This month, Westwood students at three elementary schools—Westwood Elementary Schools—showed their poetry talents in workshops with guest poet Dr. Jennifer Bogard, author of The ABCs of Plum Island, B is For Beach Plums, and C is for Clippers and adjunct professor at Lesley University’s Integrated Teaching Through the Arts Program. The Poets in the Schools Program brought Dr. Bogard to these schools.
Bogard’s 90-minute workshops introduced students to poetry skills, including keeping a writer’s notebook for poetry ideas, making a word bank, planning and drafting a poem, and sharing the poem aloud with an audience of peers.
Dr. Lynne Viti, Westwood Poet Laureate, organized the cocurricular programs in collaboration with elementary media specialists Katie Burke, Canice Thynne, Julie Krass, Beth Swinning and Meg Kara. The programs were funded by a grant from the Westwood Cultural Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
