POETRY

AND
PLAYS
(Written Report for Children and Adolescent Literature)

Submitted by:

Abetria, Monica Rey

Peñaflor, Marie Angela

Relox, Sarine Mae

Rodrigo, Ericca

Sardua, Sheila Mae

Serrano, Christine

Submitted to:

Professor Cecilia Alagon

 Definition and Description of Poetry

 Poetry is the expression of ideas and feelings through a rhythmical composition of

imaginative and beautiful words selected for their sonorous effects.

 Poetry was oral, and as a various minstrels traversed the countryside, they recited poetry
and sang songs to groups of listeners of all ages. The musicality of poetry makes it an especially
suitable literary form for teachers to read aloud and, a times, to put to music.

 Verse - a language form in which simple thoughts or stories are told in rhyme with a
distinct beat or meter.

 Rhyme- an essential ingredient of poetry

Types of Poetry Books

1. Mother Goose and Nursery Rhyme Books

 are heavily illustrated collections of traditional verse.

 Tomie dePaola’s Mother Goose, collected and illustrated by Tomie dePaola

 Collected nursery rhymes first appeared in editions of Charles Perrault’s Tales of Mother
Goose in France in the early eighteenth century.

2. Nursery and Folk Songbooks

 Are heavily illustrated collections of both traditional and modern verses and their musical
notation.

 Songs from Mother Goose, compiled by Nancy Larrick and illustrated by Robin Spowat,
is a good example. Melody further emphasizes the innate musicality of these verses and turns
some verses into games (Ring around the Roses) and others into lullabies (Rock-a-bye Baby)

3. Anthologies of Poetry

 A large, comprehensive anthology of poetry for children is a must in every classroom.

Anthologies should be organized by subject for easy retrieval of poems appropriate for almost
any occasion. In addition, indices of poets and titles, or first lines, are usually provided in these
texts.
 Works by contemporary and traditional poets can be found in most of these anthologies;
they appeal to a wide age range, providing nursery rhymes for toddlers as well as longer,
narrative poems for the middle-grade students.

 An example is a New Treasuary of Children’s Poetry; Old Favorites and New

Discoveries, selected by Joanna Cole.

4. Specialized Poetry Books

 are also readily available in which the poems are all by one poet, on one topic, for one
age group, or of one poetic form.

 These specialized collections become necessary adjuncts for a teacher and class who
come to love certain kinds of poetry or specific poets.

 Beautifully illustrated collections are also available and seem to be specially enjoyed by
children for independent reading of poetry.

 Example include Mathematickles by Betsy Franco and Doodle Soup by John Ciardi.

5. Single Illustrated Poems

 Single narrative poems of medium length are presented more frequently in picture book
formats. These editions make poetry more appealing and accessible to many children, but in
some cases, the illustrations may remove the opportunity for children to form their own mental
images from the language created by poets.

 The poetry section of your school library is worth perusing for interesting poetry books
to use in the classroom.

Elements of Poetry

1. Form

2.Sound Devices

3.Imagery

4.Mood/tone

5.Theme
1. Form- bring together parts or combine to create something and divided into lines, many
poems, especially longer ones, it may also be divided into groups of lines called stanzas.

2. Sound Devices- some poems use techniques of sound such as:

- rhyme

- rhythm

- assonance

- consonance

3. Imagery- poets use words that appeal to the readers’ senses of sight, touch, sound, taste. and
smell. It also uses figurative language to represent objects action and make use of particular
words to create visual representation of ideas in our minds.

4. Mood/Tone - the feelings the authors word choices give the poem.

5. Theme - the theme of a poem is its central or main idea.

Historical Overview of Poetry

Nursery Rhymes

- is the first literature in poetry that is presented to the children.

- lyric and short direct themes

- religious in nature and provides moral instruction

- it is passed orally from one generation to another

1744

- published the earliest collection of nursery rhymes "Tommy Thumbs Pretty Songbook"
- then later on it became "The Mother Goose Rhymes"

19th century to 1920s

- golden age of childrens’ poetry

- beauty and life of nature

- humor, nonsense, word fun, and imaginative poems

1960s to 1970s

- general trend toward realism in children’s literature poetry

1980

- children’s poetry began to be introduced in the classrooms up to present.

