Why Should I Teach Poetry?
- Memorizing and reciting poetry builds confidence.
- Poems give children an easy way to remember a lesson or value.
- Poems inspire us.
- Poems capture emotions and ideas in lyrical phrases that are often easy to remember.
- Poems offer a chance to build connections within multiple areas of a child’s curriculum.
- You can use poetry to teach grammar and vocabulary.
Eight Steps for Teaching Kids Poetry
Aside from finding the right poem, the actual teaching may also be a bit daunting for you. Many of us were not taught poetry when we were children. (I wasn’t.) But, we can still enjoy teaching kids poetry and learning it ourselves!
There are a few basic steps that you can follow which will help you be comfortable teaching kids poetry and will help the students get the most out of it.
1. Read the poem aloud.
Have students listen to you as you read the poem aloud. If it is a difficult poem, you may want to give them some background information before you begin.
2. Identify and define words the students do not know.
