Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
Written by: Paul Fleischman
Illustrated by: Eric Beddows
Published by Harper Trophy in 1988
Genres: poetry, informational text
Age: grades 4-6
Award: Newberry Award Winner 1989
Summary: Joyful Noise is a collection of unique poems about a multitude of insects. This book provides details about how they live their lives and occasionally mentions of how people perceive them. These succinct poems are meant to be read aloud by two people and are written in two columns as to make this easier. Some of the lines are spoken simultaneously by both individuals and at other times, one or both speak of different information about the insects. Paul Fleischman uses a musical style of writing which gives his poems a unique melodic form.
Response: This work is satiated with creativity in the method utilized to achieve the perfect combination of information, humor, and ideal sentence structure. Although I do not particularly care for insects, this work takes learning about insects to a completely different level than one might initially expect. Joyful Noise provides a myriad of information about the insect world, but because that information is laced within duet-based poetry to be read aloud, maintains a quirky backdrop throughout the collection, and has occasional onomatopoeia, Fleischman’s work does not explicitly teach. The manner in which Fleischman writes is of embedding factual information within the texts, which helps insure that readers do not become bored because each poem is a mini-story.
The creativity of the idea to create a work for two voices is remarkable. I would not have ever thought of doing something like that, but it makes perfect sense. It engages students and teaches them about poetry and insects. I believe this was a wonderful idea!
The illustrations in this work, though sparse, are very beautiful and very detailed pencil sketches of each insect included in the book. The illustrator takes much care in crafting his designs in order to create the illusion of three-dimensional figures. Although there is no color within these illustrations, I feel that it would detract from there beauty, so it was better to leave that out anyway. The faces of several of these creatures are hilarious-especially that of the moth. Furthermore, the moth's facial expressions do mimic his eccentric nature that readers learn about in the poem, well.
Teaching Suggestions: With this work teachers have the opportunity to make lesson plans in which children can express their creativity as much in performing the poetry as Fleischman did in writing it. At the same time, they are encouraging learning through literature. Any lesson on a poem in this book could easily meet science, language arts, and, with a little ingenuity, also the arts curriculum guidelines. One idea is to form pairs in the classroom and have each students read a poem of his choice of the other student. Then, each pair must choose their favorite poem and think of costume ideas, movements they could mimic. Students would then have several days to prepare for their presentation. With the Honeybees poem, for example, students have a great opportunity to truly become bees with descriptions of the actions of worker and queen bees. The poem speaks of “guarding the hive’s narrow entrance” (Fleischman, 29), “being fed by …royal attendants” (29), “tak[ing] out the hive’s morning trash...making wax…collect[ing] nectar” (30), and “lay[ing] eggs” (30). Each of these actions could be done by students in their own play. Because none of the poems are long, splitting the students into pairs and having them make presentations should cause no problem if the acting is spread over several days. Not only could the entire class benefit from increasing their knowledge of insects, their ability to read poetry, and engaging their creativity, but also there is an additional benefit for English Language Learners. The poems in Joyful Noise are much less elementary than most and do not have a plethora of repetition or rhyme, therefore, ELL students must engage more complex knowledge of the English language in order to comprehend this work and practice their sentence fluency. Words such as: “calligraphers”(Fleischman, 13), “formidable” (25), “fervent” (37), and “cataclysm,” (41) which students may not be familiar with, provide ample opportunities for all students to augment their vocabularies, especially ELLs. As a future educator, being able to distinguish cross-curricular ties as well as aid the learning of ELL students, proves how vital this work could be in my future classroom. Another lesson plan idea is to have students read these poems, or act them out, and then ask them to write a poem about their favorite animal. This assignment will hone their research and writing skills. Depending on the grade level of the child, the poem they write could be very simple, or could rhyme. Potentially, with older students, teachers could suggest that they attempt a poem for multiple voices, however this style of writing will likely need more assistance from the teacher.
Website of assistance to a lesson on Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. (some of my ideas stem from this website's ideas)
Written by: Paul Fleischman
Illustrated by: Eric Beddows
Published by Harper Trophy in 1988
Genres: poetry, informational text
Age: grades 4-6
Award: Newberry Award Winner 1989
Summary: Joyful Noise is a collection of unique poems about a multitude of insects. This book provides details about how they live their lives and occasionally mentions of how people perceive them. These succinct poems are meant to be read aloud by two people and are written in two columns as to make this easier. Some of the lines are spoken simultaneously by both individuals and at other times, one or both speak of different information about the insects. Paul Fleischman uses a musical style of writing which gives his poems a unique melodic form.
