Poetry Anthologies - Reading / Reciting / Illustrating

As many of you know, each child in the classroom has a poetry anthology in his/her desk. Every summer, I select one poem for each week - sometimes these poems reflect seasonal changes, sometimes they reflect special events or holidays, but mostly they extend what we are learning about in school. These poems are typed up and put in a notebook for every student - and I make sure that there is room on each page for an illustration.

Each Tuesday afternoon, the children get out their anthologies and we read the weekly poem together. Then children volunteer to read the poem aloud, selecting their preference, "all together", "all by myself", or "with a partner". (Lots of children feel proud to read it solo, but it is nice for beginner readers to have the perfectly acceptable option of selecting "all together".) This is always a choice - no one is forced to read aloud if they are not ready. But by following along in their own anthologies, I'm convinced that everyone really benefits. Also, children who want an additional challenge can memorize the poem! This has been great fun for some of the students who like to flex their memorization muscles.

Finally, each child gets to illustrate the poem. This is a way for me to check for comprehension. Does the illustration match what the poem is about? This sweet one was done today – you can see that Sophia truly listened to all of the details of Winter Clothes, by Karla Kuskin.