Classroom Connections with Marilyn Singer

It's a Two-for-Tuesday doubleheader!

TODAY'S READS

Have You Heard About Lady Bird?:
Poems About Our First Ladies

Marilyn Singer, Author
Nancy Carpenter, Illustrator

Disney-Hyperion (October 16, 2018)
ISBN: 978-1484726600

For ages 6-11, but older kids and adults like it, too.

Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Barnes & Noble
Purchase via Indiebound.org



SYNOPSIS 

A book of poems about all of the First Ladies, it includes prose back matter, which elaborates on these fascinating women.

I'm the Big One Now!:
Poems about Growing Up

Marilyn Singer, Author
Jana Christy, Illustrator

Wordsong (March 5, 2019)
ISBN: 978-1629791692

For 4-8 year olds.

Purchase at Amazon.com
Purchase at Barnes & Noble
Purchase via Indiebound.org



SYNOPSIS

A book of poems that celebrate growing up and milestones both large and small in a young person's life, such as learning how to whistle, riding the school bus alone, and becoming an older sibling.


A LOOK INSIDE

Click on images to enlarge.

Text copyright © 2018 by Marilyn Singer. Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Nancy Carpenter.
From HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT LADY BIRD?: POEMS ABOUT OUR FIRST LADIES (Disney-Hyperion).

Text copyright © 2019 by Marilyn Singer. Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Jana Christy.
From I’M THE BIG ONE NOW!: POEMS ABOUT GROWING UP (Wordsong).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Read Marilyn Singer's spotlight interview
on Today's Little Ditty HERE.

Winner of the 2015 Award for Excellence in Poetry, Marilyn Singer is the author of over one hundred books,  including six featuring young ballet student, Tallulah, and many poetry collections, such as Mirror Mirror (Dial/Penguin) for which she created the “reverso” form.  Her latest books are Have You Heard about Lady Bird?: Poems about Our First Ladies (Disney-Hyperion); I’m the Big One Now!: Poems about Growing Up (Boyds Mills); Hair! (Millbrook/Lerner); Who Are You Calling Weird? (Words and Pictures/Quarto); and Float, Flutter (Simon Spotlight). Coming out this fall: Who Named Their Pony Macaroni? (Disney-Hyperion); Gulp, Gobble (Simon Spotlight); and Wild in the Streets (Words and Pictures/Quarto). She co-hosts the Poetry Blast, which features children’s poets reading their work at ALA and other conferences. Avid bird-watchers and swing dancers, Marilyn and her husband live in Brooklyn, NY and Washington, CT with several pets.

CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS

Why is bringing poetry into the classroom important?

I believe that when we’re kids, we all like poetry—rhymes and songs and language that is sparkling and evocative. Good poetry surprises and enlightens. It sticks with us and moves us in ways that prose can’t (which is not a put-down of prose; it has to do with the compactness, imagery, words, and syntax that poetry uses). It helps with language development, with seeing things through different perspectives, with teaching us to listen, and, frankly, with opening our hearts. We lose the love of poetry through lack of practice and exposure and through over-analysis or disdain by the adults we know.

Teachers and parents can help us keep that love for poetry by offering it regularly and by showing their own affection for the genre. I find that some teachers (and parents, too) are scared of poetry. They think it’s high-falutin’ and difficult to understand.  I like to point out to them that there are many kinds of poetry and that there’s bound to be a type or even just a poem or two out there that will speak to you.

During a talk I gave to elementary school kids, one boy said he liked poetry because it was about feelings and he could express emotions in and through it. If that isn’t important, I don’t know what is!

Can you recount a specific instance of when poetry impacted a student or group of students in a positive way?

Well, I think I just gave an example above. Other instances come to mind, as well. I’ve given several Skype talks about my reversos, which are featured in Mirror Mirror, Follow Follow, and Echo Echo, all illustrated by Josée Masse and published by Dial/Penguin. A reverso is a poem with two halves—the second half reverses the lines of the first, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization, and it must say something different from the first half. The form seems to fascinate kids and adults alike. In classes I’ve spoken to, students generally write their own and read them to me. The satisfaction they get out of completing this difficult task—this literary game—is a delight to behold.

I also spoke to a poetry club at an elementary school and read a bunch of poems I’d written about frogs to show how a subject could spawn (pun intended) so many different types of poems and ideas about these amphibians. The kids gave me a big round of finger snaps, then read some of their work. A school with a poetry club? How fantastic is that!

