The poetry anthology “No More Homework! No More Tests!” was a very humorous story that I have been reading aloud to my students, as well as, using in a poetry workstation in my classroom. My students love the book and have often requested certain poems by name that they would like me to read to the class. Often times it is the students who do not seem to enjoy reading as much who request the poems by name. Some of the poets featured in this anthology are Bruce Lansky (he is the one who put the book together), Shel Silverstein, and Jack Prelutsky, to name a few. The theme for all the poems deals with the “hardships” (and I use that term with a satirical voice) of being a student, and at times – a teacher, in school. All the poems have humorous undertones and make the reader either laugh at the joke or roll their eyes at the “cheesy” tales.
I personally found a laugh in the poem “Sick”, by Shel Silverstein. I can remember how on certain days I would just not want to get up and go to school. It wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy school, I just wanted to sleep in and be lazy. Now that I am a teacher, I can see the same things in my students, early in the mornings. They walk in and sometimes even complain of being sick and needing to go home, when really they are just tired and lagging into starting a new day. The speaker in this poem goes into great detail with a parent about how they are extremely sick (beyond understanding and need to go to the doctor right now for fear of death!) and cannot possibly go to school. This goes on until the end of the thirty-two lined poem, in which they realize that it is Saturday and suddenly feel better and well enough to go out and play! This makes me smile at the irony of trying to convince your parent that you are too sick for school, but when you realize it is the weekend, you are well, suddenly.
Though this book was written for an audience of children in mind, I can’t help but wonder if the poets were trying to “focus” children’s ethics a bit. In the poem “I Should Have Studied”, a student is watching the person beside them get their test paper back and the test paper has a big “F” on it. The only problem is, that student copied off of their neighbor’s paper, so they know exactly what grade they got, before they even receive it back. I love it! Great lesson for not cheating.
All of the poems are filled with puns and laughable situations that really are not exactly reality, but make one laugh to think that it could happen. Students are able to read it with partners or to themselves and find enjoyment.
On a side note, this would not be the only type of poetry that I would want to put in my poetry center or read aloud to students. After reading the chapter by Denise Johnson on poetry, I realize that students need to be exposed to all sorts of poetry, not just humorous, pun-filled poem anthologies, such as this one. Works by Fleischman and Rylant would be an excellent starting place to expose them to other works, as well.
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