Poetry Types and Forms

Two Main Types:

* Lyric - captures a moment, a feeling, or a scene and is description in nature.

* Narrative - tells a story or includes a sequence of events.

Poetic Forms- refers to the way the poem is structured or put together.

Terms that refer to the number of lines of poetry in stanza:

* Couplets- two

* Tercets - three

* Quatrains- four

* Cinquains- five

Other specific Poetry Forms that are frequently found in Children's Poetry:

* Limericks - a limerick is a humorous, one-stanza, five-line verse poem (usually a narrative), in

which lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme and are of the same lenght and lines 3 and 4 and are of the same
lenght but shorter than the other lines.
* Ballads - is a fairly long narrative poem of popular origin, usually adapted to singing. These
traditional story poems are often romantic or heroic.

* Haiku - is a lyric, unrhymed poem of Japanese origin with 17 syllables, arranged on 3 lines
with a syllable count of 5, 7 and 5. It is highly evocative poetry that frequently espouses
harmony with and appreciation of nature.

* Free Verse - unrhymed poetry with little or light rhythm. Sometimes words within a line will
rhyme. The subjects of free verse are often abstract and philosophical; they are always reflective.

* Concrete Poetry - is written and printed in a shape that signifies the subject of the poem.
Concrete Poems are a form of poetry that must be seen as well as heard to be fully appreciated.
These poems do not usually have rhyme or definite rhythm; they rely mostly on the words, their
meanings and shapes, and the way the words are arranged on the page to evoke images.

Poetry in the Classroom

Students’ Listening to and Saying Poems

 Begin by giving students the opportunity to hear and say poems.

 After developing love for poetry, they can begin to write their own.
 Poetry needs to be shared in both oral and written forms.
 Poetry should be introduced first and often to children in an oral form.
 Children’s oral language is the basis for their later acquisition of literacy.

Reading Poetry Aloud to Children

 Brief, positive encounters with one to three poems at a time are best.
 Introduce the poem to the class before reading it aloud.
 State the title of the poem and begin to read.
 After reading the poem, be sure to announce the name of the poet.

Points that will Help You to Read Poetry Well

 A reader should not overemphasize the beat of the poem.

 Poetry should be enunciated clearly.
 Poetry needs to be performed and dramatized.
 Some poems may need to be read aloud a number of times.
  Consider recording audiotapes of poems.
 After reading a poem aloud, some form of response is usually enjoyed.

Choral Poetry – a time-honored technique for providing opportunities to say and hear poems
over and over again is given by it.

How to Select Choral Poems and Teach Them to Students

1. Selection – select a short poem until your students develop some skill in memorizing,
reciting, and performing poems.
2. Memorization – select and read aloud a poem that is well liked by the students.
3. Arrangements – options for reading a poem chorally include:
 Unison – the students learn the poem and recite it together as a group.
 Two-part or three-part – usually based on arranging students into voice types.
 Solo Voices – sometimes used for asking a question or making an exclamation.
 Cumulative Buildup – effected by having, for example, only two voices say the first
line, gradually building to a crescendo until the entire class says the last line or
stanza.
 Simultaneous Voices – forms a presentation similar to a musical sound.
4. Performance – incorporating action, gestures, body movements, and finger plays can
produce more interesting and enjoyable presentations.

Students Reading and Writing Poems

Learning to Read Poetry

 Children enjoy reading poetry silently and aloud to others.

Examples of Poems:

- A single poet "A Pocket Poems" by Nikki Grimes

- A single topic such as "Around the World in Eighty Poems" edited by James Berry

Other activities to encourage the reading of poetry by students follow:

• Place students in pairs to take turns reading favorite poems to one another.

• Ask each student to select three poems by one poet and find something out about the poet.

• Have students find three poems on the same topic.

• Encourage students to find poems that are of the same poetic form.

Learning to Write Poetry

 A rich poetry environment stimulates children's interest in writing their own poems.
Children need to be very familiar with poetry of many kinds and by many poets
before they should be expected to compose poems.

