Simple Ways to Make Poetry Accessible in any School
The following extract is taken from PETAA's book, Teaching Poetry for Pleasure and Purpose, written by Dr Sally Murphy.
- Read poems aloud to your students. Poetry is meant to be spoken and listened to. Hearing a poem well read emphasises its musicality and makes its rhythm and language more accessible.
- Include poetry (including poem anthologies, rhyming picture books and verse novels) in your classroom library - all the time. Allow students to discover them on their own during free reading time.
- Display poetry on walls and pin-up boards. Rotate it regularly, to be discovered by students and adults too.
- Create a poet-tree - either one-dimensional (on a wall: a picture of a tree that teachers pin poems to as leaves) or three-dimensional (a large branch or even a potted plant). Pin short poems or favourite lines of poetry onto the branches as leaves.
- Include poetry into school newsletters and announcements - for example as a poem of the week or day.
- Keep a book of poems on the teacher's desk, or near the classroom door. Ask every adult who visits the classroom to choose one poem and read it to the class.
- Allow students to use magnet words to create poetry in their free time. You can buy magnet words or make them using strips of magnetic whiteboard or laminated card.
- Encourage students to enter poetry competitions, such as the annual Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition.