SECOND GRADE GIRLS IN THEIR POETRY WORLDS
Photographed by Kathy Sloane
On assignment for Haas Jr. Fund, I photographed a classroom of one of my oldest and closest friends, Maria Rosa Keys. She is probably the best teacher I have ever seen, and teaches 2nd grade at Thousand Oaks School in Berkeley.
April in her classroom is Poetry Month. Her room is filled with books of poetry and the morning starts off with the children finding and reading poems. Each day there is a “poet of the day,” who can, at any time — when the spirit moves him/her — interrupt the class by ringing chimes to read aloud a poem. During the two hours I was there, the poet of the day read three poems at different intervals. It was marvelous! I have never witnessed such intensity around poetry among 7-year-olds!
– Kathy Sloane
© 2008 by Kathy Sloane
Kathy Sloane is completing a book about Keystone Korner, the fabled San Francisco jazz club, which she photographed lovingly during the 1970s and 80s.
