Brod Bagert: Poetry in Action

Brod Bagert

Introduced as a former attorney who saw the light, Brod Bagert is a poetry performer who not only writes poetry, but also instructs teachers about how to help kids discover a love for verse.

However traditional such a description sounds, Bagert’s approach is anything but the soft poet persona. “If I am going to write poems for a kindergartener, then I am going to write in the voice of a kindergartener,” Bagert explained as he transformed himself into a large kindergartener and then very loudly chanted his poems “Snack Time” and “Big Fat Hen” with a noticeable first grade lisp.

Comparing literacy instruction without oral language to an airplane with out an engine, Bagert passionately performed a myriad of poems for approximately 900 teachers and administrators attending the Literacy Promise Conference recently held under the direction of the McKay School Alumni committee and the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling. His performances ranged from impersonating a nine-year old child who is mad at the tooth fairy, to portraying a 13 year old girl getting even with boys for elementary school antics, to revealing an exhausted joyous teacher when a certain student is moving on to the next grade, and finally to representing himself as a committed and loving husband communicating his feelings to his wife.

Bagert explained that his ability to write and perform at different levels is a component of oral language. “Language curriculum takes fire and really works when the oral language component is added.”

Questioning the effectiveness of teaching kids about poetry through classics and writing haikus, Bagert asked, “With all other art forms we allow children to love the art before they do it. Why do we try to teach them to write poetry before we teach them to love it?” He suggested that teachers first find and perform poems in the voices of children who are their students’ age. “Free them from the expectation that they need to like the poems you like,” he advised. “Never just recite poetry. Perform it.”

Bagert concluded by passionately advocating a place for performing poetry in teaching and learning. He said, “By performing poetry you light a fire inside students that can’t be put out. They become learners. Language is fun. Orality is fun. To maintain the level of humanity society needs we are going to need poetry.”

Poetry Books by Brod Bagert include:

• Giant Children
• School Fever
• Hormone Jungle: Coming of Age in Middle School
• Shout! Little Poems that Roar
• Rainbows, Head Lice and Pea-Green Tile
• Steel Cables

Brod Bagert

Brod was born on November 22, 1947 and raised in the City of New Orleans, where he studied the classics in Latin and Greek, wrestled and boxed to vent adolescent angst, fell in love with and married his high-school sweetheart, practiced law, served in public office, and reared four children who are the joy of his life. Brod has written poetry since childhood. In 1992 he closed his 21-year law practice and became a fulltime poet. Brod loves to entertain audiences with poetry. He tours approximately 30 weeks a year, having visited Asia, Europe, South America, and “just about every nitch and cranny of the good ole USA.” He has written 15 books of poetry for children and adults.

20 March 2008