<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><FONT size=3>"As teachers today, everything we teach has to be turbo-charged with skills and the promise of advancing our students academically.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here's the cool thing:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>poetry can get you there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is inherently turbo-charged.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Poets distill a novel's worth of content and emotion in twenty lines.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The literary elements and devices you need to teach are all there, powerful and miniature as a Bonsai tree."<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P> <P style="TEXT-ALIGN: right; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-outline-level: 1" class=MsoNormal align=right><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><FONT size=3>-Paul B. Janeczko<I><o:p></o:p></I></FONT></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><FONT size=3>You'd like to teach poetry with confidence and passion, but let's face it: <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>poetry can be intimidating to both you and your students.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here is the book that takes the fear factor out of poetry and shows you how to use this powerful genre to spark student engagement <I>and </I>meet language arts requirements.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Award-winning poet Paul B. Janeczko is the master for creating anthologies for pre-teen and adolescent readers, and here he's chosen 20 contemporary and classic selections with step-by-step, detailed lessons for investigating each poem from the inside out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Kids learn to become <I>active</I> readers of poetry, using graphic organizer worksheets to help them jump over their fear and dive into personal, smart, analytical responses. There's no better genre than poetry for helping students gain perspective on their own identities and their own worlds, and Paul provides a space on each reproducible poem for private thoughts, questions, feelings, and ideas. Your students will discover what each poem means to them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><FONT size=3>The 20 poems in this collection were chosen for their thought-provoking topics; compelling real-world themes that lead to conversation and collaboration in middle school classrooms.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And by showing you how the poems and activities address the common core standards for English Language Arts (complete with a sample chart linking the poems to the standards), Paul provides a clear understanding of how you can "get there" using poetry.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><FONT size=3>You <I>can</I> cultivate a passion for poetry in your classroom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Take the journey with Paul B. Janeczko and grow in confidence with your students, meeting some standards along the way.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>