It's April. It seems obligatory to write about poetry.
But that's not why I'm doing it.
(Notice my use of white space there!)
I'd like to share my own personal list of do's and don'ts about the teaching of poetry.
But that's not why I'm doing it.
(Notice my use of white space there!)
I'd like to share my own personal list of do's and don'ts about the teaching of poetry.
DO integrate poetry into your teaching regularly. It is a great tool to teach with during times like shared reading and read aloud. You can use it to teach things like word attack, fluency, and some easy interpretation. Also, many smart people in the world of teaching reading and writing agree that when kids are exposed to examples of really good poetry, their own writing in general improves. Talk to people like Kathy Doyle, who raised some of the best writers anywhere, and you'll find great consensus on this.
DON'T assign a topic. Why would you? You don't really do that in any other area of writing if you teach in a writer's workshop. It violates what we know about choice, and since poetry is a place where kids should have more choice than anywhere in their writing, you should let them write from their hearts, about topics that matter to them.
DO use poetry all the time. Kids have the right to read and write poetry all the time, not just in April or when some contest comes along. Poetry should be all around them. You should integrate it into your nonfiction studies as a way to extend what they might be learning about. You should integrate it into science and social studies as a way of adding to their learning in whatever unit you're studying. You should have close reading of it to extract more knowledge about whatever they're learning.
DON'T lift the structure of a famous poet and make all your kids write in that structure. Maybe it's a good thing to let them practice on one poem of their own to try on Emily Dickinson or Robert Frost's technique, but get them right into writing their own poem with its own content and structure. We don't need 20-30 kids redoing the work of a famous poet who already did that work. Yes, they'll have great writing, but no, it won't be theirs. Teach them how to adapt the structure to their own ideas and maybe change the structure so it matches what they say. You may read, "Honey, I Love," but don't have them all make "Honey, I ___" poems. Make it broader than that. It will help make your students more independent choices on their own when you're not looking. Isn't that the goal? Isn't that a teacher's happiest dreams.
DO encourage kids to write free verse about topics that were other forms like narrative, informational, or essay. Let them pick apart former entries in their writer's notebook, subtracting the syntax and turning it into something, well, freer than that. It will help keep the heart in their writing.
DON'T encourage rhyming poetry, unless the rhyme is added in as a revision in support of meaning. Otherwise, most kids will write things just to make them rhyme.
Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.
(Nice white space again!)
Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.
(Nice white space again!)
That's my list of short do's and don'ts about teaching poetry. Common Core may make poetry seem to take a back seat to other forms, but if you read the standards up close, there are still great ways to integrate poetry into the lives of kids.
And that's where it needs to be!
And that's where it needs to be!
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