Susan Spear

She has published two collections of poetry: Beyond All Bearing (2018, Resource Publications, Wipf and Stock) and On Earth…(2022, Resource Publications, Wipf and Stock). She is the co-author (with Dr. David J. Rothman) of Learning the Secrets of English Verse, a creative writing poetry textbook (Springer, 2022). Her poems have appeared widely in print and on-line journals. She is now an adjunct professor at St Leo University near Tampa, Florida, where she now lives.

SESSIONS:

Learning the Secrets of English Verse…and Teaching Them to K-12 Students

David J. Rothman and Susan Spear, lifelong educators and widely published poets, recently published a comprehensive poetry composition textbook, “Learning the Secrets of English Verse,” with Springer. This innovative book offers a new way to approach the craft of poetry that is generally slighted in almost all contemporary textbooks and pedagogy, looking at metrical verse forms both structurally and chronologically. Why does this matter so much today? One of the strange things about poems is that they not only say things, but they also do things. In prose, you can say anything; you can use any word, any syntax, any figure of speech, and take up any subject, any image, any tone, even any rhythm. What you can’t practice in prose, however, are odd things that poets argue endlessly over: meter, rhyme, stanza forms, and lyrical forms, and these forms are now rarely studied in depth, either structurally or historically. “Learning the Secrets of English Verse” therefore closely explores the fundamentals of how to do these odd, magical things, which have more in common with promises, blessings and vows than with any kind of expository writing, for they are actions, not objects. Step by step, the book helps students learn how to read and imitate every major metrical form in English, providing them with craft and structure in a time when these skills are frequently slighted in most curricula and pedagogy. Join Rothman and Spear to explore the curriculum and pedagogy of this major new textbook.

Teaching the Secrets of English Verse to K-6 Students

Creative writing pedagogy in poetry now generally focuses on expression and theme rather than on technique, a trend that begins in early grades, as meter is often deemed too complex for younger students. Join David J. Rothman and Susan Spear as they present material from their new textbook, “Learning the Secrets of English Verse,” and discuss and demonstrate how to work with young students on technical skills that will give them new and powerful tools to read, discuss, analyze and compose verse.

Teaching the Secrets of English Verse to Students in Grades 7-12

Creative writing pedagogy in poetry generally focuses on expression and theme rather than on technique. In the upper grades, this approach leads to a pedagogy of poetry that treats it like highly charged prose rather than a musical adventure with language. Join David J. Rothman and Susan Spear as they present material from their new textbook, “Learning the Secrets of English Verse,” and discuss and demonstrate how to work with middle and high school students on technical skills that will give them new and powerful tools to read, discuss, analyze and compose verse.