Learn Then Burn Teacher Guide and Workbook Companion

Learn Then Burn Teacher Guide and Workbook Companion

Learn Then Burn Teacher Guide and Workbook Companion

Learn Then Burn Teacher Guide and Workbook Companion

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Overview

"It is vital for educators to discover new ways to get students wanting to read and write poetry. These exercises are not intimidating, they are the equivalent of having a really rad English teacher who wears tweed suits and sports "read more" knuckle tattoos." -Rachel McKibbens, "Pink Elephants" "This collection provides teachers with a scaffolding for their lessons by offering questions, examples, and writing prompts. This will be a valuable asset in the classrooms of new and veteran teachers alike." -Molly Meacham, teacher Hello teachers! We know you work hard. Besides ninjas, you have the hardest job in the world. Between the teaching, the testing, the grading, and the nurturing it's difficult to seek out new materials for your classroom. We are here to help. As poets and teachers, we know the power of the spoken word in the classroom. All you have to do is attend a youth slam or find a clip of one online and you will see the positive impact modern poetry has on our young people. It is able to engage students from any background in a way that classical poetry simply cannot touch. A complaint we've heard from many teachers is that they would love to use spoken word in their classrooms but they are afraid of getting in trouble with rough language and themes. So behold! We asked some of the best contemporary spoken word and slam poets to give us poems that would be appropriate for the classroom.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781935904014
Publisher: Write Bloody Publishing
Publication date: 05/01/2010
Pages: 150
Product dimensions: 8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Tim Stafford is a poet and public school teacher from Chicago.

Read an Excerpt

Phone Wires
by Nova Venerable

Prison guards maced my father when I was 12.
He fell asleep on his back that night,
gas braiding down his throat
like rain on power lines
I wonder if he remembers
he woke up screaming for me
that I walked him to the bathroom,
cleaned his eyes with cold water
and put him back to bed.

My mother used to tell me
that my father was disgusting
that I didn't have to see him if I
didn't want to.
"Tell the cops he's physically, emotionally
and psychologically abusive"
like I knew what that meant
when I was eleven.

I would wake my father up every night
at 9:00 and braid his hair.
Over, Under, Over, Under
The grease seeped
from his scalp and kept
his dandruff suffocating
under my fingernails.
"Nova girl, you're gonna come see me more right?
You're gonna tell the judge that you wanna see me just
as much as your mother?"
His eyes sagged,
a job,
pent up under each one.

"Nova, just tell him you don't wanna see him anymore."
My mother dialed his number
and stayed on the line,
made sure that I left my father
hung up on other end of chords,
ending my father and I like phone calls.
She taught me to break my father's heart
with wires,
my Baba and I haven't spoken since I was 12.

My father's left eye sagged more than his right,
night time prison guard stretched
out his face.
He risked his life every for his children
every time he drove to Joliet.
His right eye was darker,
kept teaching at Chicago Public Schools
cramped in the wrinkles of his skin,
promise he would teach
them like he did his children.
Over, Under, Over, Under

After I hung up the phone
mom asked me
if it was really
all that hard
to break my father's heart
and at 17 I can finally answer her question.

I can tell her
I know why our relationship is choking
I left father for mother
and I wake up cold,
dreaming about my Baba
waiting to tell him that I have his eyes.
Want to know if he wonders which college his baby girl is going to.

I can tell her that I hate talking on the phone now
I wish I could erase calls from five years ago
so I wouldn't have lied when I told my father
"Yes, Daddy, I'm gonna come see you more."

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