Response: This work is satiated with creativity in the method utilized to achieve the perfect combination of information, humor, and ideal sentence structure. Although I do not particularly care for insects, this work takes learning about insects to a completely different level than one might initially expect. Joyful Noise provides a myriad of information about the insect world, but because that information is laced within duet-based poetry to be read aloud, maintains a quirky backdrop throughout the collection, and has occasional onomatopoeia, Fleischman’s work does not explicitly teach. The manner in which Fleischman writes is of embedding factual information within the texts, which helps insure that readers do not become bored because each poem is a mini-story.
The creativity of the idea to create a work for two voices is remarkable. I would not have ever thought of doing something like that, but it makes perfect sense. It engages students and teaches them about poetry and insects. I believe this was a wonderful idea!
The illustrations in this work, though sparse, are very beautiful and very detailed pencil sketches of each insect included in the book. The illustrator takes much care in crafting his designs in order to create the illusion of three-dimensional figures. Although there is no color within these illustrations, I feel that it would detract from there beauty, so it was better to leave that out anyway. The faces of several of these creatures are hilarious-especially that of the moth. Furthermore, the moth's facial expressions do mimic his eccentric nature that readers learn about in the poem, well.
Teaching Suggestions: With this work teachers have the opportunity to make lesson plans in which children can express their creativity as much in performing the poetry as Fleischman did in writing it. At the same time, they are encouraging learning through literature. Any lesson on a poem in this book could easily meet science, language arts, and, with a little ingenuity, also the arts curriculum guidelines. One idea is to form pairs in the classroom and have each students read a poem of his choice of the other student. Then, each pair must choose their favorite poem and think of costume ideas, movements they could mimic. Students would then have several days to prepare for their presentation. With the Honeybees poem, for example, students have a great opportunity to truly become bees with descriptions of the actions of worker and queen bees. The poem speaks of “guarding the hive’s narrow entrance” (Fleischman, 29), “being fed by …royal attendants” (29), “tak[ing] out the hive’s morning trash...making wax…collect[ing] nectar” (30), and “lay[ing] eggs” (30). Each of these actions could be done by students in their own play. Because none of the poems are long, splitting the students into pairs and having them make presentations should cause no problem if the acting is spread over several days. Not only could the entire class benefit from increasing their knowledge of insects, their ability to read poetry, and engaging their creativity, but also there is an additional benefit for English Language Learners. The poems in Joyful Noise are much less elementary than most and do not have a plethora of repetition or rhyme, therefore, ELL students must engage more complex knowledge of the English language in order to comprehend this work and practice their sentence fluency. Words such as: “calligraphers”(Fleischman, 13), “formidable” (25), “fervent” (37), and “cataclysm,” (41) which students may not be familiar with, provide ample opportunities for all students to augment their vocabularies, especially ELLs. As a future educator, being able to distinguish cross-curricular ties as well as aid the learning of ELL students, proves how vital this work could be in my future classroom. Another lesson plan idea is to have students read these poems, or act them out, and then ask them to write a poem about their favorite animal. This assignment will hone their research and writing skills. Depending on the grade level of the child, the poem they write could be very simple, or could rhyme. Potentially, with older students, teachers could suggest that they attempt a poem for multiple voices, however this style of writing will likely need more assistance from the teacher.
Website of assistance to a lesson on Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. (some of my ideas stem from this website's ideas)
(Image retrieved from http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/c1/c7529.jpg on 19 April 2008)
1 comment:
Thanks Erin. As I shared with Rachel, this is my favorite Fleischman work! Just curious-did you see Fleischman's web site? Here is a link I think you may find helpful:
http://www.washalee.com/ Please check it out.
Thanks for inviting our class to perform Honeybees in class! It was so much fun! As far as teaching ideas, having students write poems for 2 voices is amazing! It works really well when there are stark similarities and differences; for example, from Weedflower writing from both perspectives: Sumiko's and Frank's, or Japanese Americans and those that feared them. You and Rachel did a fantastic job presenting your Author Study : )
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