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 |  | John S. O’Connor has taught English for the past eighteen years in a wide variety of settings and at every level from sixth grade to college, including Penn State University and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He has published in English Journal, Shakespeare, and OAH Magazine of History and recently wrote Wordplaygrounds, a book that presents new approaches to teaching poetry. In addition, he has published poems in Rhino, Heron’s Nest, and Modern Haiku. John has been a featured speaker at state English Council Conferences, the Harold Washington Library for National Poetry Month, and poetry teacher workshops. He is available to present to middle and secondary teachers. |
John O'Connor's Sample Presentations
Presentation Topics and Prior Presentations
| John O'Connor presents to middle and secondary teachers on poetry reading, writing, and performance.
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ReadWriteThink Lesson on Poetry
| In John's book Wordplaygrounds, he includes simple activities to get students into the act of writing poetry. John continues his mastery of this technique in this secondary lesson. Students play with letters in an imaginative way in "The ABC's of Poetry."
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Listen to John O'Connor
| John O'Connor, author of Wordplaygrounds, recently recorded a commentary about the first day of school from a teacher's perspective, for Chicago public radio station WBEZ, for their morning news program Eight Forty-Eight. Listen to John's commentary by selecting September 5 on the calendar. |
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Published Works by John O'Connor
Wordplaygrounds
|  Consultant John O'Connor can present his new approaches to teaching poetry in middle and high school when he presents at your school. He has more than 25 writing activities that can constitute an entire course or work as individual lessons.
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Professional Communities at Work: Poetry
|  Discover strategies for getting students excited about poetry. Featuring the bestselling books Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises and Studying Poetry: Activities, Resources, and Texts, this kit focuses on the key issues of reading, writing, and perfoming poetry while also addressing form and technique. |
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Related Resources
Education and Professional Experiences
| John has taught at Penn State and in middle and secondary classrooms and he has nearly completed his doctorate degree. In addition, he has written a Room Full of Chairs a book of Haiku poems and has an album which highlights his talents of putting poems to music. Just recently a poem written by John was accepted by Poetry East.
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Awards, Honors, and Activities
| He was honored at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago during National Poetry Month and in the past few years was a Golden Apple Award finalist and a writing judge for the National Peace Essay Contest.
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