Module 4
Poetry Across the Curriculum
Science Poetry
Bibliographic Citation
Alarcón, Francisco X. 2008. Animal Poems of the Iguazu. Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press. ISBN 978089239225.
Critical Analysis
Francisco X. Alarcón is an American poet and educator, who has created a splendid tribute to the endangered species of the Iguazu rainforest of South America. In this amazing book of poetry, Animal Poems of the Iguazu, Alarcón offers his readers a captivating journey into the world of the endangered species of the Iguazu rainforest. Each of Alarcon's verses are written in Spanish and and English on a one page spread.
Maya Christina Gonzalez compliments each poem in Alarcón's collection with stunning detailed illustrations that are achieved in mixed-media. Each breathtaking drawing is a masterpiece filled with vibrant textures and vivid colors of the Iguazu rainforest's inhabitants. Gonzalez’s intricate paper cut-outs offer intensity and flair to the species that occupy the rainforest.
Follow-Up Activity
Introduction
Before reading Animal Poems of the Iguazu, share background information on Francisco X. Alarcón's life. Discuss Alarcón's accomplishments and his passion for the endangered species of the Iguazu rainforest of South America. Second, provide breaks for the children to read and view informational text materials and websites regarding the threaten species that inhabit the rainforest. Throughout the week, read the English and the accompanied Spanish poems in Animal Poems of the Iguazu to the students and provide opportunities for them to turn and talk with a partner about the poems. Next, reread Butterflies and Las Mariposas to the kids. The children will work with a partner to research the different varieties of butterflies that inhabit the Iguazu rainforest and choose one butterfly for their research study. Students may utilize the computers in the classroom and the computer lab for their butterfly project. Finally, students will share their discoveries about their butterflies through poetry, song, dance, drawings, choral readings, or posters.
Highlighted Poem
Las Mariposas
By Francisco X. Alarcon
Somos las flores
Multicolores
Del aire
Butterflies
By Francisco X. Alarcon
We are
the multicolored
flowers of the air
Social Studies Poetry
Bibliographic Citation
Rappaport, Doreen. 2008. Lady Liberty A Biography. Illustrated by Matt Tavares. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press. ISBN 978-0-7636-2530-6.
Critical Analysis
Lady Liberty: A Biography written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Matt Tavares is a very powerful and informative verse novel about the conception of our most beloved and recognizable symbol of freedom, the Statue of Liberty. This verse novel is truly an incredible and spectacular story of the construction of Lady Liberty from conception to completion. The book begins with a vignette by Doreen Rappaport, who shares her grandfather's story as he escaped from Latvia and arrived in the United States. His powerful story is enhanced by absolutely stunning lifelike illustrations. The final section in the back of the book lists the statue's dimensions, notes from the poet and illustrator, a time line of events, and a list of resources where readers can receive additional information about the Statue of Liberty.
Follow-Up Activity
Introduction
Before reading the poem Gustave Eiffe, provide children with background information about the Stature of Liberty. First, read the poem Gustave Eiffe and allow students time to turn and talk with their peers about the poem. Then, tell students that they will work in groups to construct a classroom statue and create a poem about their sculpture. Next, provide children with opportunities to share their poems and statues with the class. Finally, place a voting box and ballots in a designated area of the classroom and offer students an opportunity to vote for their class statue and accompanied poem. After voting, place the statue and poem with the most votes on the top of the class display case and put the remaining pieces next to it. Mount all the poems on tagboard and display the student's creations in a centrally located area in the classroom.
Highlighted Poem
Gustave Eiffe
Structural Engineer
25 rue de Chazelles, Paris, France, 1883
By Doreen Rappaport
Lady Liberty is the talk of Paris,
Every day hundreds of people come
to watch her grow.
To keep Liberty upright is a challenge
as great as any I have faced in building bridges.
Her copper shell weighs more than 179,000 pounds
So I made her a skeleton-
a ninety-six foot-high iron tower
of beams and ribs
upon which to bolt her copper skin.
Iron rusts when it touches copper.
Some say my brilliance is having
the beams pass through fittings
so the iron does not fasten directly to the copper.
The fittings also let her copper skin move,
to expand and contract with the weather.
I listen to the people talk as they watch
her skin being riveted onto her skeleton.
She inspires them. She inspires me.
Liberte, egalite, and fraternite are in the air.
Biographical Poetry Written for Young People
Bibliographic Citation
Hemphill, Stephanie. 2007. Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-375-83799-9.
Critical Analysis
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath by Stephanie Hemphill is a series of concise poems highlighting major events in the life of Sylvia Plath. These events are presented from her birth in Boston in 1932 to her suicide, by her own hands, in London in 1963. Each poem is Hemphill's fictional scripted account of Plath's parents, grandparents, brother, friends, teachers, neighbors, doctors, boyfriends, lovers, and other acquaintances insights into the life of Sylvia Plath.
This verse novel is suited for young adults, due to Hemphill's graphic and detailed verses describing Plath's attempted suicides and death by suicide.
Hemphill's poems offers the reader a clear view into the often disturbing life of an extremely gifted and talented American poet.
This verse novel is suited for young adults, due to Hemphill's graphic and detailed verses describing Plath's attempted suicides and death by suicide.
Hemphill's poems offers the reader a clear view into the often disturbing life of an extremely gifted and talented American poet.
Follow-Up Activity
Introduction
Using novels in verse with students in high school is an excellent introduction to the study of traditional poetry. After reading the verse novel Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, provide breaks for students to dialogue with their peers regarding the novel and their personal experiences with fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams, love, rage, depression, and death. Introduce Hemphill's poem Excellence Cyrilly Abels, Managing Editor, Mademoiselle June 1953 to the students. Ask students to research the life and work of a well known poet. Provide opportunities for students to write free verse poems that expose a specific time period in the poet’s life. Tell students to make notes at the bottom of each poem as in Stephanie Hemphill's poems in
Highlighted Poem
Excellence
Cyrilly Abels, Managing Editor, Mademoiselle
June 1953
Impeccable.
Error free. On time.
I select Sylvia to be
my managing guess editor,
I know
she can be pushed
to my standards.
Unlike the other girls
she rigors, a crossword
Puzzler
who fills in all the blanks
correctly in blue ink,
no erasures. She sits
at her desk, changing
typewriter ribbons
after hours. Her Achilles’
heel that box of Kleenex
and those brown watery eyes,
but she holds her tears
around me.
I will suffer
none of these college girls
blubbering or blundering.
They are privileged,
must earn
their A+ status with me.
My hemline’s exact,
cuticles clipped,
hair tucked smartly
behind my ears.
This magazine
is us. We must present.
I instill this in Sylvia.
She regards me
with glass eye.
and nods agreement.
She is accustomed
to a woman’s high
expectations, to do
well by the family name.
She will make Plath
synonymous with greatness.
To be average
is to hibernate-
a lair neither I nor my staff
dare enter.
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