by Elle Kim

Created on: September 15, 2008

Poetry can be taught to children in a variety of fun ways, especially as a teacher, who has authority, and can effectively "make" them learn it, whether as homework or reading out loud in class.

My third grade teacher was a very wise and learned woman. She loved children as well as poetry and often read to us some of the poetry that she had written. It almost made us all want to write our own. We were given a poem a week and were to memorize it and recite it in front of the teacher, while the other students could do whatever they wanted. This made reciting it much less stressful. My teacher than marked a grade in our composition books, where the poem had been stapled in. Constantly seeing a large "1" would make us try harder the next time. A bright, big "E" or "4" also made all of us want to impress her even more.

In 5th Grade, we received poetry booklets, made especially for children, with titles like, "My dog does my homework" and "I like it here at school." Those often included funny poetry that had to do with school- which made it all the more enjoyable when we read the poem where the teacher was gobbled up.

Poetry was a privilege to learn. Since we were younger, we had been itching to try our skill at writing poetry. Having contests (with prizes) helped tremendously in the effort, and framing the top 3 winning poems with an honorable mention wasn't a bad idea, either. Making our own poetry book that we could show our parents (with a stamp or note if it had been the weekly/monthly winner) was exciting. Even those that did not enjoy writing loved to raise their hands and give the teacher some of the phrases that they had written, whether it was to impress them or get the candy, I will never know.

To be a teacher in elementary school or middle school should never be too difficult when handling poetry. Voting on favorites made it more fun for me, as well as making us feel grown up. It helped to have "elections" in class where we could vote on the poetry activity of our choice. Rather than having the majority win, and making everyone do one thing, there should be two groups of the top most voted categories. Students could choose which they wanted to do.

Make a deal with the children. Children are almost always open for deals, because of their eagerness of getting new things. Tell them that depending on how well they do, or how well their poetry recital was, they can have more time to talk. It should usually work. It will keep them motivated, and always offer some sort of bonus prize, like a tootsie roll, or a day of movies, or even a coupon to use for some homework assignments. Many a child would rather try to write a good poem and not have homework for the next two days than not trying hard on a poem and having to do homework when nobody else did.

I hope you've taught your child how to learn poetry. Poetry is a beautiful form of writing and literature. It should be taught and learned throughout life, from "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."

Happy Poetry Reciting!

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