The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School

by Sylvia M. Vardell, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (contributor), Janet Wong

Meet the Texas Poetry TEKS with Easy “Take 5” Poetry The Poetry Friday Anthology is a series for K-5 and Middle School (6-8) designed to help teachers teach the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for the English Language Arts (ELA). “Take 5” teaching tips for each poem provide step-by-step poetry lessons that address curriculum requirements. The poems in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (PFAMS) include examples of many techniques, forms, and elements—rhyme, repetition, and rhythm; metaphor and simile; personification; onomatopoeia; hyperbole; dramatic irony; and different forms (haiku, ghazal, sonnet, reverso, analogies, intravista, and one-worders by Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis). “Find a place for this book on your desk since you’ll be turning to it time and time again. You may even want two copies, one for your students and one for your own use.” (review of The Poetry Friday Anthology K-5 Edition in IRA’s Reading Today) What Is Poetry Friday? Much like “casual Friday” in the corporate world, there is a perception in the world of literature that on Fridays we should relax a bit and take a moment for something special. The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (PFAMS) brings the successful and popular Poetry Friday concept into your classroom and makes it easy for you to take five minutes every Friday to share a poem. Explore a poem, connecting it with young people’s lives and capitalizing on a teachable moment. Pausing to share a poem—and reinforce a language skill—on Poetry Friday is a simple and effective way to infuse poetry into your current teaching practice. What Will You Find in the Poetry Friday Anthology? The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (PFAMS) offers a set of 36 poems (a poem-a-week for the 9 months of the typical school year) for each grade level. This is the Middle School (grades 6-8) Texas TEKS edition; there is also a Middle School (6-8) Common Core State Standards (CCSS) edition (and elementary school editions for K-5). This book provides support for educators and parents who might be unfamiliar with today’s poetry for young people and might need guidance in how to begin. For each poem you share, we suggest another poem from the book that is related in some way. Of course you can feel free to share any and all of the poems with students at any time, in any order, and in any way. The 110 poems in this book represent the work of 71 of the best poets who are writing for young people today. Those poets Joy Acey, Jeannine Atkins, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Robyn Hood Black, Calef Brown, Joseph Bruchac, Jen Bryant, Leslie Bulion, Stephanie Calmenson, Deborah Chandra, Kate Coombs, Cynthia Cotten, Kristy Dempsey, Margarita Engle, Betsy Franco, Carole Gerber, Charles Ghigna, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Lorie Ann Grover, Monica Gunning, Mary Lee Hahn, Avis Harley, David L. Harrison, Terry Webb Harshman, Juanita Havill, Georgia Heard, Stephanie Hemphill, Sara Holbrook, Carol-Ann Hoyte, Patricia Hubbell, Jacqueline Jules, X.J. Kennedy, Linda Kulp, Julie Larios, Irene Latham, Renée M. LaTulippe, Gail Carson Levine, Debbie Levy, J. Patrick Lewis, George Ella Lyon, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Heidi Mordhorst, Marilyn Nelson, Lesléa Newman, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ann Whitford Paul, Jack Prelutsky, Mary Quattlebaum, Heidi Bee Roemer, Michael J. Rosen, Deborah Ruddell, Laura Purdie Salas, Michael Salinger, Ted Scheu, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Ken Slesarik, Sonya Sones, Eileen Spinelli, Holly Thompson, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee Wardlaw, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Robert Weinstock, Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf, Virginia Euwer Wolff, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen. See PFAMS.Blogspot.com for more info, including "poem movies" and additional curriculum connections.

Genres: Poetry, Teaching, School

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Sylvia Vardell is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University and teaches courses in literature for children and young adults. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 published articles, more than 25 book chapters and given more than 150 presentations at national and international conferences.


