Synthesis with National Autism Awareness, Poetry and School Librarian Month!

Here is an excerpt of one day, the 7th day of National Poetry Day, National Autism Awareness Month, and National School Library Month and a place you can see lists of resources provided each day at

https://www.facebook.com/Public2SchoolLibrary

Some exciting things- and the misconception of poetry today is that of one of isolation, poetry stands alone and does not relate to anything else.

WRONG!

Along with April being National School Librarian Month, as well as National Poetry Month, it is also National Autism Awareness Month.

https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/boys-writes-poem-help-classmates-understand-his-autism?gclid=Cj0KCQjwybD0BRDyARIsACyS8mu7EwjYdr6GpktMRyUblhNtQ5NOlUaTzTQvThGjfZ4pDYbvbuxS1voaAg7PEALw_wcB

As a Librarian, not one area of focus should occur, and sometimes individuals see librarians in one specific purpose - books. As you may or might not know, librarians (also known as Media Specialists) - do so much more! - so are so engulfed with technology and connecting individuals to learning topics, that books (as much as they want to be involved with books all the time) are unfortunately at times an afterthought. Librarians have about 20 different tasks going at the same time - they are network specialists.

Poetry is the same way, all interconnected with Autism Awareness Month, National School Library Month, and Poetry Month. Poetry flows into fiction, nonfiction, social issues, political issues, music, communication, letters and SO much more. While poetry might look as being a category all by itself, there are elements in poetry in so much- we do not have time to go into every category, even with 30 days in April!

The featured picture is poem was submitted by Candace Thompson. It was written by her 11-year-old son Jadon, who is on the autism spectrum. Jadon wrote the poem so that his classmates and teacher can "understand what it's like to have autism and how noises hurt his ears."

Onto the resources :

-Write a nose to palm poem:

https://www.lrng.org/youth-voices/activity/write-a-nose-to-palm-poem

-Honoring Autistic Poets

https://trishhopkinson.com/2018/04/12/honoring-autistic-poets-for-poetry-month-autism-awareness-month-guest-blog-post-by-hilary-krzywkowski/

-Live, yes, get inspiration from live poets at the Facebook’s American Poetry Museum

https://www.facebook.com/americanpoetrymuseum/

-An Autism Acceptance Poem!

https://www.autismspeaks.org/blog/i-am-special-just-you-autism-acceptance-poem

-Again, lessons and ideas!

https://poets.org/materials-teachers You can have a new lesson plan sent to you every Monday!

-An Autism Acceptance Poetry Month Masterlist!

https://commentsfromthepecangalleryblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/01/autism-acceptance-poetry-month-masterlist/

-National Poet Laureate Joy HarJo- LIVE! Check her out here: (She starts at 8:46 in the video)

https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2020/poetry-joy-harjo

Remember!

All month, ANY adult, student, child, ANYONE can submit a poem that inspires them based on this year’s Delaware-based literary art magazine, The Riff. Submission and theme explained here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpVeSdRSjR4RojG23WwdA4X_JhMEvTqAM8DOw3wxb6vGqOvA/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3u022VgMyBMP7jHoLgPhWWboe6GA70rKFw5GK6u0hQGZY1DJm0X2udPiw

If you are feeling inspired, submit your live poetry reading or performance to [email protected] and we will publicize your poem, be it visual or audio if chosen! (First names only!)

The Facebook for The Riff- https://www.facebook.com/TheRifflitmag/