As teachers, we all have our tendencies. We like to teach certain books, watch specific versions of films or plays, and teach content in our particular way. Every teacher I've ever met has certain things they do for individual units, and just as some teachers have must-read novels before graduating high school, I have must-have components for teaching poetry.
Must-Have #1: Close Read
I love close reading. Whether it is a short story or a poem, close readings are super valuable for students and are proven to help students pay more attention to what they are reading and make their thoughts visible to them. Poetry can be interpreted in a variety of ways, so close reads of poems are beyond valuable, and students can then use their notes and thoughts to develop an understanding of the theme, intent, mood, and tone.
To find out more about my close reading strategies, check out this blog post!
Must-Have #2: Discussion
I am a firm believer that students learn best from other students, and I like to get my students discussing as often as possible. I recently wrote a post all about the different ways I get my students talking within my characterization unit. If you are interested in learning more about that, check out the post here!
In my poetry unit, the discussion is more about discovery and understanding the lenses of other people reading the piece. We can discuss the use of poetic devices, the tone, and our general mood and feelings after interacting with the poet's work. I believe conversation is an integral part of a poetry unit. I am always amazed at how an individual word can make two people feel so differently depending on personal connotations.
Must-Have #3: Performance
The performance of a poem doesn't have to be anything fancy, but hearing a poem aloud or speaking it to someone else allows my students' other senses to interact with the poem.
Sometimes, I make the performance an experience through slam poetry, but sometimes I feel like certain classes just need to read aloud within a small group. Performances don't have to be full-class experiences. I just want to make sure that every student has the chance to see, hear, speak, and listen to poetry as they attempt to understand it.
Must-Have #4: Art
Art and poetry feel like they go hand-in-hand. One of my favorite activities to incorporate into my poetry unit is black-out poetry. Check out the full blog post here. This artistic approach to capturing and presenting the tone and mood of a poem is one that allows students to think about how they want to display the poetic experience.
Other artistic options include having students draw or paint while listening to a musical selection, drawing pictures in the margins to correspond with the changing mood, or using classic artwork as inspiration for devised poetry.
Must-Have #5: Music
Lyrics are poetry, and for auditory learners, music is one of the best ways to teach about poetry. I also find that sometimes the whole idea of poetry is very overwhelming and foreign to some students, and music helps to both modernize it and make poetry more accessible. Every student has not experienced a Shakespearean sonnet, but every student has listened to music, most through their ever-present ear-buds.
Students can close read the lyrics on paper, listen and discuss multiple covers of the song, and review and research their hypothesis about the song's meaning and intent. Using modern songs has added value in that students can dig deeper into the writer's life to try to understand why they chose to sing or write the song in the first place.
Although they show up with different amounts of emphasis and focus each semester, these are my must-haves for my poetry unit: close reads, discussion, performance, art, and music, but what are yours?
Do you have a must-have list for any of your other units? I'd love to know what you do in your classroom, so leave me a comment below!