She served as co-editor of the international journal, BOOKBIRD and on several national award committees including the ALA Caldecott Award, Legacy Award, the NCTE Orbis Pictus Award for nonfiction, and the NCTE Award for Poetry. She has received grants from the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, NCTE, the ALAN Foundation, the Texas Library Association, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has also taught at the University of Zimbabwe in Africa as a Fulbright scholar. She is the 2014 recipient of the Scholastic Library Publishing Award. In her spare time, she loves to travel, shop, all things Star Wars, and sees 100 movies a year.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s not easy writing about an anthology, and even harder to write about a very good one. It’s difficult to choose what to share from such marvelous material. Plus, as I first scanned the book, I saw many familiar names of those who write blogs, especially connecting through Poetry Friday, and I want to tell about them all! I was thrilled to win my copy because I have the one for younger students, and have shared it and shared it with those I work with, plus used it myself-often.
If you’re not familiar with these two anthologies, Sylvia and Janet have chosen poems of interest to 6th, 7th and 8th grade students, and the facing page is “Take Five”, full of great tips for teaching, how to make the poem come alive, how to connect and write other poetry, and often, further resources, like other anthologies that share the particular poem’s characteristics. The opening concerns the Common Core and explains how the book can be assessed for them, plus gives more valuable information. Poems I know I’ll use already are First Week of School by Janet Wong, Names by Julie Larios, and a poem titled Cousins by Charles Waters. Renee La Tulippe writes about These Hands and Laura Purdie Salas has a poem titled Her Room. As I said, hard to choose. There are more resources at the back of the book, with lists of other poetry books, poetry terms, e-resources, and an index. There are serious poems as well as poems all about school, and ones full of word play and whimsy, terrific mentor texts, one after one.
How could one resist the following lines from Your Appendix Is A Mystery, by Allan Wolf: “Where large and small intestines meet/the sly appendix lurks.” The anthology is a resource that will give teachers and students so much pleasure for a long, long time!

[The Reading Countess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School quite by accident at this year's IRA conference at an unassuming little booth where one of my favorite authors, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, was signing her newest book. What a find this was.

Divided into three middle school grade levels (6-8), Poetry Friday Anthology gives the harried teacher a poem a week, TEKS alignment (Texas' curriculum answer to the Common Core), teaching points and synthesis with other poetry contained within the collection. Chock full of easily accessible poetry that is written by current authors, the collection of poems is a veritable treasure trove. My copy is already neatly flagged with handy dandy mini post-it notes alerting me to main teaching points and highlighted for my convenience at the beginning of each grade level.

The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School reminds me of Nancie Atwell's Naming the World. I'm glad to have another rich resource much like expert Atwell's in design to use and expect this copy to be "well loved" very soon.

HIGHLY recommended.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every so often, my district requires teachers to use books for curriculum which our district didn't buy. This is just such a book. It's in our curriculum but not on our campus so I bought a copy off of Amazon to see what exactly I'm supposed to be implementing every Friday.

Wow! What a book! The last book which inspired me this much was Harvey Daniels's Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles. My classes are multi-grades (6th-8th) so I may jump around a bit but the Take 5 are inspirational. Not all five ideas suit my teaching style but for every poem at least one lesson fit me and my classes.

I'm now looking forward to implementing poetry. But I still wonder why my district didn't provide the book to all campuses.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's the scoop: If you see the names of Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong on any book related to poetry in any way, don't hesitate to buy the book. That's particularly true in the case of this title, a wonderful resource for language arts teachers. Like its predecessor, a volume devoted to poetry for the younger set, it's filled with 108 [well, really, 110, since there are two bonsu poems at the beginning at the end of the book] original poems, 36 for each middle grade level, sixth through eighth, alongside tips for how to recite and extend each poem as well as how to connect it to the Common Core State Standards. The authors include a series of Take 5! suggestions on the left-hand side of each page and a poem on the facing right-hand page. Even the most reserved teacher will find tips on how to perform poetry here as well as finding excellent poems from today's poets to share with their students. This book is worth every penny it costs, and I will confess that my copy of the book is filled with post-its marking several poems that I plan to share with my students.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

great teacher resource

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so grateful for this comprehensive anthology. I particularly appreciated the selections by Mary Lee Hahn.

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great source to pair poetry with non-fiction and fiction pieces. It's hard to find age appropriate poetry for middle school. This anthology does a good job for age appropriate and relevant pieces.