Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse in Practice Books) [Paperback]

Judith Tannenbaum (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 76 pages
• Publisher: Stenhouse Publishers (March 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571103236
• ISBN-13: 978-1571103239
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #791,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Judith Tannenbaum has taught poetry in a wide variety of settings from primary school classrooms to maximum security prisons. She has chaired panels and served as keynote speaker at many conferences on prison, prison arts, and teaching arts, and taught in prisons in eight states. Judith currently serves as training coordinator for WritersCorps in San Francisco. You can read more about prison arts and teaching arts at her website. http://www.judithtannenbaum.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tapping into the active imaginations of our students, August 29, 2000

By 

Marna Wolak (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes: Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades (Stenhouse in Practice Books) (Paperback)

In the four years that I have been teaching Kinder, First and 2nd graders I have shared many poems with my students; we've memorized some, used them to learn skills to help us to become better readers, and we've collected them. Yet despite our weekly poems, I have not felt comfortable enough with my own knowledge and understanding of poetry to do much writing of poems. Fortunately a new book by poet and educator, Judith Tannenbaum, published by Stenhouse, has given me the confidence and guidance to do poetry writing with my students. In Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes, Writing Poetry in the Primary Grades, Judith shares a gift, which is her talent and expertise from many years of writing poetry and working with children. The book focuses on how we as teachers, can tap into the imaginations, creativity and observations of our children. It is an easy to follow guide, the lessons building on one another, with ideas and examples for writing group as well as individual poems. I have tried several of the lessons and one of the most important things that I have realized is that every child shines as a poet. I believe that children are naturally poetic. I highly recommend Teeth, Wiggly as Earthquakes and I feel that it has come at an especially crucial time. As we are more and more enveloped in a high-stakes testing hysteria I think that writing poetry with our students is one important way to keep the humanity and spark in our classrooms, in our schools and in our society as a whole.