The Forms of Things Unknown: Teaching Poetry Writing to Teens and Adults

by Shelley Savren

Overview

A college student writes: “These words I write/ open their mouths wide/ screaming the most intimate secrets.”

An inmate in a maximum-security men’s prison writes: “Within my writing, I am able to break down my prison walls and escape, leave the gangster façade behind.”

The Forms of Things Unknown: Teaching Poetry Writing to Teens and Adults draws from Shelley Savren’s forty years of teaching poetry writing to a diverse array of students, from teens with mental health issues to seniors to adults with developmental disabilities, and in a wide variety of settings, which include middle schools, high schools, colleges, juvenile halls, women’s centers, and a men’s prison.

Each chapter includes an original poem from Savren, heartfelt stories, and lesson plans that introduce poetic concepts through model poems by professionals, open-ended writing assignments, methods for sharing and critiquing, and student poems. Designed for use in a classroom or community setting, this book features forty-one lesson plans and nineteen more poetry-writing workshop ideas and provides guidance and inspiration for teaching poetry writing to teens and adults.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475827934
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/12/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	196
Sales rank:	769,180
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Shelley Savren is the author of two poetry books, The Common Fire (Red Hen Press 2004) and The Wild Shine of Oranges (Tebot Bach Press 2013), and Welcome to Poetryland: Teaching Poetry Writing to Young Children (Rowman & Littlefield 2016). She is an English professor emeritus at Oxnard College and has been teaching poetry writing for the past forty years. Visit her at www.shelleysavren.com.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Getting Serious about Poems: Middle School and High School
Chapter 2: Can Words Save Me? Teens with Mental Health Issues
Chapter 3: Does Anybody Love Me? Juvenile Justice
Part I: Girls’ Rehabilitation Facility
Part II: Colston Youth Center
Chapter 4: Poetry in Academia
Chapter 5: I Remember: Cedar Community Center for Senior Citizens
Chapter 6: Every Bird Can Sing: St. Madeline Sophie’s Training Center
Chapter 7: The Feminist Poet: Women Take Back Words
Chapter 8: Freedom Journey: R.J. Donovan Maximum Security Men’s Prison
Appendix: Additional Exercise Ideas
Resources
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

As a teacher of creative writing at the college and university level for over thirty years, I am always looking for new texts to engage my new generations of students. To find a text appropriate for the wide variety of talents one engages on the undergraduate level is not an easy task. Shelley Savren’s The Forms of Things Unknown: Teaching Poetry Writing to Teens and Adults has become the answer to this search. Relying upon her over twenty-five years of reading, studying, writing, publishing and teaching a wide variety of poetry, Ms. Savren has constructed the most practical, user friendly and insightful creative writing text that I’ve seen in a long time. I look forward to my students holding this book in their hands, and I look forward to sharing it with you, reader.

Bruce Weigl

The Forms of Things Unknown is chock-full of ideas, inspiration, and down-to-earth advice for teaching poetry in a wide variety of settings. Shelley Savren offers such accessible, practical guidance that even if you’re not a poet and have never taught poetry, you could dive right in with confidence. And if you are an experienced teacher, this will add a multitude of strategies and suggestions to your toolbox.

Ellen Bass

Anyone who dedicates their life to reaching behind razor wire and bars and walls to reach the oppressed and work with them on expressing their emotions and thoughts and in doing so organizing their lives into a comprehensible contribution to society should be commended. Read this book and welcome back to humanity those we have exiled into oblivion.

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Inspired by the pleasures, the thrills and the curative powers of poetry – reading it, hearing it, writing it – Shelley Savren has devoted a lifetime teaching her passion. As a sometimes itinerant poet who leads writing workshops on high school and college campuses as well as in senior centers, prisons and juvenile “facilities,” I understand where she’s coming from – and going back to again and again. I salute the insights and techniques Shelley Savren shares in her mindful, heartfelt guide. The Forms of Things Unknown: Teaching PoetryWriting to Teens and Adults rocks.

Al Young

As a school principal, I have witnessed firsthand the effectiveness and success of Shelley Savren's poetry in the classroom program. Her program has been instrumental in increasing the self-esteem of students and contributes to the enhancement of their reading and writing skills. The poetry program has had phenomenal results, particularly for students with emotional disturbances and incarcerated youth. Now, finally, this innovative program is available in print for everyone!

Alan L. Murray