Joyce Sidman is the author of almost twenty children’s books, including the Newbery Honor-winning Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, and two Minnesota Book Award winners. She recently received an Award for Excellence in Children’s Poetry from the National Council of Teachers of English for her body of work. Her poems been translated into many languages, used for librettos in choral works, and even once inscribed on a bench!
She has always felt that writing helps her understand and celebrate life, and loves to share that process with young writers. In her 25 years as a COMPAS teaching artist, she has found that poetry’s lack of ‘rules’ tends to encourage even the most reluctant writer. Her primary goal in the classroom is to show students that their own thoughts and feelings are important—that others want to hear what they have to say. When a student finds just the right words to craft a poem, the experience gives them a sense of joy and wisdom, power and possibility.
More About the Artist
Learn more about Joyce in this April 2021 interview.
Program Offerings
Residency
Poetry
Every day, I lead students into writing several ways: reading and discussing poems to provide “poetry ideas,” brainstorming thoughts, words and sensory details, writing class poems. We write poems asking questions, apology poems, riddle poems, bragging poems, poems of longing and praise. Over the course of the week, we work on descriptive language, metaphor and revision. Our writing sessions always end with a time to share poems aloud—a joyous celebration of our own achievements. I am happy to tailor classroom activities to fit a current classroom unit, or to help meet curriculum requirements.
