Poetry Pauses

Book excerpt: Unleash the power of poetry to boost all academic writing Student writing outcomes will transform if we invest more time in the genre we too often ignore: poetry!. With Poetry Pauses, Brett Vogelsinger asserts that all good writing takes us to deeper places, whether it’s narrative, argument, informational, or verse. So why not use the palm-size examples of a poem to develop students’ skills slowly and surely? This book helps you to: Teach techniques such as using sound, pattern, imagery, grammatical structures, and dialogue Select poems from the online companion website for read alouds and writing warm ups Reshape students’ attitude about verse with contemporary spoken-word and poems by today’s favorite poets Know how to tuck specific poems into any part of the writing process to build your students’ understanding of brainstorming, elaboration, paragraphing, argumentation, and more No matter what students go on to do in life, being able to reach a broad audience with language that engages the whole mind is a gift. The resources here and online will stoke students’ logic and creativity immeasurably.