This anthology of poems from South Australian writers is edited by Jude Aquilina and gives teachers a wonderful starting place for teaching poetry with confidence and enthusiasm. It also provides vignettes to inspire them to try using the poetry genre as a specific springboard into language and performance skill development. It uses the work of a substantial list of local authors including several that will be known to some students and others who can easily be sought out to widen student experience with poetry that they enjoy.
The book is divided into an easily navigated format that allows teachers to peruse poetry based on author or to look at the vignettes and the academic essay provided, to seek insight into planning and pedagogy enhancing curriculum requirements. The poems themselves are a mix of style and form, catering for students across several year levels and of different reading capabilities. Teachers may use them as examples, as production and writing motivators, or discussion starters depending upon their individual classroom programs.
Tadpoles in the Torrens (Teachers Edition) is not a book for student use. Although simply illustrated it is a book for teachers to enjoy as well as utilise. The poems cover imaginary creatures, everyday events and places that will resonate with young and older people alike. The language is uncomplicated and yet the imagery created by these wordsmiths is clear and entertaining. As you flick through the pages of the poetry section, each poem invites you to find another that you will enjoy or use as a teaching point.
As a teacher resource it provides scope for individual teachers who are engaging with differing aged students to use specific poems or sections of texts to bring the genre of poetry to the fore in their English curriculum. It is a book which has a multitude of uses for teachers of approximately years 5 to 8 and highlights not only poetry as an entertaining and valuable form of literature but encourages teachers to explore it, using local authors to assist budding poets and poetry audiences for the future.
Reviewed by Leanne Caune
Rating out of 10: 7
Tadpoles in the Torrens, Poems for young readers (Teachers’ Edition)
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Editor: Jude Aquilina
Release Date: June 2016
RRP: $29.95
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