Examples of Poems:

- Sunrises and Songs, Reading and Writing in an Elementary Classroom (1990) by Amy
McClure, Peggy Harrison and Sheryl Reed

- How to Write a Poem (1996) by Margaret Ryan

Other suggestions to foster poetry writing include the following:

• Have students compile personal and class anthologies of their own poems or favorite poems.

• Design bulletin boards with poetry displays of students own poems as well as copies of poems
by favorite poems.

• Encourage students to model the works of professional poets by attempting imitation of a

whole poem or specific techniques.

• Read aloud many poems of one specific form; then analyzed the form about characteristics of
its structure.

 Some poets have suggested other models and patterns for students to follow in
writing poetry.

Do

• Read poetry aloud everyday.

• Practice reading a poem before reading it aloud for the first time to

students.

• Choose poetry the students will like.

• Make a variety of excellent poetry anthologies and specialized poetry books available in the
classroom.

• Encourage students to recite and write poems.

• Direct choral

• Direct choral poetry presentations.

• Feature and notable poet each month.

• Begin and end each day with a poem.

Don't

• Limit poetry choices to one or two poets or types of poems.

• Read poems in a singsong style.

• Choose all poems from one anthology.

• Have poetry marathon days or weeks to make up for not sharing poetry regularly.

• Force students to memorize and recite poems.

• Make the analysis of poetry the focus of poetry study.

• Have students copy poems for handwriting practice.

• Make the main emphasis of poetry be the writing of formula poems.

 Definition and Description of Plays

 Players – those who long ago performed plays long before they were called actors.
 Plays – refer to written, dramatic compositions or scripts intended to be acted; may be
divided into parts called acts, which may be divided into scenes.
 Script – usually has set, costume, and stage directions noted, as well as dialogue
provided for each actor.
 Playbooks or Acting Editions – plays are usually published in it; 4 x 8 paperback
books, by publishers who specialize in plays.
 Readers’ Theatre – oral presentation of literature by actors, and usually a narrator,
reading from a script.
 Creative Drama – informal drama that lends itself to the reenactment of story
experiences.
 Recreational Drama – formal theatrical presentation where the development and
experience of the performers is as important as the enjoyment by the audience.
 Children’s Theatre – sometimes referred to as theatre for young audiences, is a formal
theatrical experience in which a play is presented for an audience of children.

Historical Overview of Plays

 Plays were seldom written exclusively for children prior to the twentieth century, yet for
centuries plays were written and performed for a general audience that included children.
Church dramas also have a long tradition that can be traced back to the Middle Ages
when the Catholic Church used such plays as a means of Educating. Examples of plays
appealing to children but intended for a general audience are Gulliver’s Travels, Finn,
and Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion, among others. J.M. Barrier’s Peter Pan, the most
widely acknowledged classic of the genre of plays for children, has had a great appeal to
children during its long history of production beginning in 1904.
 The spread of Children's Theatre Groups is one of the reasons on why there was an
increase in the number of published scripts. Charlotte B. Chorpenning was an early
Children's playwright of exceptional note.She was artistic director of the Goodman
Children's Theatre of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1931 until her death and wrote
many plays for its use. Her observations of Children's interests at each age level are still
useful to playwrights. Professional Theatre companies for young audiences began to
appear in 1960's and 1970's. A playwright of Children's play from 1945 to the time of his
death in 1996, Aurand Harris was an outstanding children's playwright who wrote during
this period. He was the first winner of the Charlotte B. Chorpenning Award and the only
playwright to win it twice, in 1967 and 1985. There are also other children's playwright
 who have been honored for their children's play such as James Still, Edward Mast and
Suzan L. Zeder.

Types of Plays

 Traditionally, plays are categorized within types such as drama, comedy, farce,
melodrama, and tragedy.
 Dramas and comedies – most common play types found in children’s plays.
 Participation plays – sometimes referred to as interactive theatre; is the presentation of a
drama with an established story line constructed to involve structured opportunities for
active involvement by the audience.
 Original plays – stories originating in play form, represent fewer than one third of the
new plays published annually.
 Sather (1976) – children indicate a preference for plays with stories never heard before.