How might your book be incorporated into an educational curriculum?

I think that a lot of my books can be incorporated into an educational curriculum. Teachers can use Rutherford B., Who Was He?: Poems about Our Presidents (illustrated by John Hendrix) and Have You Heard about Lady Bird?: Poems about Our First Ladies (illustrated by Nancy Carpenter), both published by Disney-Hyperion, to discuss history and to illustrate how prose and poetry can handle biography differently. 

For units on cultural diversity, Feel the Beat!: Dance Poems that Zing from Salsa to Swing! (Dial, illustrated by Kristi Valiant) and Every Month Is a New Year (Lee & Low, illustrated by Susan L. Roth) are good fits. My books for younger kids, such as A Stick Is an Excellent Thing (Clarion, illustrated by LeUyen Phan) and I’m the Big One Now (Boyds Mills/Wordsong, illustrated by Jana Christy), can help kids explore play and important, sometimes challenging, events in their lives and encourage them to write their own poems about these things. 

Can you suggest a specific classroom exercise related to each of your books?

For Have You Heard about Lady Bird?: have your class campaign for, then vote for favorite First Lady. 

For I'm the Big One Now: ask students to bring in photos, drawings, poems, or other material illustrating a special moment when they were younger—riding a bike, holding a new sibling, taking a trip, etc.

What is a simple, practical tip for teachers when it comes to incorporating poetry in the classroom?

Most importantly, teachers and students should get to know the many poetry books out there, and not just a few familiar ones. They should find poems they love, have fun with them, and definitely read them aloud. Poetry is an oral/aural form and it’s meant to be heard. They can stage performances and listen to audio books (Actor Joe Morton and I did audio books of all three reverso volumes for Live Oak Media, and there are many other wonderful audio books of poetry out there). And they should check out the article I wrote for School Library Journal about making poetry relevant and engaging:  http://marilynsinger.net/onwriting/knock-poetry-off-the-pedestal-its-time-to-make-poems-a-part-of-childrens-everyday-lives/. Lots of useful stuff there!

One favorite tip from the above article is this one: How about making poetry trading cards? It’s another way to fall in love with poems and the poets who write them. Plus, it’s easy to do. Start by asking your students to find a poem they like in an anthology. Then have them find a book written by the same poet and pick out another poem that appeals to them. Next, kids can copy their poems on blank cards and illustrate these with their own drawings or pictures from old magazines. Finally, it’s time to trade. If students don’t like the poems they receive, they can keep trading for another one.


CONNECT WITH MARILYN SINGER

Website: www.marilynsinger.net

Look for Who Named Their Pony Macaroni?: Poems about Pets in the White House (Disney-Hyperion), illustrated by Ryan McAmis, this fall!

Many thanks to Marilyn for participating in our Classroom Connections series for National Poetry Month, and to Hyperion and Wordsong for providing me with copies of Have You Heard About Lady Bird? and I'm the Big One Now! for two randomly selected TLD readers!

To enter, leave a comment below or send an email with the subject "Lady Bird Giveaway" and/or the subject "Big One Giveaway" to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com by Tuesday, April 30, 2019. Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 2nd, so be sure to check back to see if you've won!

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Check out the other Classroom Connections posts and giveaways on offer this month by clicking the names below!

• Eric Ode (Otters, Snails and Tadpole Tails: Poems from the Wetlands)
• Kip Wilson (White Rose) 
• Carole Boston Weatherford (The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop)
• Skila Brown (Clackety Track: Poems About Trains) 
• Janet Wong (A Suitcase of Seaweed & MORE) 
• Debbie Levy (This Promise of Change: One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality)
• Susannah Buhrman-Deever (Predator and Prey: A Conversation in Verse) 
• Charles Ghigna (The Night the Forest Came to Town)
• Margaret Simon (Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape)  
• Patrice Vecchione (Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience)
• Leslie Bulion (Superlative Birds)

Digital art © 2018 by Miranda Barnes,
based on a line from "Ghazal" by Tracy K. Smith.

TO FOLLOW:

The best way to keep up with the Classroom Connections series is by subscribing to Today's Little Ditty via email, which you can do in the sidebar. I will also be announcing the posts on social media. Like me on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter (also in the sidebar) to stay informed that way. Catch up with Classroom Connections posts you may have missed by clicking on the "It's time to INSPIRE" icon in the sidebar, or by visiting my "Poetry in the Classroom" board on Pinterest.