Poems for Building Reading Skills Level 4 (The Poet and the Professor)

I was fortunate enough to take some workshops with Tim Rasinski! Any books he writes are always GREAT!!! This is yet another one of those books. The poems are a great way to build fluency. You can tie in skills from these poems into your curriculum. There is a great scope and sequence chart at the beginning that makes this easy. Also not only a great resource for fluency and phonics, but this also includes comprehension skills for the poems. Comprehension of poetry is to often overlooked in most basal texts yet often shows up on state tests. This is a great resource.

I use this in conjunction with my PALS partners. Partners get together for a short period of time and practice the poem of the day. After practice they recite it together in front of the rest of the class. This has helped build confidence in speaking in front of the class. I love the DVD/audio that came with it and have been able to turn it into a whiteboard presentation for the class using an audio button that also helps students understand the pace/beat of each poem.

These books made learning Poetry amazingly fun! Wish there were more.

This book is great for exposing older students to more poetry. Many students struggle with this concept and it helps develop the reading skills needed.

I've used this book and the others in the Poet and Professor series. Students love learning the poems (they feel real success as they learn to read, and eventually perform, these delightful texts) and on top of that they are learning essential reading skills and strategies. What a great way to teach reading -- to ALL children.