Tips for Teaching Poetry

Here are a number of creative and inexpensive suggestions for making poetry a more important part of school life during April and throughout the year.


These tips were developed with the help of the Dodge Poetry Festival, the National Council of Teachers of English, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative.



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Preparation
Meet with other teachers and local poets to talk about how to teach poetry to young people.
Talk with your school librarian about ordering books and creating a poetry book display.
Order a poetry anthology or other poetry books for your class.
Attend poetry readings in your community.
Contact your state arts council or your local literary center.
Reread some favorite poems.
Post favorite poems in faculty and staff lounges.
Write at least one poem before beginning a unit on poetry.
Preview audio and/or video tapes for use in class or a special school-wide assembly.


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Reading
Begin each class with a poem by a different poet.
Ask students to memorize poems and then write them out or recite them from memory.
Read poems aloud to your students.
Ask each student to create his or her own anthology of favorite poems.
Organize a poetry contest for teachers and administrators and select students to act as judges.
Introduce a new poetic form each week and give examples of poems that use -- or reinvent -- the form.


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Writing
Publish student poetry in your school newspaper or magazine, or on your website.
Publish a special anthology of student poems.
Create a school poem and ask each student to contribute one line.
Give students a list of words and ask them to create a poem using those words.
Invite students to write poems in response to their favorite poems (or to songs, TV shows, or artworks).
Encourage students to write in the voice of someone else -- a parent, friend, or teacher.
Hold poetry workshops where students discuss one another's work.


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Other Activities
Tape students reading their own poems or poems by others; encourage them to share the tapes with parents and friends.
Organize a student poetry reading at the local library or bookstore.
Decorate the classroom or the school with illustrated poems and pictures of poets.
Hold a poetry exchange day with poems wrapped as gifts.
Invite local poets to your school for readings, workshops, or discussions.
Create a poetry book display in the school library.
Have your students write lines on small pieces of poster board and make them into poetry mobiles.
Encourage your local newspaper to sponsor a contest for student poets.
Read a poem over the public address system each morning.
Create and send poetry greeting cards to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Have your students write short poems, put them in balloons, and set them free.
Xerox a different poem for each day in April and hand them out at lunchtime.