Prepare your own favorite poem to perform for your class, using the tips in this chapter.
Afterward, help students understand that by performing a poem, you make the words come alive for others. You don't just speak them. You embody them.
Let students know that they will prepare poems for two, three, or four of them to act out in front of the class.
“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”
—Robert Frost
Decide how you want students to form teams for their poem recitations, whether they self-select groups of two, three, or four, or whether you assign teams.
Then have teams search for poems that they like and could perform. Provide numerous possibilities in poetry books, reading books, and online sites. (Remember that much of Dr. Seuss's work is poetic.) Encourage students to use poems with a lot of action.
If students have trouble finding a poem, you can suggest that they try "When I Grow Up" on page 273 or one of these poems.
Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site
Help students understand how they can divide their poems into speaking parts. They could just have a different student read each line, though a better approach would be to think about the ideas in a poem. Sometimes, one line stands on its own. At other times, two lines work together.
Encourage students to come up with their own ways to use different voices to dramatize the lines in their poems.
Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site
After students have scripted the poem, deciding which student will read which lines, they should score the poem. Scoring the poem means adding feelings and movements to some of the lines to help students make them more interesting or dramatic. Help students realize that when they perform a poem, they need to use not just their voices, but also their facial expressions, movements, gestures, postures, and tones. They aren't reciting. They are acting.
Students can score their poems by printing them out, double spaced, and writing feelings and movements above specific lines or words.
Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site
Once students have scripted and scored their poems, talk through the material on page 272, helping them prepare to perform. Then give groups time to practice.
Hold a "Poetry Party," with each group getting up to introduce the poem and poet and perform their selections.
Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site
Suggest this poem as an encore or as a piece that students could use for their main presentation.
Click to view a list of tags that tie into other resources on our site
