I saw Georgia Heard in person earlier this year. I had picked up Awakening the Heart and had started to read it before finding out that this was her first book on teaching poetry so I picked up a copy and read it before continuing Awakening.

Heard gives a lot of great ideas on how to introduce poetry to students. She starts with immersion in poetry and then goes into the editing process with suggestions for conferences with the students in writing workshop. She mostly works with free verse but there is a section on forms near the end.

Awakening seems to be more specific but built on the foundation of this book, so I am glad I backtracked and read it. I am hoping to use suggestions from here in my future classroom. There are lots of great student examples of poetry in this books as well.

I adore anything Georgia writes.....it's all so wonderful & applicable to any grade level or curricula area...

This is an older book, but Georgia Heard's philosophy still holds up. I think I need to buy this book.

I had the opportunity to meet GH at a workshop this last summer and I use some of her techniques in my class with 6th graders---wonderfully received(:

i read this in preparation for teaching creative writing to third graders :) this was a very inspiring read and reminded me of how we don't need to overcomplicate the writing process

This is a great book for teachers about using poetry with children from a great poet and teacher, Georgia Heard.

This is a great book for two reasons.

First, more obviously, it inspires a person to bring poetry into the lives of children. It demonstrates in all kinds of ways that poetry is a language spoken naturally by childhood. Heard makes "teaching poetry" look easy, and this is an encouragement for the reader. The focus throughout the book is on the children and their ideas rather than technical details or rules. In fact, the basic message about the art is that rules are secondary to meaningful expression.

Second, and this is extremely important to point out, For the Good of the Earth and Sun inspires the reader to write his own poetry: to dig poems and poetry deeply. This definitely worked on me. The adult who shares poetry most effectively with children is an adult who has his own relationship with the art form, who lives his own life as a poet.

Maybe that's more than two reasons. So be it. A valuable book.

I purchased this back when I taught a gifted poetry class. I believe I got a few ideas from this, but it's been a long time since I've made any use of it.

The book is replete with student examples.

I got a few good take-away ideas from this book:

On pp. 50-51:
I often asked students how their poems made them feel, and I'd receive a small, quick answer -- "Good" or "Fine." But then what?
One question I ask instead is, "Does the poem make your heart beat faster, or not?" Not all poems have to have this effect, but we should feel more than just, "So what?" The Japanese say that after hearing a poem we should feel the "ahness" of poetry; we should feel something. Sometimes I suggest that students measure what they have in their hearts against what's down on the paper; if the two are far apart, there's still work to do. Sometimes they find the "So what?" parts and try to rewrite them with more feeling.

On p. 90
Unfortunately, the two forms most teachers know and teach are haiku and cinquain. The haiku at least is certainly a legitimate form, but there are so many other possibilities. It's like serving the same two foods over and over; eventually students begin to believe this is what all food tastes like.