The Value of Poetry: Three Reasons to Teach It
When you think of poetry, do you think of dusty old books in the basement of your library? Or do you think of sappy love sonnets written centuries ago? Perhaps you think about words of angst written by moody teenagers. Or maybe you think of Dr. Seuss and his nonsensical rhymes. Do you wonder about the value of poetry? Truth is, poetry offers a wealth of benefits when it comes to educating kids of all ages, but many adults find it difficult, confusing, pointless, and even unsettling to teach it. But, we need to move beyond that and tap into the value of poetry. Below, you will find three reasons to teach it.
First off, poetry can improve reading skills. When simple rhymes are used in early reader books, they offer clues into decoding unknown words. The use of these clues helps create success and establish confidence in younger readers. Books by Dr. Seuss and The Cat in the Hat offer prime examples of such rhymes, but there are loads of other books that do the same. Additionally, short songs and nursery rhymes have the same benefit and make excellent tools when teaching younger kids to read. As a classroom teacher, I found great success in teaching short songs, nursery rhymes and also simple poetry in a “choral” fashion by printing the words on large sentence strips and placing them in pocket charts. This allowed all students and the teacher to read together in chorus. The sentence strips also allowed the manipulation of individual words and phrases so rhyming connections, vocabulary work and more could be made concretely. Each student also had a personal notebook containing each song, poem and nursery rhyme and could read them on their own. Poetry can also be used to teach phonemic awareness and phonics skills. The simple fact that word pairs rhyme because they have the same “chunks” at the end opens up a very easy, yet valuable way to focus on using phonemic awareness as a reading strategy.
Secondly, poetry encourages students to be creative. We often expect our kids to answer these questions or write on that topic and, therefore, leave little room for kids to simply be creative when writing. But, writing poetry, whether short and simple or long and abstract can be fun! It allows them to play with language in ways that they might not be able to do in other types of writing while also giving them freedom to break some of the conventional grammar rules. Plus, there are tons of different types of poetry out there, so there’s sure to be something that everyone can enjoy. For some suggestions, check out these children’s poets. And, here you’ll find some reviews for a few Poetry Games to help inspire kiddos to to tap into their creative selves. And, with this I Am poem, kids of all ages can get creative while exploring ways to communicate more about themselves. And, these poetry writing prompts for kids are a fun way to kick start those creative juices! If you have middle/high schoolers, these figurative language activities might work really well to help your kids tap into their creativity. And, understanding these allusion examples would allow students to beef up their communication in general. Check out all of these poetry activities for high school to get an idea of how you can get those older kids to show more creativity.
Lastly, poetry can help students better understand the world around them. By reading, analyzing and memorizing poetry, students can better understand history, appreciate others’ perspectives and perhaps find a published voice that echoes their own feelings and fears. For instance, the works of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes both speak volumes about the experience of black Americans, but across different decades. Reading Shakespeare opens up a whole new world that shows the importance that poetic and playwright entertainment had for people over 400 years ago. Reading, and laughing at, Shel Silverstein’s words can help bring a child’s frustrations over simple things like homework, baby sisters and chores to a place of recognition that creates an open door for discussion. Of course, it needs to be carefully monitored for content, but poetry can help students better understand the world around them.
By incorporating poetry into your educational plan, you can help your students become better readers, find their creative voices and start to form a better understanding of the world around them. And, here is a quick and simple freebie to get you started!
The Value of Poetry: Three Reasons to Teach It
