Poetry is always one of my favorite lessons of the year. The timing always works out so well with National Poetry Month coming in April. We've gotten through a good chunk of our curriculum at that point in the year. State testing is int he rear view mirror. But most importantly, we've gelled as a community. I know my kids and they know me. We're comfortable with each other. We can be vulnerable to share our ideas.
Which is important because poetry can be intimate. It's emotional and powerful and open to multiple interpretations. I love having these discussions with my students when we aren't afraid of being *cringe* which usually happens after a lot of community building throughout the year.
I like to start our lessons analyzing the structure of poems. How do they work? Why aren't they in paragraph form? Why does it matter how they're written? It opens my kiddos eyes to the world of poetry.
We end the unit by writing our own shape poems which gives students a chance to put into practice everything they've been analyzing the last week. The results always blow me away!
Rhyme comes next which is the most obvious aspect of poetry and often what kids think of first when I bring up poetry. I like subverting that concept and introducing them to nonrhyming poetry before analyzing rhyme as a poetic device.
I've got these two lessons available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you're interested in trying this in your own class! Click here for structure and here for rhyme scheme.
XO Emily
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