How to Teach English Through Poetry

Using poetry in the classroom is a great way to teach English. Because of the varied structure of its form, a poem can be used to teach basic concepts of grammar as well as the descriptive and critical writing. Whatever grade level you teach, the steps below will help you use poems in your classroom to provide English instruction.

Instructions

1. Teach pre-school and kindergarten students. For these children, poems are beneficial in teaching beginning English skills. Choose poems that are short---no more than three stanzas with two or four lines per stanza. Display the poem on the overhead projector or write it yourself and post in the room. If you teach one or two letters of the alphabet per week, have the children circle words that begin with the targeted letter. This method can also be used when teaching beginning, medial and final sounds. If you display a pre-printed poem, laminate it or rewrite it on dry-erase paper. This way, one poem can be used to reinforce several skills at once.

2. Teach elementary students. You can use poetry as a great tool for reinforcing the basics of English. For example, whenever you are teaching parts of speech like verbs, adjectives, nouns and pronouns, choose poems that have plenty of examples of these in the stanzas. Then have the children circle or highlight all nouns or all verbs that they can find. This is a great alternative to the traditional worksheets which usually have the children find these elements in random sentences. This exercise has the added benefit of encouraging all students to be involved because the poem can be written on the board or displayed on a poster, and you can have students come up in pairs to find the part of speech that you are targeting.

3. Teach middle school students. For students in grades four through eight, poems can be used effectively to teach skills that move beyond the basic concepts of English. Middle school English emphasizes phrasing, assuming that the student has mastered the parts of speech and general grammar and usage. When teaching prepositional phrases or noun clauses, choose poems that have examples of these, and display them on the overhead projector. You can have selected students come up to highlight the targeted phrase. By the time students advance to these grades, they may not want to get up in front of peers, so it is also acceptable to call on volunteers to just tell you the answer. It is beneficial to have copies of the poem to give to each students and have them circle or underline the phrases because the children who may be poor readers will probably never volunteer to give an oral answer. This way, you can check papers later to be sure everyone understands what you taught.

4. Teach high school students. When students are in high school, they will begin English instruction in critical and descriptive writing. Poems provide great examples of this genre to illustrate this type of writing. Choose poems that are highly illustrative, so students can find descriptive phrases. Choose rhyming poems that demonstrate a variety of writing rhythms such as assonance and alliteration. These will help students when they begin writing essays that require such elements. For critical writing, choose poems that are highly conceptual and call for students to reflect and then write or talk about what the verses mean to them.

5. Teach learning disabled students. Students with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) can be taught effectively with poems. Choose ones that are short in stanza and line. Instead of posting a poem on the board, have the student listen to a poetry CD or record yourself or another fluent reader reciting the poem and play it for the student in a listening center. This will make the learning experience less abstract.
   Students who have deficient writing skills can draw a picture of what the poem means to them. If they cannot draw, give them magazines to find pictures or download them from the Internet. Once the student has a picture in their mind, you can begin teaching the basics of writing. Being actively involved like this gives learning disabled students a chance to contribute to classroom instruction.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish