Treasury of ideas

THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY: POEMS FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR WITH CONNECTIONS TO TEKS (Middle School Edition) by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Pomelo Books, 2013.

Poetry is often the most overlooked of the literature studied in school. Vardell and Wong can remedy that for middle school teachers (and there is already a companion anthology for elementary grades) with this anthology. They provide a poem a week for each of the weeks of the school year (for grades 6, 7, and 8) along with ideas for sharing the poems with the kids and activities which could be used to enrich the listening experience. Poems are by names which will be familiar to many, contemporary poets: Salinger, Holbrook, Wong, Yolen, Fraco, Bruchac, and many more. A foreword makes some broad suggestions for sharing [poetry (why and how and when) and an appendix provides even more resources. Any teacher looking for ways to incorporate poetry into their classroom need look no further.