Guest Post: Janet Fagal for 2013 Progressive Poem

Today I'm excited to welcome Janet Fagal, a poetry enthusiast whom I had the pleasure of meeting this past November at NCTE. While she doesn't have a blog (yet!), she's got poetry in her heart, and I am so pleased to have her contributing her line here at Live Your Poem.

And here's the poem so far, with Janet's line at the bottom:

When you listen to your footsteps

the words become music and

the rhythm that you're rapping gets your fingers tapping, too.

Your pen starts dancing across the page

a private pirouette, a solitary samba until

smiling, you're beguiling, as your love comes shining through.

Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers

Don't you love it?! Thank you, Janet! And now.... drum roll, please....

Introducing a future Kidlitosphere blogger: Janet Fagal

Today I am so grateful to Irene Latham for allowing me to be a guest blogger so I can participate in the 2013 Progressive Poem. Some of you may know me as a commenter who goes by Janet F. and Janet Clare on FB. I have yet to start my own blog, but one is coming, I promise.

I loved watching last year’s Progressive Poem grow. I was lucky to meet Irene at NCTE in November along with Laura Purdie Salas, Mary Lee Hahn, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and Leslea Newmann at Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell’s session about their book, The Poetry Friday Anthology. Perhaps you have seen this photo where we all sported pink to support Sylvia’s recovery from breast cancer treatment.

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During the last 10 years of my 40 year teaching career, I discovered the expansive power of poetry for its own worth and as a teaching tool. Better late than never! Almost by accident I developed an approach that puts poetry at the heart of the classroom. My 3^rd graders eagerly learn poems by heart without any pressure or homework or testing. I actually never tell the children we are going to do this, it just happens naturally! By the end of the year we have a Poetry Night where they recite over 40 poems for close to an hour. Most of the poems are by published poets, but some are poems the children have written.

Here’s a link to a 3 min. video clip that gives an idea about how Poetry Night looks, though this was an encore Poetry Night done as a fund-raiser in mid-September and the children had not been together since June!!! But you’ll get the idea.

We mainly learn and recite as a group, but if the children ask I let some do solos or recite poems in small groups. The best part is how easy it all is. I didn’t know any poems by heart when I started. With all the generous poetry resources available on the Kidlitosphere, any teacher can easily replicate what I have done and tailor it to meet her kids’ ages, community and curriculua.

The children love doing this, and because we work as a group, they learn the poems in a very short time. They may cue one another on tricky parts and the group recitation creates happy bonds. It doesn’t take much class time to accomplish, either. Children are natural sponges for oral language at this age. But recitation and performance are not the only benefits. There are many educational side benefits, too. Besides learning about poets and poetry, the kids are exposed to rich vocabulary and sophisticated language. Academic content shows up in some poems and re-reading poems helps with reading fluency which aids comprehension. The quality of their own writing grows from being immersed in the poems we share. And the list goes on!

Today while traveling I found an Indie bookstore, The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT. I was so excited to learn that Marilyn Singer often goes there for book signings and readings. Kate Coombs’ wonderful Water Sings Blue was on the children’s poetry shelves (note the plural) along with Caroline Kennedy’s fabulous new anthology, Poems to Learn by Heart, which includes one of Janet Wong’s poems and has a teacher’s guide written by Sylvia Vardell. I took it to be a sign. I want to help spread a love of poetry all over the country because I know firsthand about its power to make a difference in kids’ literary and personal lives.

Thank you to all of the poets and writers who keep giving us wonderful words to sprinkle in children’s hearts. I am delighted to add my voice to the growing chorus of those who are realizing the power poetry has to change and brighten lives. And by the way I told the bookstore about the exquisite new Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater and they are going to order it! I take my role as “poetry cheerleader” and “Ms. Pied Piper of Poetry” very seriously! (Thanks, Pat Lewis!)

I have made many poetry friends in person and online in the past couple of years and I am particularly grateful to Heidi Mordhorst who first told me about the Kidlitosphere, and Janet, Sylvia and Laura Purdie Salas who, like Irene, have been welcoming and supportive along with so many other bloggers! I had been looking for this community for quite a while and am so glad to be here.

Thank YOU, Janet! So happy to hear about all the ways you promote the love of poetry. And we're all so glad to have you as a part of this year's Progressive Poem. Can't wait to see where the poem goes next!