Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School

This is an amazing book for teachers! It is full of mini lessons and ideas for poetry centers and ways to help children study poetry that are meaningful. Also, it comes from a very genuine approach to teach children the art of learning to appreciate writing through observations of themselves and also the external world. I loved the quote at the end which summarized almost exactly how I felt when finishing this book. The author states " the work of teaching poetry is the work of letting knowledge pass though our hearts: sharpening our outer and inner visions; writing and reading poetry; and helping to awaken poetry in ourselves and in all of our students. The more we let ourselves feel poetry, the easier it is to teach it. All of us are hungary to express our true selves, to be reunited with our hearts, and this is the real work of teaching and exploring poetry." I believe book gives you the tools and guidance needed to do this.

Thank you for fast delivery and perfect shaped product. Good condition.

I used this book as a basis for starting a poetry study in my classroom of 4th graders. The information and ideas that Ms. Heard gives are fantastic. It helps you create an poetry friendly environment, not just a few lessons. My students responded whole-heartedly to the suggested activities. The heart map activity was one of their favorites. She gives advice on how to help children write from their hearts and access true emotion (as opposed to writing about surface feelings,"I like my Nintendo"). This is the best poetry book for classroom instruction that I've found. Also, it is an easy and quick read.I saw her speak on this book at Regis University in June 2003, she is an engaging speaker and it made me love the book even more.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone embarking upon the task of teaching poetry to students. It is a quick read with lots of ideas that you can implement into your teaching repertoire immediately. I particularly liked the poetry center study ideas, the student poetry samples throughout the book (many in the student's own handwriting), the anthology of student poetry, as well as, the mentor texts listed in Appendix B. This book has been most inspirational. I can't wait to begin using the information presented to help my students to appreciate poetry and to become poets. Additionally, after reading this book I am anxious to begin my own personal journey into writing poetry. Lastly, I would also recommend that you read Ms. Heard's book "For the Good of the Earth and Sun."

Georgia Heard is wonderful. This is an older book and not as reader/user friendly as Finding the Heart of Nonfiction, but it is a good read just the same. Poetry is an often overlooked subject in the classroom but it is an important tool to help kids find their voice when writing. It is also a great avenue to use to help students express themselves outside the confines of traditionally taught forms of writing.

On time and condition better than expected

A friend who teaches poetry in grade school recommended this book to me, and I'm glad she did. Although it's aimed at teachers and contains examples of student poems, this book can still inspire an adult who wants to write poetry and/or learn about poetry. In very few words Heard manages to get to the emotional heart of things, poetry included, and show us how we can organize our thoughts and feelings in clusters of notes, then shape those into a poem. This is a short book, but it's packed with so much information that you'll want to read it more than once.

I am a middle school teacher who found this book full of useful ideas which I have incorporated into my poetry unit. I also have Ms. Heard's book, For the Good of the Earth and Sun,and I found this one (Heart)to contain more practical lessons on poetry mechanics. She describes the how-to's of poetic language, form, rhythm and rhyme, etc, which were easily adapted to fit my students' needs. I did have to do a lot of reading and typing (no ready-to-copy pages) but it was worth the effort. I esp loved the heart mapping and the six-room description process.

Libro bellissimo consigliato a tutti gli insegnanti che vogliono coinvolgere i propri alunni in un percorso poetico di scoperta della propria sensibilità