Kenn Nesbitt talks about his website, Poetry4Kids.com and its many different resources for teachers: An Interview by Dr. Sam Bommarito
My readers know that I am very interested in finding ways to help all readers improve both fluency and comprehension. Singing and repeated readings LINK, fluency training LINK and use of short texts like poetry LINK are surefire ways to help your kids become better readers. Poems are often thought-provoking and entertaining. They are also meaning rich. So, if you are looking for short, meaning-rich texts for your lessons, look no further than poems. As you will discover in his biography below, Kenn Nesbett is a well-known, well-published poetry writer. He writes for kids. In 2013, the Poetry Foundation selected him as the Children’s Poet Laureate LINK,. He held that position from 2013 until 2015. Tim Rasinski and others often use and refer to his poems. His website provides a treasure trove of resources that not only includes poetry for children of all ages but also has resources and lesson plans that can help teachers to meet their students’ needs in a variety of ways. Let’s take a brief look at Kenn’s biography.
The links in the screen capture above will be active if you go to the webpage. Here is a link to the bio on the webpage LINK
Here are the timed stamped talking points for the interview (so, you can go to the sections that interest you the most first)
Here is a link to the U-Tube Interview:
Here is the link to Kenn’s website: www.poetry4kids.com
Here are links to some of the web pages Kenn mentioned in the interview. I’m sure you’ll find them useful as a source for poems, writing lessons and writing your own rhyming poems.
Poems: https://poetry4kids.com/poems/
Lessons: https://poetry4kids.com/lessons/poetry-writing-lessons/
Rhyming Dictionary: https://poetry4kids.com/rhymes/
If you would like to help Kenn with what he is doing, you can have an ad-free experience on the website, get free goodies, and have access to the members-only pages of his website. You can join here :
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kennnesbitt/membership
School visit from Kenn:
You can also use the link above to join using the “super member” option. That option is $25 a month and gives you a free online school visit from Kenn. Those visits usually cost $325.
Link to The Missouri Reader Poetry issue LINK
Final Thoughts & a peek at upcoming blogs:
As I said in the introduction, poetry can be used to help children of all ages. Kenn has used his programming expertise to create these incredible resources for students and teachers. I use his site in my current teaching. I joined his site as a supporting member in order to gain access to the members-only pages. Those pages make a good thing even better. Be sure to spend some time this week visiting his site and exploring it. You won’t be sorry that you did.
I have several important blogs in the works. Next week, I will be interviewing Dr. Jan Wasowicz. She’ll be telling us about SPELLtalk and her model for teaching reading. I’m also meeting next week with P.D. Pearson to set up what we will discuss in his upcoming interview. I’ll also be doing a blog about my upcoming webinar. Pioneer Valley Books sponsors it. The name of it is Transformative Reading Strategies. I will be talking to a panel of experts that includes Tim Rasinski, Penny Slater and Kathy Roe. A link will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please have a look at what Penny & Kathy had to say about their innovative adaptations of Tim’s fluency work LINK. So, as we get started in this new school year, there’s lots going on. Until next week, this is Dr. Sam signing off.
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the center taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2023 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s views and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.
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