Welcome to Poetryland by Shelley Savren

Author:Shelley Savren [Savren, Shelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2016-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

Magic Poetry Pencils and Mistake Stickers—“Special Needs Students”

I remember the shadow.

—Joey, first grade, special education

“Trees Green around the Shed,” by Shelley Savren

Six-year-old Lynda sits

cross-legged in the poetry circle.

She won’t talk, the teacher confides,

elective mute.

She’s a listener.

Stories and poems speak

in her head and jumble on the page.

My hideout I love.

Trees green around the shed.

My friend.

The aide is quick

with her red felt pen fixing words.

In the poetry circle

now it’s Lynda’s turn to read.

The class chants:

Read your poem, please.

She hesitates, then straightens,

bowing her head into the page

as whispers emerge from her throat

and push the words.

I love my hideout.

It is my friend.

It is at my shed.

Today, many kids with special needs are mainstreamed into regular classrooms with an aide assigned to them; however, sometimes, because of the special need, it’s necessary to place students into special education classrooms. Problems arise when these students are seen as “different.” But every kid is “different,” is “special,” and can write poetry. So first, get rid of the label. It’s important to give each student what she or he needs, which usually comes down to “attention.”

Teaching poetry writing to students with special needs can include all ages and grade levels, from kindergarten through college, some with very unique situations, ranging from being deaf or blind or physically disabled to being developmentally disabled, including autistic or slow learners, for example.

Many of the students who are placed in special-education classrooms or who have any kind of learning disability also have low self-esteem. They often act out when they can’t understand what the teacher is teaching and are embarrassed about it. Some might be average learners but live with difficult or abusive situations at home, or their needs are not being met at home and then they act out in school. Alicia, a second-grader, wrote a poem titled “Alone in My House”:

I worry that

I’m going to die

because people are shooting a gun

in my neighborhood

looking for somebody.

In regular classrooms, sometimes a teacher, who may have tried a variety of solutions but has not been able to stop the disruption, moves the student’s seat into the corner or to the end of a row or the front of the classroom, where the teacher can give that student the attention he or she needs and where the student can disturb fewer students.

Sometimes the student feels like he or she is being labeled “bad” but would rather be seen as a “troublemaker” than a “dummy” any day. But guess what? This student loves poetry because he or she gets kudos from the teacher and from the visiting poet for writing anything.

A lot of these students in the corner don’t think they can write, when in fact, they can. The teacher or the visiting poet squats at their sides and writes what they say verbatim, skipping spaces, so they can copy the words right under what they dictated. It’s amazing what students have inside of them when they don’t feel inhibited by their writing skills. They still have vivid imaginations, hurt feelings, and important experiences to share.

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