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In the following, some teachers share their thoughts and ideas on teaching poetry.

J. C. Todd:

At first, I like to offer poems in quantity, 40 or so poem opportunities for a class of 25. That might mean a tape recorder with earphones and a few spoken-word cassettes. Brief poems on the board or flip chart. Poem-posters. Fifteen or so individual poems and 20 poetry journals and books. On the Internet, I log on to Poetry Daily or another poetry source. If I have a VCR, I show a poet reading on video. I want a critical mass that gets attention. Poems everywhere, displayed with wit and whimsy.

Betty Lies:

Fill the room with poetry. Read a poem at the beginning of class, not to analyze, but just to listen to. Encourage students to bring in poems they love, to give to the class, either by reading aloud or putting up on the walls. Read poems that share some theme with other parts of the curriculum. Find poems that speak to events that are going on in the school, the community, the world.

Karen Banks:

I teach poetry for a very selfish reason: I love it. I love the way the words feel in my mouth when I read a poem to my students; the sound of it in my ears and the silence in the room; the sight of lines and white space and faces lost in thought; and the immeasurable joy of sharing a moment of truth with an unseen and unknown person and 30 amazed and astonished teenagers.

I first have students bring all of their preconceived notions to the table. I ask them to take five minutes to respond to the following journal prompts:

We then create a list of some of the responses, which, in and of itself, stimulates a lively discussion on their conflicting views.

Doug Goetsch:

Jane Hirshfield (poet and essayist) identifies the two stumbling blocks to effective writing as unwillingness to reveal the self and not knowing the tools of the trade. Every exercise I use is designed to work on one of these stumbling blocks. I use a battery of free-writing exercises to coax students into revealing the self. If they write freely, and frequently, they are likely at some point to startle themselves, and that moment is usually the seed of a good poem. As for the tools of the trade, I start with accurate physical description. I find that precision in description leads to precision in other areas -- diction, thought, emotion, even rhythm. The other thing I do is write with them – always.

How kids progress in the arts is often anything but logical and systematic. So I also go at things unsystematically, showing them as many different models and ways of writing as possible. The sequencing probably isn’t that important . . . There’s more than one way up the mountain, there’s no rush, and they don’t have to be good -- though they’re usually very good.

Richard K. Weems:

My class is open for discussion. Sometimes we write things in our private notebooks. I tell my students, "Write a poem you will never show anyone else to someone you would never normally write a poem to." It never fails that they want to read aloud these poems they never want to show anyone else. Sometimes we combine our efforts onto poster board and make group poems we can all take credit for. Once we made pop-up books, inspired by Nick Bantock’s pop-up version of Kubla Khan. . . . Each day I have each student tell me something he or she liked from someone else’s work.

Fooling with Words with Bill Moyers: Teaching Strategies

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/foolingwithwords/ts.html

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Generate all the ideas you have on your topic. This will give you lots of material and information from which to start writing.

ORGANIZE/WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT

Select the ideas you want to include and decide in what order you will present them.

Methods: Connect or number ideas from web; list in order of logical sequence; make an outline of main ideas or categories; use inverted pyramid model.

Write a first draft, roughly following the organization you chose. Release all the information you have in your head about this topic.

Method: Free-write without worrying about word choice, sentence structure, paragraphs or grammar.

REVISE/REWRITE

Go over the first draft and ask if it says what you want it to. Rewrite sentences and check paragraphs. Rewrite everything if necessary, or cut and paste. Revise until you are satisfied. Get feedback from others.

Methods: Writers' conferences; read aloud; use a checklist; review statement of purpose.

EDIT

Polish the final draft. Refine sentence structure and word choice. Check spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.

PROOFREAD/PUBLISH

Share your writing with others.

Adapted from The Writing Process developed by Cascade Mountain Writers, 1985.

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Overview: This lesson introduces the use of imagery in poems and is designed to help beginning poets produce a short poem with a high degree of success using a prescribed format.

Objectives: In this activity, students will

Materials

Procedure

For example,

Encourage students to use sensory verbs other than "look"

For example,

Have you ever tasted the rain?

It’s gray like the sky on a rainy day.

It feels cool on my tongue.

Gray tastes like the rain.

Adapted from a lesson by Joanna Daniel

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Grade level: 4-8

Objectives: Students will be able to

Instructions:

This lesson was used by 8^th grade teacher David Grimes in a previous poetry contest. We weren’t able to find an Internet reference.

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Grade level: K-3

Patti’s Electronic Classroom

TEAMS Distance Learning Electronic Classrooms, Los Angeles County Board of Education

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/activities/rhyming.html

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Grade Level: Any

Overview: This lesson can be used with holidays, seasons, or themes to show how diverse and exciting poetry can be.

