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Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - classic book on teaching poetry
I've used this over the years with all kinds of populations. I wish that he would revise it with more practical advice in the instruction part - particularly in how to present the exercises to different age groups.
Rating:  - Pretty Good - little dated
This book has some nice ideas for getting children thinking about poetry and some techniques for developing the writing process. Good for teachers who are worried about teaching poetry; it has a lot of examples of student poetry. The text could be improved with more recent student poems (many reference pop culture of the 70s) and more writing techniques from an up-to-date educational perspective.
Rating:  - A superb introduction to the art of writing poetry
Some 35+ years after its initial publication, this remains one of the finest books about writing poetry -- and not just for children, either! Kenneth Koch walks a delicate & difficult line here, trusting in the experiences & imaginations of children, yet also emphasizing (in an unforced but gently firm manner) the need for work & craft. Most of all, it demystifies poetry without stripping it of its wonder & magic, making it accessible to all who are willing to meet it halfway. There's never a note of condescension here, just a genuine love of poetry & the expectation that any aspiring poet will give his or her all in creating poems. Most highly recommended!
Rating: - The Book to Make April Special
April is National Poetry Month. Here's a book that will bring the joy of poetry to your classroom. The title exercises are especially effective. The kids in our library loved to list lies! It sounds so simple. Try it--it's pure magic.
Rating: - Every teacher should read this - and use it!
I was first introduced to this marvelous book as a sophomore in an advanced placement English and History class in high school. An older graduate of the program had gone on to study poetry under Kenneth Koch at Columbia University, and returned to share what he had learned.
Now, with Bachelor's Degrees in both English and Elementary Education and a Master's in Language, Linguistics and Culture, I still consider WISHES, LIES, AND DREAMS to be the single best book on teaching writing that I have ever read.
Koch does not waste time with "assessment" of students' skills, collecting data, or any of the other peripheral matters that clutter most writing "methods" texts. This book is about WRITING, about inspiring students to write, about focusing the talents students already have but might not know that they possess.
I first used this book as a teacher when I was student teaching with a class of recalcitrant fifth graders who had been taught strictly by the text throughout their elementary school years. They almost unanimously declared that they hated writing. Employing Koch's ideas and combining them with the District-required skills lessons, I successfully taught these students what they needed to know - and they loved it!
After I began teaching in my own classroom, I used WLD with my students in bilingual third grade classes. Again, we were successful, even with second-language learners. Years later, when I began teaching second grade, and last year, when I worked with first graders, this book was an essential part of our writing program.
Having been an elementary school teacher now for eleven years, I have come to the conclusion that the best teachers begin with the students' interests and talents, then direct this energy toward teaching the students what they don't know.
Even though the subtitle is "Teaching Children to Write Poetry", the ideas Koch presents serve as a starting point for introducing children to other forms of writing. While the book is directed primarily toward elementary school students, I cannot imagine that high schoolers and even college students could not benefit from it.
Best of all, Koch himself takes up little space explaining to us, telling us how to teach, or - as so many methodology text writers tend to do - ramble on for page after page stating the obvious. Most of the book is filled with examples of writing from the STUDENTS Koch worked with in the New York City Public Schools. These brief poems provide students with a concrete example of what children before them have written, and inspire them to write their own poetry.
The Six-Traits writing process hadn't even been invented (or at least hadn't been named that) when this book was published over thirty years ago, but I found it easy to find examples of good use of Voice, Word Choice, Conventions, Ideas, and Sentence Fluency throughout the book.
No matter what program your school district requires, WLD will help provide inspiration. Teachers can easily supplement skills and grammar lessons in addition to Koch's marvelous ideas, and will probably think of millions more.
If you're not a teacher, sit down with your children and read this book together, read the children's poems, and try some of the ideas. You'll probably end up recommending WLD to your child's teacher - and he'll be glad you did.
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