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Josie Whitehead
GENRE: - P O E T R Y
SEARCHING FOR A CHILDREN'S POET FOR YOUR CLASS?
JOSIE WHITEHEAD, a new but very popular poet from Ilkley, (in picturesque Wharfedale) - one of the many Yorkshire Dales in the North of England,
BACKGROUND TO THIS POET
Josie Whitehead, retired teacher and grandmother of two delightful small children has just written over 600 poems in the last four years, encouraged greatly by local children who love her poetry. She discovered how much children enjoyed her poems just by chance, when invited to read one of her poems at a local primary school where she was a weekly visitor. The children were so delighted that they asked for more and more poems to be written for them, which Josie was delighted to do. Having been a teacher all her working life, many of the poems have been written specifically to meet the requirements of the school curriculum and there are lots of articles with ideas for teachers to make their classrooms more poetically friendly, to enliven their poetry lessons, and for the children there are games and exercises which will not only help them to appreciate poetry, understand metre etc but also help with writing their own poems. Although there are many poems to amuse children, there are also many poems to stretch children's vocabulary and imagination, and the poems are for children of all ages from preschool to upper grades.
SCHOOL VISITS: Since then she has visited some of her local schools and libraries and read and worked with children, and she takes the "Children's Corner" of the prestigious Ilkley Literature Festival in her town, in which children love to perform her poems to the audience. She feels it is so important that writers get immediate feedback from their target audiences as they write.
WEBSITE: Thousands of teachers, parents and children visit her website and her poems go into classrooms in countries all over the world, including ESL classrooms. See full details below..
INSPIRATIONAL ONLINE CHILDREN'S POET: In February 2008 she was voted Inspirational Online Children's Poet for 2007 by a children's newspaper which goes into 130 countries of the world: http://www.kidsfreesouls.com/josiecorner.htm
PUBLISHED POEMS: A large number of the poems are now in the hands of A M S Educational Publishers and five books containing 330 of her poems are about to be published next week (Jan 2010) together with a small animated film of the legend "The Wizard of Alderley Edge. This is no mean achievement for a new writer.
The books are to be as follows:
1 - Anthology: Varied poems for children of all ages.
2 - Funny/Nonsense poems, which children love for certain..
3 - Poems for Christmas, Easter, Halloween, school poems, people poems etc.
4 - Poems about everything to do with the natural world:including many minibeast poems; poems about animals, about weather, seasons, the place of our world in the universe and so much more.
5 - Reflective/spiritual poems, including the two most popular of Josie's poems: The Best Donkey of Them All (which is the little donkey who took Mary to Bethlehem) and Flower of the Eternal Peace - a poem written for Remembrance Day and which likens young lives taken in war to the blood red petals of poppies which trembled to the sound of guns which tore to death beloved sons and dropped whilst still fresh. More details of these books are on the author's website - see below.
WHY ARE THESE POEMS SO POPULAR? The main popularity of these poems is the fact that most are written with metre/rhythms and rhyming, a key factor in assisting the development phonemic awareness, a key ingredient in literacy as many teachers will know. Josie has written the poems with a variety of rhythms, including strong rap rhythms which children love, to the softer, gentler rhythms, depending on the subject, and there is a strong possibility that some of the poems will be accompanied by music soon. Children love poems with strong or gentle rhythms, and with rhyme and stories, and there are plenty of these. There are also plenty of poems for older children and adults, and the poems range from preschool alternative nursery rhymes (some hilarious), to Petrarchan sonnets, ballads, haiku etc. The poems have all the ingredients which mark poetry from prose: by the use of metre, rhyming, and all the poetical tools available to poets: personification, metaphors, similes, onomatopoeia, imagery, alliteration, assonance and a vareity of rhythms and metre which set the mood of the poem. The poems range from sheer fun poems, to educational poems which can be centrepieces to your classroom subjects, especially science lessons; from words which bring to life the natural world to, spiritual and reflective poems and much more.
A well known, respected and experienced educational publisher would not choose to invest huge sums of money in a new writer unless he saw that the writer had outstanding writing qualities and, in doing his market research with teachers and pupils, had been assured that these poems would be welcomed wholeheartedly for school classroom use. Details of how to order the books from the publisher direct will soon be available on Josie's website, see below.
MEDIA COVERAGE: As well as articles in Primary Times and The Times Educational Supplement, an article has recently appeared in a leading Chinese newspaper about Josie Whitehead and the poems she writes. There have also been enquiries about the possibility of having the poems in braille as blind students enjoy them too. It is hoped that next year CDs will be available to accompany the poems. It is important that children hear poetry read well and that they themselves perform poetry as poetic words must be much more than just words sitting on a page. Josie's poems have been read on radio programmes, and Flower of the Eternal Peace was read, with quiet background music for Remembrance Day, followed by one minute's silence. It was moving in its simplicity but spiritual beauty. Her poems have appeared in children's newspapers and she was voted inspirational online children's poet for 2007 - see below.
For more information and a chance to try some of the poems with children in your classrooms, libraries etc, see details of the author's website below:.
AUTHOR WEBSITE - The simple way to remember this website is just to Google: JOSIE'S POEMS or simply click: http://www.josiespoems.webeden.co.uk/ This popular website will not only give you the chance to sample many of Josie's poems before they are published soon, but also there is a lot of advice and many ideas for teachers to make their classrooms more poetically/climatically friendly. Josie Whitehead has been a teacher all her working life and realizes all too well how things are within a classroom and how important it is to provide teachers with lots of ideas for bringing poetry to life. There is also a children's corner where children are themselves encouraged to write. Added to this there are lots of links to interesting articles on the teaching of poetry, and many other popular poems by authors whose poetry is either fun, downright silly, inspiring or which carries depth of feeling, for you to try with your classes. Please do visit the website soon and you will realize why a publisher has put so much faith in a new writer.
PRESENTATIONS: For younger children a half hour visit is sufficient, but for older children a longer period. Suggestions for lessons for various age groups could be arranged etc prior to visit.
TARGET AUDIENCES: All age groups
AVAILABLE: By arrangement, remembering that Josie lives in England and is on GMT time.
No recording of Skype Sessions without permission from the author. Many schools in Britain will book this facility via jCVS - see: http://www.jcvs.org/ Most local authorities use this organisation for videoconferencing in the schools.
NO COST MEET THE AUTHOR VISIT: 10 - 15 minutes to say hello, talk about herself, and read a poem prior to the following visit.
IN DEPTH-VISIT: Up to one hour, depending on age of children.
IN DEPTH VISIT COST: £30 half hour; £60 per hour, including lesson planning with teacher prior to presentation. Payment by Paypal at the time of booking. Confirmation will follow by Email.
PREREQUISITES: That children familiarize themselves with some of Josie's Poems and, if necessary, have prepared one in particular for performance, so that the the finalists can be judged on the day etc. That, if the children are to ask questions of the author, that the questions have been prepared and checked by the teacher, and perhaps given to the author in advance, to make the answers interesting. If handouts are needed for the class, these can be arranged with teacher prior to lesson etc.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Contact initially through Email: josiewhitehead@talktalk.net
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, Jan 13 2010, 12:22 PM EST
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