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Coleman teacher puts poetry in motion
Posted: 2/5/2010 2:00:40 PM
By Betty A. Pearson
Not many people think of Coleman, Wisconsin, as a hot-bed for growing poets. Yet, in 2009, this small, northern community produced more poetry contest winners than any other school district in the state. A large part of the credit for this distinction goes to Sarah Rose Thomas, an award-winning poet and a fourth-year English teacher at Coleman High School. Thomas enriches her freshman literature classes by having her 45 students read a wealth and variety of poems. A large part of this poetry unit is spent teaching students to write poems that they will each enter in the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Annual Student Poetry Contest.
Sarah Thomas’ curriculum is as carefully crafted as her poetry. Lessons generally use multimedia techniques interspersed with hard-copy handouts and individual, face-to-face contact. For example, during a session on end line practices in poems, Thomas began with a PowerPoint presentation highlighting end rhymes. She cautioned that while it might seem easier to write a poem with perfectly rhymed final words from each stanza, these poems can become tedious and contrived. This method also can chain you to a format that blocks your thoughts. As students contemplated these caveats, Thomas played modern songs she selected to demonstrate end rhyme. Students were saying words from “Where is the Love” by Black Eyed Peas. “Hate,” “irate,” “wait” kept the rhyme flowing and the students laughing. They realized that continuous rhyming is exhausting.
Quickly, students recognize that near rhymes allow for more freedom of language, originality, and more opportunities to employ subtle effects.
| About
Sarah Rose Thomas
• Graduate of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay • B.A. degree English/Creative Writing • Level III Education Certification • Many published poems • Member and officer in several Wisconsin Poet Associations
Want to learn more?
Contact: Thomas@coleman.k12.wi.us |  
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The last third of this 55 class is spent reviewing ways in which words inspire a single effect. Thomas reads John Updike’s “Dog’s Death” for the silent, motionless class. When she speaks the last two words, “Good dog” many are near tears. The poem has moved them. Skillfully, Thomas switches to other clever poems that invoke humor and irony respectively.
With only a few minutes left, Thomas reminds students that their poems for submission to this year’s state poetry contest will be due at the end of the week. No one moans or begs for an extension. Class members have been working on their own three poems and they are now ready to put them through the polishing process and enter them.
Students send their poems to the contest electronically. "This gives them an opportunity to work in today’s online world," Thomas says. "We will spend an entire class day in the computer room editing and entering."
