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

By Shelley Savren

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 fa ade 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 147582792X
• ISBN13: 9781475827927
• Release Date: July 2016
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 9.1"