Purpose: To develop an appreciation for different styles of poetry. It is also an excellent way to introduce a holiday, season, or theme. Students will also learn different techniques for memorization.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

Materials:

Procedures:

By Beth Hevern

Columbia Education Center—Teacher Developed Lesson Plans

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang50.txt

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Grades K-6

Have students work in pairs. Each pair should choose an object in the library or classroom to decorate with poetry – a table leg, table top, section of floor, book shelf, chair back – anything is fair game. Each pair will measure the area and cut paper to fit the size and shape. Then each pair will design a poem about the object they are decorating. They will attach each poem with tape or other non-destructive fixative.

From Rhymes and Reasons: Librarians and Teachers Using Poetry to Foster Literacy by Jane Heitman; Linworth Publishing, Inc., 2003.

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Grades K-6

Materials needed: 10" construction paper squares, art supplies, tape.

Cut 36 pieces of construction paper into 10" squares of various colors. Give each student one square. Help students use library and Web resources to find a poem that they like. Students decorate their squares with the poem and appropriate artwork, using art supplies and computer programs. Students sign their names to their square. Tape the poems together on the back so that the front resembles a quilt pattern. Display on the wall or bulletin board.

Extension: Students may use library and Web resources to find information about quilt patterns and try their quilt in a simple pattern.

(Adaptation of Mood Quilt, p. 97)

From Rhymes and Reasons: Librarians and Teachers Using Poetry to Foster Literacy by Jane Heitman; Linworth Publishing, Inc., 2003.

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Grade level: 1+

Brainstorm with the students some facts about one of the animals they have studied or seen at the zoo. Write these facts and descriptions on a chart in front of the class (tiger, huge cat, gold and black, loud roar, large padded feet, rubbing against a lonely tree, prowling around habitat).

The entire group helps the teacher till in the blanks of a poetry form (below).

Tiger!

You have a roar like thunder

You are fuzzy, gold, and black

You roam around on padded feet

You scratch your back on a lonely tree

You are the biggest cat I have ever seen

You are my favorite animal because you look so lovable

Tiger!

Next, the class is divided into cooperative groups and each group selects an animal.

The students brainstorm facts about the animal they have chosen. One of the students is the scribe and makes a list of the ideas. After all the facts are listed, the most descriptive details are selected or modified and put into the poetry pattern.

(The class is taking facts and fitting them into the form. This pattern can be used to review facts about any topic.)

Adapted from a lesson plan by Susan W. Hixson

Columbia Education Center—Teacher Developed Lesson Plans

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang59.txt

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Grades: K-6 (easily adapted for older students)

An acrostic begins with a word spelled out. Then each letter of the word is used to begin another word or phrase, creating a poem. Acrostic poems creatively reinforce letter recognition, spelling and vocabulary. In addition, the acrostic activities below help students evaluate tests and apply conventional language skills.

Acrostic poems can be created as a group or by individual students. Have students write their names, one letter on each line of notebook paper, one letter beneath the other. Then have them write a word or phrase beside each letter that begins with that letter and describes them.

Example:

Joyful

Animated

Neighborly

Energetic

Variations:

Use acrostics in content areas by choosing a word related to a specific subject, such as a science term, animal, historical figure or literature character.

Use seasonal words (spring, fall), holiday words (Valentine, Halloween), days of the week or months of the year.

Ask students to "act out" their acrostics, using their bodies to make the shape of the initial letter, then acting out the words they have chosen.

Collaborate with the computer technician to create computer-graphically enhanced acrostics.

From Rhymes and Reasons: Librarians and Teachers Using Poetry to Foster Literacy by Jane Heitman; Linworth Publishing, Inc., 2003.

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How to Write a Cinquain

At the most basic level a cinquain is a five-line poem or stanza. Here are two variations.

1.

Line 1 - a one-word title

Line 2 - a two-word phrase that describes your title or you can just use two words

Line 5 - one word that refers back to your title

2.

Line 1 - two syllables
Line 2 - four syllables
Line 3 - six syllables
Line 4 - eight syllables
Line 5 - two syllables

Some examples of cinquain by 4^th – 6^th graders:

Baseball

Team challenge

Hitting, running, throwing

Each inning, new chance

Excitement

Rainbow

Arch of color

Reaching, asking, joining

Blue, purple, red, green

Beauty

Can Teach

http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/poetry5.html

Cake

wonderful delight

arrangement of chocolate

happiness

Birthday

Parents

Crazy, bothersome

Fussy, demanding, punishing

"Clean up your room!"

Adults

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Grade Level: 6- 12

Purpose: Getting to know students and getting them to know themselves through writing.

