A Putrid Poetry Class Readaloud for National Poetry Month!

Hello, teachers! I can’t believe it, but Poetry Month starts a week from this Friday. Holy moley. For the past several weeks, I have been trying to figure out what to do this year. I waffled back and forth but finally made a decision.

I am going to share a chapter book story related to poetry. The story itself is part prose, part poetry. It all begins when Louis’ teacher, Miss Sweetmallow, tells the class they are going to write poems. To say Louis is unenthusiastic is an understatement. But then Miss Sweetmallow says the magic words: “You can write them about anything you want.” Louis decides this might not be so bad as he shares his interest in blisters, head cheese, inappropriate hairdos, and more in 25 poems, each one an example of a particular poetic technique or form.

Along the way, Louis (that’s Dr. Skullstench to you) decides writing poetry isn’t so bad, and he tries different platforms to share his work, from the morning TV announcements to the class talent show. But Miss Sweetmallow prefers a more lyrical approach to poetry and tries to sway Louis toward writing beautiful poems. Will she succeed? Will Louis share his gross vision of the world? Will the talent show go off without a poetic hitch? Find out in The Putrid Poetic Pondering of Louis J. Pastenak, AKA Dr. Skullstench.

I’m not quite sure what format I’ll be sharing it here, because the poem parts are highly formatted with notes back and forth between Louis and Miss Sweetmallow. But I’ll share the story as a serial here, one day at a time, all month long. I’ll also have a low-cost downloadable pdf version with clean formatting.  

I hope your National Poetry Month plans are coming along wonderfully!