Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School

Fans of the best-selling For the Good of the Earth and Sun will applaud this sequel by beloved author Georgia Heard - an inspiring and practical handbook that celebrates the natural power of poetry to teach the essential tools of all writing.

Awakening the Heart explores how to cultivate the poet in every elementary and middle school student - through well-drawn examples, detailed exercises, creative projects, and down-to-earth classroom teachings. Along the way, we learn how to: create environments that encourage children to express their innate sense of wonder; introduce poetry that will engage them; and help children make the transition from reading and talking to writing.

Best of all, Awakening the Heart is filled with luminous poems - by children, famous poets, and Heard herself.

Fans of the best-selling For the Good of the Earth and Sun will applaud this sequel by beloved author Georgia Heard - an inspiring and practical handbook that celebrates the natural power of poetry to teach the essential tools of all writing.

Awakening the Heart explores how to cultivate the poet in every elementary and middle school student - through well-drawn examples, detailed exercises, creative projects, and down-to-earth classroom teachings. Along the way, we learn how to: create environments that encourage children to express their innate sense of wonder; introduce poetry that will engage them; and help children make the transition from reading and talking to writing.

Best of all, Awakening the Heart is filled with luminous poems - by children, famous poets, and Heard herself.

Fans of the best-selling For the Good of the Earth and Sun will applaud this sequel by beloved author Georgia Heard - an inspiring and practical handbook that celebrates the natural power of poetry to teach the essential tools of all writing.

An acclaimed poet and writer, GEORGIA HEARD is the author of Writing Toward Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way (Heinemann, 1995), For the Good of the Earth and Sun: Teaching Poetry (Heinemann, 1989), and Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky, a book of poetry for young children. She has also published numerous essays on poetry and writing, and her poems have appeared in a variety of literary journals. She speaks to thousands of people every year at conferences throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and also travels extensively as a writing consultant and poet-in-residence for schools and universities. Heinemann has also produced The Words of True Poems (1998), an audiotape on which Heard reads a selection of her favorite poems, prefacing each poem with a brief introductory comment on its uses in the classroom. Ms. Heard's work has appeared in numerous magazines and professional journals and she has been interviewed on National Public Radio's "P

Introduction: Poetry, Like Bread, Is for Everyone

Making a Poetry Environment: A Place Where Your Life Really Matters

Reading Poetry: Poems Keep Singing to You All Your Life

Writing Poetry: Where Does Poetry Hide?

Crafting Poetry: Toolboxes

Sharpening Our Outer and Inner Visions: Poetry Projects

Epilogue: Yourself as the Key