Objective(s):

Beyond the stated purpose, students become more familiar with word usage; synonyms, the degrees(s) of emotion contained in words and the manipulation of language to impact meaning.

Procedures:

An Educator’s Desk Reference Lesson Plan by Missy Kasbaum

http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgiand/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0018.html

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Grade Level: 3-12

Overview: This activity is especially fun in the beginning of the year when we all need to get to know each other.

Purpose: In this lesson, the writer analyzes self to provide an introduction to the rest of the class.

Objectives: To analyze, to inform, to introduce.

Materials:

Procedures: Students write an eleven-line autobio pocm after hearing/seeing the teacher’s model. Following is an example.

Line I: Your first name Nancy

Line 2: Four descriptive traits Honest, caring, curious, energetic

Line 3: Sibling of... Sister of Kenneth

Line 4: Lover of (people, ideas) Lover of laughter, learning, challenge

Line 5: Who feels... Who feels joy when traveling

Line 6: Who needs… Who needs sunshine every day

Line 7: Who gives… Who gives friendship, encouragement, and smiles

Line 8: Who fears... Who fears pain, hunger, and the end of summer

Line 10: Resident of (your city) Resident of Phoenix

Line 11: Your last name Haugen

An Educator’s Reference Desk Lesson Plan by Nancy Haugen

http://eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0003.html

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Grade Level: 4, 5

Description: This lesson is designed to give students a new or different way to write a poem. It is more structured than just telling students to write a poem, so some students may find they like this type of poem writing.

Goal: Students will discover a new way to write a poem by using who, what, when, where, and why to write their poems.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

Materials:

Procedures:

Who: Xavier

What: Played his xylophone

Where: In the examining room

When: In his spare time

Why: While waiting for his x-rays

An Educator’s Reference Desk Lesson Plan by Kathi Twiselton

http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0038.html

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Grade Level: 6 - 12

Description: After reading the poem "Knoxville, Tennessee" by Nikki Giovanni, students will use the poem as a model to write poems of their own. (See appendix for poem.)

Goal: To write a poem of their own creation, using Giovanni's as a model.

Objectives: Students will be able to

Materials:

Procedure:

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan by Monica Wagner

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Writing/WCP0063.html

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A couplet is a two-line stanza that rhymes.

Objectives:

The student will recognize the end-rhyme pattern of a couplet.

The student will write and illustrate a couplet.

Materials:

A copy of the following:

Adventures of Isabel by Ogden Nash (see appendix)

Eletelephony by Laura E. Richards (see appendix)

Excerpt from The Tempest by William Shakespeare (see appendix)

Index cards

The poems may be written on the overhead or individual copies may be given to the students.

Procedures:

By Kim Iraggi & Montie Sisco

Lesson 3 of Poetry Plus: An Integrated Unit (adapted)

http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/399Poetry.pdf

Grade Level: K-4

Concrete poems combine visual art with writing.  Poetry or words describing the object are written on the page to form the picture.  We tied this into our science unit on trees.  Older students could include more detailed information to demonstrate content knowledge.

To create a concrete poem:

Here’s another example from NASAexplores:

http://w3.trib.com/~johnbn/poetry/celeb.htm

http://www.nasaexplores.nasa.gov/show_k4_teacher_st.php?id=030110154711

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When I was a student, I understood that poets sometimes used similes to describe sunsets, clouds, and snowflakes, but I didn’t really care. I never got in the habit of using metaphors and similes in my writing (and speaking) until I began writing poetry.

I recently wrote a poem about similes, which was published in Lighten Up! that seems to crack kids up. After they read it, they start to understand the power of similes. If you use tired, old similes, you sound corny and predictable. If you use fresh, new similes, you sound clever and witty—which is a pretty good reason for any kid to use fresh similes whenever possible. Here’s the poem:

When I first read this poem to kids, I was struck by the fact that it made kids laugh. Apparently, some kids have never heard these expressions, even though they are as old as the proverbial hills. Although some of the similes will be familiar to your students, I think they’ll understand that using boring, predictable similes makes the speaker (or writer) boring and predictable.

With that established, here’s the creative exercise: Reproduce this poem for your students without the last word in each line. Have them fill in the blanks. Their assignment is to complete at least one stanza with fresh, new similes that use the following rhythm and rhyme pattern:

da DUM da da DUM da (A)

da DUM da da DUM (B)

da DUM da da DUM da ©

da DUM da da DUM (B)

To make it easy for you and your students, here’s the altered poem (now titled "Clever").

Before you offer this project to your students, why not try it yourself? Share your results with your students.

