But Buschman has another name for it: poetry a la carte. And in this little school in the heart of the Willamette Valley, it is receiving good reviews.
“It was just something we wanted to try,’' says Buschman, a 2nd grade teacher, “and it has worked out very well. One of the things we were trying to do was work toward adoption of a more holistic approach to learning and using language. There’s a connection between reading and writing. An author doesn’t just write to write but to have someone read what is written. And a reader is not just reading to read but to get into the thoughts of the writer. Any time you take a child’s work and publish it, you help to establish that connection.’'
