Wishes, Lies and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry

Buy Wishes, Lies and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry: Kenneth Koch,

Buy Wishes, Lies and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry Now

Random House Inc (T)

Author: Kenneth Koch, £5.39
Unusual creative writing book
Review date: 2004-04-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

Lots of poets nowadays, on both sides of the Atlantic, go into schools-primary and secondary-to conduct workshops , in short, to encourage children to write poems and to realize how much fun it can be.In the 1960s this was virtually unheard of. But Kenneth Koch, New York poet, did it, going into a primary school in downtown New York to work with teachers and children interested in poetry, as well as teachers and children who were NOT interested in poetry. He thought it was a good idea, and as weeks turned into months, he knew it was a good idea.Children who had previously thought poetry was boring found that it could be great fun, very satisfying, even life-changing. They grew in confidence.Some of the children had poor literacy skills but still wrote great poems.Some of the children, from Hispanic backgrounds, knew little English, and wrote great poems.

Kenneth Koch in this book does not philosophize or theorize-he just shows us some of the exercises he did with the children.Simple, effective exercises.Getting them to write a poem in which each line begins "I Wish" worked very well because we all know that we have wishes. He got them to observe their environment but also to enjoy flights of fancy. In one of the exercises, he got them to use a few Spanish words interspersed with the English, in order to encourage enjoyment of new sounds, mysterious ones.This rather-surreal exercise worked very well AND improved the self-esteem of many of the Hispanic students, who tended to feel apologetic about their own background, rather than proud of it or intrigued by it.

I am a "grown-up" poet. Some of these exercises I have found very useful for myself.And Koch's enthusiasm shines through-the exercises are fun because HE finds them fun. The final chapter is aimed at teachers wanting to enthuse their students with poetry. And there is a selection of poems that were actually produced in the workshops-vital, interesting, startling poems.

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