Help Poetry Thrive In The Classroom

As the schools year gets into swing, it is timely to talk about the place of poetry in the classroom. 

If we want young learners to view poetry books with a sense of enthusiastic anticipation we need to alert them to its potential. If we want young learners to have an answer to the question “ And tell me, who is your favorite poet?” then we must expose them to the world of poetry and its various forms.

In exposing students to poetry we need to let them hear poetry, see poetry and feel the impact that poetry can have on the reader and listener. When we take this approach, students will begin to develop personal tastes in poetry. They will speak with authority about their preferred poets; their preferred styles. They will begin to truly know poetry.
Poetry should sit comfortably along side other writing genres in a young writer's mind. It deserves to have a visible presence in every writer's notebook. 

In The Beginning…
When beginning this journey I frequently conduct a workshop where I provide a poetry taste test for students to sample a range of poetic forms. I present a feast of favorites, a smorgasbord of stanzas from which curious readers may select.

The Poet’s Suitcase
To facilitate this poetry tasting I bring my poet’s suitcase into the classroom,. My battered old suitcase, also known as my poet’s play-station is packed with a broad range of poetry books along with an assortment of artifacts and other strange treasures that connect to the suitcase collection.

Inside these special books students will discover poetry that will hopefully make them smile, or laugh out loud. -Poems that are serious and thought provoking. Poems that elicit strong responses -Poems that present as weird, whacky and nonsensical. –Poems that are short, and poems that are lengthy.-Poems that rhyme and poems that don’t. In essence, I am aiming to expose the curious learners to some broad spectrum reading of poetry. 

Before we set about exploring the assembled books, I refer to some of the books, share a couple of my personal favorites with an animated reading, and connect some of the collected artifacts to particular poems. Then I set the students loose; allowing them to carefully browse the books. Their task is to find a poem they could read to a partner, a small group or the whole class. At this point I rove the room guiding students, supporting their decision making processes, and assisting them to remain focused on the task.

Over the next couple of workshops I ask students to add their self selected poem to an anthology. I ask them to rewrite it on the computer or scribe it in their best handwriting. When this task is complete, I ask students to practice reading their poem so that they will have the opportunity to consider the needs of their listening audience.

I continue to model the reading aloud of poetry. I choose carefully, selecting poems that inspire and entertain me personally. I want my students to be exposed to models of enthusiastic reading. The focus then moves to sharing the poems the students have been preparing. – Let the sharing begin!

Following the sharing, we work on organizing a display of our chosen poems. As an alternative I sometimes gather the poetic pieces into a class anthology. We can record them using apps like Sound-cloud. We can capture the readings on video. 

Everything that has taken place up to this point in time has been directed towards immersing students in poetry. They have been dipped in and pulled out. They are soaked in the beauty of the poetic form. Hopefully, they will now have a real ‘taste’ for poetry and a desire to create their own.I also encourage students to bring in their poetry books from home. The aim is to expose them to a plethora of poetry.

You don't necessarily need a suitcase, but you do need an assortment of poetry titles for curious young poets to delve into. A fishbowl, a picnic hamper, a trunk- any large container (interesting) will do. The secret lies in unlocking the magic of poetry. -A chance to awaken within young readers and writers, the power and vitality that poetry possesses.

Don't confine poetry to the margins, let it play a role across the entire year. It has the power to engage young learners. I watched last year as a group of young writers were reawakened to poetry's powerful messages. Their poetry experiences allowed them to discover the capacity to create powerful words in tight spaces!

*Consider visiting an antiques/ bricabrac/junk store and rummage around for an old suitcase. If your classroom has limited shelving and display options, a suitcase would make a great alternative for displaying books of all kinds.