School Poems

Photo Credit:  Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/ (accessed January 21, 2011 using title as search term).



Summary: The cover of the book immediately draws ones attention to the book and the content is equally enticing. The book begins with a poem about the first day of school.  Within the first poem, the reader is introduced to various students with multi-cultural names such as Kwan, Cory, Laksmi and Max.  The illustrator provides a visual of these students as they enter the school bus on the first day of school.  From there, the reader is taken on a journey through the school year from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.   The titles of the poems tell this story, such as:

"Spelling"
"Math"
"The Class I Hate"
"Where the Custodian Can go"
"First Snow"
"Science Fair"
"Spring Me!"
"Field Trip"
"Class Picture"
"Last, First"

Appeal: Every poem in the book gives the poem's title and shows that the poem is written by one of the students identified in the first poem.  What a clever idea this is!  It is something that might be missed on a first reading of this book but should be noted in order to fully appreciate the appeal this book will have on young students.  By realizing that each poem is "written" by a student character in the book, student readers can identify with the writers.  This should "stimulate the emotions and imagination of the intended audience" (Goforth, 1998).  This emotional connection and the fact that all of the poems are part of the every day life experiences of children make this book highly appealing to children.

Quality: This book is superior in quality, in my opinion.  Sensory images are found at the turn of each page. Many of the poems are rhythmic.  For many poems, young students will be able to quickly identify the rhyming words.  For example, in "Math" the rhyming words are lake, cake, snake and mistake and in "Sandwich Trades" students can easily identify jelly, smelly, rye and pie. Other poems are very natural, in part, I believe, because they deal with such familiar topics for students.

Use: I would use this book in two ways.  First, I would use it throughout the year and match up various poems with events happening at that time of year in school or for feelings that students express during certain times of the year. For example, if a student were to tell me that he/she hates a certain class, I would read these two poems to them:

"The Class I Hate" by Fumi (really by Marilyn Singer and found early in the book)
A-tisket, a-tasket,
don't wanna shoot a basket,
or join a baseball team,
or walk the balance beam.
Would I care to climb a rope,
run, or tumble? One word: nope!
I don't even like to swim.
guess what class I hate. It's gym!

"The Class I Love" by Fumi (really by Marilyn Singer and coming later in the book)
Hickory, dickory, dock,
hurry up, hurry up, clock!
I want the time to pass
so I can get to class.
Here's the crazy thing:
I can cha-cha, rumba, swing,
do merengue, salsa, too.
there's no dance that I can't do.
Yes, I know what I once said.
But now I love, love, LOVE Phys. Ed.!

For the more generic poems, such as "Math" and "Art", I would read them often throughout the year as students were waiting in line for their teacher to pick them up or as openers before our lesson.  Then, at the end of the year, I would assign a poem to each student and have a performance of the entire book.  By doing this at the end of the year, I believe the students would realize how the book reflects an entire school year in poems.

References:

Goforth, F.S.  1998. Literature and the Lerner. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Information found from Vardell, Sylvia. 2011. TWU LS 5663 "Evaluating Poetry" Lecture Notes.)

Singer, Marilyn. 2008. First food fight this fall and other school poems. Ill. Sachiko Yoshikawa. New York: Sterling. ISBN: 978-1-4027-4145-6.