By Bruce Lansky

http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/lessons/teachsimiles.html

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Grade level: 7-8

Objectives:

Directions: Each student or pair of students chooses an appropriate song. (No sexual or violent content.) They copy down the words, and make enough copies for each student in the class. Then, each student, or pair of students gives a presentation to the class. They identify the similes, metaphors, alliteration, figurative language or written words that appeal to the five senses. They interpret the song and state what they feel is the theme or purpose for writing the song. They identify if the song entertains, informs or reveals hidden information.

By Christine A Fitzgerald

Tips for Teaching Poetry from Poetic Power, 2:2

http://www.poeticpower.com/plugs4

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Grades K-6

Materials needed: Audiotape of rap beat

Students are familiar with rap music, which depends on its beat and heavy bass. Collaborate with your music teacher to find a rap beat background (such as those found on electronic keyboards) or play instrumental music with a rap beat. (The band, DC Talk, is one example.) Play it for students and say nonsense words (da-da-DUM or tra-la-LA, for example) to the beat. Keep the beat playing and have students write their own rap about something they are studying. Have students perform their raps when they are done.

From Rhymes and Reasons: Librarians and Teachers Using Poetry to Foster Literacy by Jane Heitman; Linworth Publishing, Inc., 2003.

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A quatrain is a four-line rhyming poem. This lesson introduces the AABB, ABAB, and ABCB patterns of poetry.

Objectives:

Materials:

1. Copies for the overhead projector or individual copies of the following poems:

2. Sentence strips with the following lines written on one each:

I like candy.

3. Five envelopes containing quatrains cut into individual lines.

Procedures:

Review overhead poems and name their patterns.

by Kim Iraggi & Montie Sisco

Lesson 4 of Poetry Plus: An Integrated Unit

http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/399Poetry.pdf

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Grade level: 4-12

Students may tell you that a Diamante is a style of car by Mitsubishi, but before it was ever an automobile, it was a seven-line, diamond-shaped poem based on contrasting words:

Winter

white and silver

fading, sleeping, slowing down

March exchanges vows with April

nodding, rising, waking up

green and goldburst

Spring

Line 1:

topic (noun)

Line 2: two adjectives

Line 3: three action words

Line 4: a four - word phrase

Line 5: three action words

Line 6: two adjectives

Line 7: rename

the topic

Writing Activity:

Choose a word pair from the list of opposites generated during the class discussion as the focus for your poem. Alternately, you may choose a word from one of the other lists we created while discussing an assignment and choose a synonym for this word for your second word.

As you write, check the lists of powerful words that we've compiled for descriptive words that you can add to your poem. Remember that powerful, passionate words will make the contrast. Your finished diamante should capture the powerful relationship between the two words that you've chosen as your focus.

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson258/Power_assignment.pdf

http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson258/diamante_cheat.pdf

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Social Studies/Language Arts

Children create a Memorial Day word web and use it to create a poem about Memorial Day.

What You Need

What to Do

Houghton Mifflin Education Place

http://www.eduplace.com/activity/memorial.html

Forms of Poetry for Children

Can Teach

http://www.col-ed.org/cur/index.html#Lang

The Educator’s Reference Desk—Language Arts

Giggle Poetry

There are too many good books of children’s poetry to list. Following are books referenced in this document:

I always like summer

best

you can eat fresh corn

from daddy’s garden

and okra

and greens

and cabbage

and lots of

barbecue

and buttermilk

and homemade ice-cream

at the church picnic

and listen to

gospel music

outside

at the church

homecoming

and go to the mountains with

your grandmother

and go barefooted

and be warm

all the time

not only when you go to bed

and sleep

--Nikki Giovanni

Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant -
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone -
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)

Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee -
(I fear I'd better drop the song
Of elephop and telephong!)

 -- Laura E. Richards

Full fathom five thy father lies

Of his bones are coral made

Those are pearls that were his eyes

Nothing of him that doth fade

But doth suffer a sea change

Into something rich and strange.

--William Shakespeare

Improve his shining tail,

And pour the waters of the Nile

On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin!

How neatly spread his claws,

And welcomes little fishes in

With gently smiling jaws!

I'll tell you the story of Jimmy Jet --
And you know what I tell you is true.
He loved to watch his TV set
Almost as much as you.

He watched all day, he watched all night
Till he grew pale and lean,
From "The Early Show" to "The Late Late Show"
And all the shows between.

He watched till his eyes were frozen wide,
And his bottom grew into his chair.
And his chin turned into a tuning dial,
And antennae grew out of his hair.

And his brains turned into TV tubes,
And his face to a TV screen.
And two knobs saying "VERT." and "HORIZ."
Grew where his ears had been.

And he grew a plug that looked like a tail
So we plugged in little Jim.
And now instead of him watching TV
We all sit around and watch him.

--Shel Silverstein