To Put Some Verve in Students’ Verse, Bucks County Poets Create Free Resource for Teachers

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Fire up the Poems Bucks County literature
Image via Suzy Hazlewood at Pexels.

Whether it’s little limericks or reams of rhymes, interest in poetry in high schoolers is valuable. To spark interest, a new, free poetry resource is available to language arts teachers, reports the Bucks County Courier Times

Four local Poets Laureate contributed to Fire Up the Poems

  • Mary Jo LoBello Jerome (New Hope) 
  • Katherine Hahn Falk (Newtown) 
  • Luray Gross (Doylestown) 
  • Laren McClung (Philadelphia) 

Bucks County Community College Professor Dr. Ethel Rackin was also part of the effort. 

The book models what poetry in the real world looks like. It informs about the motivation behind poets, how poetry can be a change agent and how poetry leads to understanding. 

Editor Mary Jo LoBello Jerome said that she “…knew a book like this would be useful in the classroom. I wanted students to connect with poetry in the real world, to experience poetry as a method of individual expression and as a vehicle to inspire change.” 

She finds the timing was ripe for this publication. COVID-19 shutdowns limited the opportunities for a poet like her to visit schools in person and advocate for verse. 

“And then Bucks generously distributed the book free to county teachers,” Jerome said. “What a gift.” 

More on this classroom resources is in the Bucks County Courier Times. 

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