Teaching Ideas To Teach Poetry At Western Kentucky University

In numerous articles of the National Council of Teachers of English’s English Journal, teachers discuss poetry while mentioning their reservations about the subject. Some have fears because they never had models show them how to teach poetry (Lockward 65). At Western Kentucky University, English for Secondary Teaching majors are not required to take a poetry or creative writing course, and a course that explicitly models how to teach is not even offered. Poetry can be used to teach a variety of concepts including English as a Second Language and geology, but how does a secondary teacher best teach poetry? The most effective method is exposure. Those with fears of poetry who then do not teach it only welcome their students into the cycle of

Students may fear writing poetry even more than reading, but making a creative space alleviates the pressures and forces students outside their comfort zones, and “if [teachers] do not provide opportunities to write poetry, [they] deny that any of [their] students are capable of becoming poets” (Lockward 69). Students can generate ideas not only about their poems but also about essays and poems they read previously because “[w]hen students are allowed to write their own poems, they also learn to analyze as writers” (Lockward 69). Imitation poetry is a way to teach writing while still including reading. Taking the idea from Love That Dog, April Brannon created three exercises based on contemporary poems. Mary Oliver’s “The Sunflowers” captures the image of the flowers by personifying them, and students imitate the poem by focusing intensely on objects they see in their daily lives (54-55; Appendix 1). This exercise creates the path for a discussion about imagery and figurative language and teaches students to think outside the typical ways to describe objects. Oliver writes, “their dry spines / creak like ship mast . . . they are shy / but want to be friends,” but many people would not think of comparing flowers to ships (Oliver). Another exercise is based on Ellen Bass’s “Relax,” a list of “terrible things that can happen in life” (53; Appendix 2). Brannon wrote her own imitation for college students preparing for student teaching and said the lesson would be beneficial during the first week of school (53-54). Not only would the exercise create a precedent for poetry in a class, but it would also be an engaging icebreaker and allow the students and teacher to assess their fears for the school year. The teacher can discuss with students to ease worries, and everyone can create goals for the year to conquer the fears, and the activity creates its own follow-up. During the last week, students