable!), choose a poem and read it to the kids. Use your overhead projector to model brainstorming for students by listing everything red in the classroom, in each child’s room, outside the window.

Next, have the kids write their own poems.  Once they’ve finished brainstorming, they can let the flow begin! Have students use colored pencils (or markers or crayons) to write in the color of their poem.  Make sure they avoid rhyming clichés to begin the poem. Remember to share ideas.

A poem may look a bit like this:

RED
my hat
dad’s socks
mom’s scarf
my brother’s tongue
but not my dog.
She’s big and brown.   

Try another poem about something comfy and familiar.  Why not the bed in each kid’s room? 

soft,
fluffy,
bright sheets,
hard to make.

Violà!  You have a poem.  Now it’s on to another object to describe.

Next, tackle ways to “move” (or talk or act).  Action poems are fun because they can be acted out or quickly drawn with stick figures, and you are creating a personal thesaurus at the same time.

MOVE,
run
jump
skip

Then add adverbs

MOVE
run quickly
jump far
skip softly

Want to push it further?

MOVE
cats run quickly
bunnies jump far
I skip softly!       

Aren’t poems such enjoyable to write and hear?

Next write poems using nouns in your room (or classroom, or in the car, in the lunchroom):

dresser -- so sloppy
clothes -- piled high

Have kids combine nouns and adjectives to expand vocabulary: e.g., droopy dresser, squeaky clean clothes.

At the end of the week, have the kids lay all their writings in front of themselves.  Wow!  Impressive!  And the portfolio fills up.

Cooperative groups could easily permit the students to present their own Visiting Author period.  You are on our way to a true Literary Fest.

Sure, we’d all be ecstatic to have Judith Viorst sashay into our room and shout out her writing secrets.  But you are the master of your class’s fate.  Your playacting is the perfect answer.  When Visiting Author’s Time comes around again, watch!  You will be welcomed by the kids you love.  And think of the good learning times you are allowed to have.  That’s why we are teachers.  Every day...a new act opens!

About the Author
Marian Brovero, retired from her NJ teaching life to FL, where children who know the pains of life after hurricanes can find happiness in a good book.