An overview of the newly released Poetry Issue of The Missouri Reader by Dr. Sam Bommarito
The Missouri Reader has been around for over 40 years. It started as a “paper journal.” Now, we publish digitally. We have two issues each year. We are peer-reviewed, and over the years, our editorial board has included many highly qualified people (see the sidebar on the Table of Contents page of the journal). We publish many articles by well-known experts in the reading field. However, we also encourage teachers to publish, especially action research, book reviews, and app reviews. The last page of each issue explains how to submit an article for review. We are an official publication of the Missouri Literacy Association. Missouri Literacy Association is an ILA affiliate.
The newest issue of The Missouri Reader is out. Its focus is on the use of poetry in the teaching of reading. This issue joins two previous issues around that topic. The materials from the three issues will give teachers of all grades many ideas and effective FREE materials to work with.
A few reminders- The poetry issues were originally the brainchild of David Harrison. David is the Missouri poet laureate. Over the past few years, he has worked closely with folks like Tim Rasinski and George Heard. See the interview in the journal for details about that. He has written content-area poems that have been included in several recent publications co-authored with Rasinski and others.
One of the things to be aware of is that the effect sizes of teaching fluency are greater than effect sizes of teaching systematic phonics. Hansford reported on that in a paper found on Rasinski’s website LINK.
I mention this research not to suggest we replace systematic phonics with fluency instruction, I advocate using both. However, I don’t think that the tremendous impact fluency instruction can have on reading is as widely known as it should be. Please spread the word. Using poems provides the kind of instruction and practice students of all ages need to improve their fluency. Rasinski has said many times that fluency is the bridge to comprehension. It is an important, powerful bridge. The information from these special issues will help teachers include that bridge in their overall instruction.
Let’s have a look at the newest issue. Anyone with the following link can read the current issue for free; no special software is needed:
This issue has several articles that talk about the nuts and bolts of using poetry to TEACH fluency. Kershaw & Gregory give us an overview of why poetry is effective. Amos and Marcy’s The Poet’s Dozen, gives readers information on a dozen novels that provide great resources for teaching poetry. Altier’s article explains how students can create their own content area poems. Harrsion and Hurd give the story of how the Fluency Development Lesson evolved from a single day lesson to a semester long complete set of daily lessons.
Poems have the advantage of packing a lot of meaning into relatively short texts. Add to that the teaching move of creating content area themed poems and teachers will find they have a powerful set of materials to teach from. Don’t forget to explore the previous two poetry issues for more ideas and materials. LINK, LINK. We want to thank all the various authors who have contributed to these issues.
Part of our way of distributing The Missouri Reader is using what we call “word of cyberspace.” We ask our readers to share the links to the magazine with other readers. As a result, we are now read all around the world. So, if you like what you see in these issues, please share the links. They’re all free. THANKS!
So, until next week, Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2024 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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