The Rewards of Conscientious Word Collecting in Word Pockets

Poetry allows a child to feel a word’s shape and sound and as well examine the many layers of a word’s interpretive quality, giving a child the tools to explore and express her inner thoughts. A fifth grade poet of mine in an effort to explain his thinking process created a poem where he referenced his thoughts as a “jumbled mess of words” that were “fighting to get out by rearing, writhing, whipping, lashing, striking, and beating at his head until finally they seeped onto the paper.” 

The angst of creating an idea and the quieting relief when it is finally produced, is clearly stated with the apparent adroit use of this young poet’s word - tool. Poetry allows young writers to perfect their word tool. Each word they use counts.  Poetry stretches word awareness beyond learning appropriate referents and understanding its phonemic constructs. It offers an opportunity for word depth. To explore word depth, a child needs a purpose and poetry offers that purpose.