Blog

I love the libary! I just found another great poetry book this morning.

Falling Down the Page, edited by Georgia Heard, is a fun compilation of "list poems." As a dance teacher who loves using word lists as starting points for shorter creative projects, I was excited to find this book.

The poems vary in subject matter – school, stars in the sky, hands, and good-byes. I think this book is ideal for use in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade dance classes.

And, as we also explore the theme of autumn, here's a playful poem to try out. I love the imagery and the measurements used (which could translate into groups of varying sizes):

Recipe for Writing an Autumn Poem

By Georgia Heard

 

One teaspoon wild geese.

One tablespoon red kite.

One cup wind song.

One pint trembling leaves.

One quart darkening sky.

One gallon north wind.

 

——-

 

At the heart of elementary school dance classes is play, imagination, and creativity. Today's book recommendation is about just that.

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse is a book of poetry by Marilyn Singer, with bright, playful artwork by Josée Masse. Singer is the originator of this form of poetry. She first wrote a poem in "common form" – where you read it from top to bottom. But, the way she playfully structured it is that each poem can also be read from "down to up." Here is an example from the book:

In Reverse

Who

says

it's true –

down

is

the only view?

If you believe that,

this poem

will challenge

you.

Up 

is

something new.

—–

Something new

is 

up.

You

will challenge

this poem

if you believe that

the only view

is 

down.

It's true.

Says

who?

—

I would recommend using the book in classes with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. This book, in particular, has the theme of fairy tales. Students could be paired up, and each given a page from the book (which has two poems on it). Together, they can choreograph a short dance to go with the first poem. Students need to create shapes, gestures, or movement to accompany each line of the poem. Then, the students take the exact movement they created for each line, but now do the movement in reverse order, to go with the second poem.

I envision that each pairing creates the movement, and then each student works specifically with one poem. Then, each pairing can share their two dances with the class (maybe as the teacher recites the poems).

What I love about the reverso poetry form is that it will lead to a great choreographic project with young people – looking at form, motif, and order of ideas.

Possible extensions to this activity include…..

1. Your students could write their own reverso poems, and then repeat the above activity with these poems.

2. Wearing my teaching hat, since I work at a K-8 school, I envision a joint project with students in 4th grade and 6th grade. My 6th grade students could write the reverso poems, and the 4th graders could dance the poems.

Let me know what you discover with this project! Looking at Marilyn Singer's website, it looks like she will be publishing another book of reverso poems in the near future. Yay!