Listener In The Snow: The Practice And Teaching Of Poetry (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Mark Statman, New York, Gabriela Mistral (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this general book, elementally concerned with writing--specifically poetry--in the classroom, Statman draws from his experience of teaching elementary students for Teachers & Writers Collaborative and undergraduates at Eugene Lang College. The offerings here are activities organized by subject: time, family, silence, loss, travel, dreams, and contemporary society. Statman calls his approach "process- and labor-intensive, and highly collaborative." Oddly, the activities aren't dynamic, specific, or incremental, though revision is included as one of them. Perhaps this randomness is owing to the activities set up here being ancillary to an established classroom curriculum. All the same, what is here is slight compared with Rosemary Deen and Marie Ponsot's non-poetry specific books Common Sense (Greenwood, 1985), for students, and Beat Not the Poor Desk (Greenwood, 1982), for teachers, which are superior maps to good writing, with increments easily adapted to include poetry.
-Scott Hightower, Fordham Univ., New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Listener in the Snow is filled with new ideas, a great sense of the magic of teaching writing, and inspiring encouragement to teachers to reach beyond what they've already been doing." -- Herbert Kohl

"Mark Statman's Listener in the Snow is a rich and insightful book. I am encouraged to try Statman's ideas with my classes, and I am lifted by his vision of the sustenance poetry has to offer teacher and student alike." -- Sekou Sundiata

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Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Teachers & Writers Collaborative; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915924595
• ISBN-13: 978-0915924592
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #923,607 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listener In The Snow, February 7, 2000

By	Luisa Giugliano (Providence, Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

Mark Statmans, Listener in the Snow thoroughly interrogates the many strands of experience that inform both critical teaching and the creation of poetry. Statman meditatively charts his many years of teaching in a way that exposes not only his well composed lessons, but his motivations. This book raises questions that all good teachers face; how do we construct an environment that motivates children to achieve fluency with their own imaginations and the world that surrounds them? The anecdotal style of the book brings the reader into close proximity with the infinite possibilities of teaching literature in applicable, meaningful and transforming ways. I walked away from this book as I walk away from any good conversation, curious and reinvested in the children that brought me to teaching in the first place. I recommend this book to educators of all sorts, writers and to anyone who sees the world as a place to grow in.