"48 Poems: Reflections Of A Poet" Is A Book That Will Assess and Enhance Comprehension Skills"

Dec. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- How much is your child's education and future worth? If you were told that you could buy a book for $40.00  and personally assess and enchance your child's comprehesion skills, would you buy that book? According to Queen, New York author and educator Gregory L Hudson, that is precisely what his stunning poetry/literacy book, "48 Poems: Reflections Of A Poet" does.

"After being so frustrated year after year after year with seeing so many of my students struggling with reading, writing, and not understanding what they read ... I simply had to find some way to reach and teach my students. 1) I've always recognized that most students will read books that they enjoy, 2) understood that if you can get students to read anything that they enjoy it is much eaiser to teach them essential ELA skills, and 3) using literature that has storylines, characters, and themes that students can relate to and identify with make learning more fun and engaging. That is exactly what I wanted to accomplish with 48 Poems".

Parents can assess and enchance their child's comprehension skills using 48 Poems in about 5 to 30 minutes. The parent can choose a poem from one of the eight genres. Let's say the parent chooses poem #47, "A Fly In My Soup" from the children genre for the purpose of assessing the child's understanding of "Sequencing".

The parent should ask the child to analyze the title and explain what the tilte means. A child with average comprehension skills should say something to the effect of "The girl has a fly in her bowl of soup".  The next step would be to show the child the photo on the opposite page and ask the child to analyze and explain the photo. The child response should say something to the effect of "The girl has the shocked or surprised expression on her face because there is a fly in her soup." The last step should be to have the child read the poem. After reading the poem, have the child identify things that confirm that there was a fly in the girl's soup which caused the shocked reaction on her face.

The very first line in the poem says, "There is a fly in my soup", the first line in the fourth stanza says, "Look at that fly", the first line in the fifth stanza says, "There's a fly in my soup", and there are several more references to a fly being in her soup. If the child has a good understanding and was able to tie the title, the photo, and words or phrases in the poem together, then that child is ready to move  on to more difficult poems. If the child does not quite understand the correlation between the title, the photo, and key words or phrases in the poem, then that child has a comprehension deficiency.

The child should also be asked to answer the Higher Order Thinking Question ("HOT") for that poem located in the back of the book. The "HOT" question ask the child to "Identiy the sequence of events that led up to the girl staying home" from school. After listing each sequence of event, the child should comprehend from the poem that she stayed home because there was a fly in her soup.

48 Poems is by all accounts ... an extraordinary wonderful book and is very easy to read. Every effort should be made by the parent or educator to keep the lesson as simple as possible. Too often teachers, professors, and instructors make the lessons so unnecessarily complicated that they themselves become confused; leaving the students, in some cases, in worst shape than they were before.

"A real beauty about the book is its divesity. I teach students from all ethnic backgrouds (the Carribean Islands, Africa, India, China ...) and the book is just as effective in helping those students as it is for American students. The diversity is also well illustrated throughout the book with beautiful images of chinese families, Indian families, caucasian families, african families, African American familes, and more." Some of the poems can be read at http://www.poorpennyproductions.com/index/48_POEMS:_Reflections_Of_A_Poet3

“48 POEMS: Reflections Of A Poet” has 48 original poems, 8 genres, 48 stunning photos to enhance the readers comprehension of each poem, 48 Higher Order Thinking Questions (“HOT”), 48 Synopses, a chapter on commonly used vernacular, and a glossary of commonly used literary terms. The parent, teaher, or professor can also teach other literacy skills such as, "cause & effect", "compare & contrast" and more.

For educators in other countries around the world who are interested in learning or teaching English or English Language Arts, this book is highly recommended.

"I use only two copies of my book to teach my classes because I can't afford a set for all of my classes; one copy for me and the other copy to a student or group of students. There are other teachers who bought and shared copies. I would strongly suggest to those who would like to use the book but can't afford it to request that their local library order a few copies. It can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and major book retailers".

48 Poems retails for about $65.00 and up, but can be purchased from the publisher, AuthorHouse Publishing, for $40.00. First Impression Book Store on Amazon usually sells it at cost for about $26.00, but only stock two new copies at a time.

This is a highly recommended English Language Arts teaching and learning resouce for parents, public schools, colleges, and universities. Whether you are looking to improve ELA skills or just looking for a wonderful book of poetry ... this book has it all. The romantic genre has some of the most romantic poems anywhere; or for gut-busting humor try the comedic genre.

"Would you buy a book that could assess and enhance your child's comprehension skills for $40.00 ... or perhaps improve an entire English/Literacy Program"?