Poetry

In my second grade class we were given a new poem every week. We all read it together in class on Monday and by Friday for extra credit we could recite the poem in front of the class. The one thing was that we had to memorize the poem. That is one of my favorite memories my elementary schools and that is where my love of poetry began. I think that poetry is beautiful, amazing, dynamic. I love that a poem can only have a few lines yet say so much. I think that it is very important for children to be exposed to all different kinds of poetry. No matter what grade I teach, I will incorporate poetry into my lessons. If I do end up teaching sixth grade, I think that it is important for them to express themselves. These students are going through so many different emotions at this age, that it is important that they have a creative outlet. As a future teacher I will teach my students about the different types of poetry and require them to write their own poetry. I also think that it is important to read to your students frequently. I will try to read poetry in my class as much as possible. This will help for the students to see that there are so many different kinds of poetry. I also think that by reading poetry allowed, students will relate to it. Maybe reading a poem allowed will change a students life, just like it changed the students life in Love That Dog. I really enjoyed Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching Children to Write Poetry. It had some amazing ideas of poetry and how to teach children about poetry. I will definitely keep this book and use the ideas in my future classroom.

Useful Websites:

Poetry on PBS

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june00/poetryboxrules.html

Elements of Poetry

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/elements.html