Teaching a Poem to Kids...The How

Reading and learning and studying a poem is purposeful, and the teacher is the guide. This is an exploration the teacher and student share.

Ask your students if they ever sing along with music.

Ask them how many songs they know at least a verse or chorus of.

Point out that these are poems (lyrics) and they already know many of them.

Give each student a copy of the poem.

Speak the poem.

Have a student speak the poem.

Have another student speak the poem.

Ask thoughtful questions. Model how you quote the poem to demonstrate your idea.

These questions might include:

Ask where is the heart of the poem, and how do you know?

Ask about how the poem functions in time, is it sequential, does it go

from effect to cause…present to past…and how they know.

Ask what is the story of the poem? What happens?

Ask about what the poem is doing, and how they know.

Ask about how the sounds of the poem create its effects, and where. These have names.

Ask about the speaker—who does it seem to be, what is the speaker’s distance from and relationship to the poem’s subject—participant, remembering it, observer, critic? How can you tell?

Where are the images? Which senses are engaged?

What is the effect of putting an image or idea right next to another? (Juxtaposition)

If you read only the last word of a poem, straight down, do you kind you get the gist?

When is this poem happening (time of year, time of day? Where is it staged?

What is the feeling you get from this poem? Where? How?