Teaching Poetry to Children: A Poetry Lesson Plan

For the introduction of poetry at any grade level begin with riddle poems or humorous poems.

Riddle poems have an answer; students must evaluate the poem lines to figure out the answer.

Reading the Poem

The teacher reads the poem to engage the students by modeling excellence in her voice, stance, posture, movement, and gesture. It is important for the teacher to model how to read the poem and when to place emphasize on certain sounds or words in the poem. As well, the teacher will demonstrate the appropriate speed to read the poem to keep the students engaged.

After the teacher reads the poem, he will have a discussion on the poem and what they liked or disliked about the performance of the poem.

Next the teacher will read the poem in a slow, monotone voice with little movement. Her stance will be a little slouched and she will make almost no eye contact with the audience. The students will have an open discussion on the teacher’s performance.

For the final performance the teacher will read the poem quickly in a very excited voice. The teacher will scan the audience often and will sway while reading the poem. The teacher will provide an open discussion on his performance.

Reading the poem in 3 very different styles will exhibit to the students the power of their stance, posture, gestures, and voice in performing a poem. Each time the poem was the same but the feel of the poem changed dramatically based on the performance.

Questions to Ask Before Reading a Poem to an Audience

Students must first read the poem silently to introduce themselves to the theme of the poem. After that the student needs to read it again out loud to get a better understanding of the poem.

What does the character look like? There may not be a physical description but by the words used in the poem and the theme of the poem, you may get an image of the character. Is the character young, old, mean, nice, big, small…

What does the character sound like? Is the character a girl with a soft voice or a slow menacing voice? Deciding on the sound of the character will greatly change the feel of the poem.

What is the movement of the character? Does the character move quickly or are the words slowly pronounced?

Students should have someone read the poem to them and they should close their eyes to see the character of the poem. Once the student has an image of the character it is easier to answer the above questions.

Once the student has a good mental image of the characteristics of the character, they can do a performance. The student will have to tweak their performance several times before they feel they match the character in the poem.

Have all students do the same poem and be amazed at the different interpretations of the same poem. After all poems are read, students write a small report on which students’ performance was excellent and which were not and why. Students will critique other students to get an understanding of good poetry performance.

Jun 18, 2007 12:08 AM

Josie Whitehead :

Debbie's article on the teaching of poetry (19 June) is excellent.
I add to this as a retired teacher and also a popular children's poet, who has just completed my 230th children's poem (see Josie Whitehead - Google). We poets are being encouraged to go into classrooms, read our poems to children, talk about the things which spark our imaginations, and encourage children to write. More importantly, I love to hear what children have written
Many of my poems are narrative poems - story poems - lots and lots of them. They cover stories on almost every subject, and last week I told the story of the fish that swallowed Granny's teeth. Children find the stories fun and inspirational. I often ask children to come up with stories to follow up mine, and am always amazed at their ideas. Some of my poems have been based on things which children have told me. So, it is just as important for writers of children's poetry to speak to their audiences also. The children are always thrilled to meet the writer of their favourite poems, and the poet is thrilled to speak to the ones who appreciate what they have done. Well, this one certainly is.
I go into local schools, libraries, read at our Literature Festival etc etc. The local children know how lucky they are to have me nearby.
We live in a wonderful age. How I wish that my favourite poets had been able to visit us. I would have liked to have asked William Wordsworth how he thought my poem "Ode to the Bluebells" compared to his "Daffodils". ha ha. It is my most popular poem.
I am going to make it possible for children much farther afield to benefit from what I am doing locally as from September. I have Skype on my computer. I can speak to my friends across the world, and, with my webcam and theirs, we can see each other too - rather like the television, only interactive. I want to hear from teachers who have this facility in their classrooms, and who would like me to visit their classes during their poetry lessons. I can read to the children, talk to them and, above all, I can hear what they have written and encourage them. I think I may be a pioneer poet as regards this. My aim is to fire the children's imaginations, get them actively involved with poetry, make them love poetry from an early age, so that it is something which will carry them through life, as it has done for me. If you go to my website: www.whiteheadm.co.uk - you can Email me if you would like to be a pioneer poetry teacher also. I would like to be a

Teaching Poetry to Children

A Poetry Lesson Plan

Poem Selection

Reading the Poem

Questions to Ask Before Reading a Poem to an Audience