TEACHING POETRY

          It is no secret students do not love learning about poetry. There are  many reasons for this. Students fear what they do not understand, and to many students poetry feels unreachable. Our goal when teaching should be to teach poetry in a way that makes it seem fun, reachable and exciting. Poetry can be a wonderful tool to say old things in a new way, but making students understand the beauty can be a daunting task. Today I will discuss a fun way to teach poetry to hesitant students.

 

POETRY BOXES

     A friend of mine presented the idea of poetry boxes to my methods class and that is what I want to share with you all today! Poetry boxes are a unique way to introduce poems to students in a fun and unique way. I will say the creation of the poetry boxes is a lot of work upfront for teachers, however you can use it for years to come.

 

     To begin, you will need to choose the poems you wish to teach to your class. You would want to pick 4-5 poems so you can split the class into groups. My friend used this idea on Sylvia Plath's poetry, which could potentially be difficult for younger grades. I am going to show examples of the poems by Plath, but be sure to pick poems that your students will both understand and love!

 

 

     First, the idea of the box is to make a diorama of sorts. This should not give away too much on the poem, but should make be interesting and fun.

The following link connects you to poems by Plath:

 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/sylvia-plath#about

This box was created for the poem "The Moon and the Yew Tree"

 

 

    At this point you are ready for the actual lesson!

 

THE LESSON

 

           Split the students into groups of 3-4. Each group should have their own poetry box at the center of their table. There are several ways to do this, but I think the best way is to not give the students the poems ahead of time. Give the students a list of questions to answer including the following:

 1, What do you notice about the box? What colors are used and what objects are present? What could these mean?

2. What do the things in the box have in common?

3. Brainstorm themes you can find in your box. What topics do you think your poem could be about?

 

 

Next, have the students read the poem a couple of times. Give them guiding questions as followed to discuss it.

 

 

1. What do you think your poem is about?

2. What do the poem and the box have in common? What from the box helped you identify the theme of the poem?

3. What benefits do you find in brainstorming themes ahead of time?

 

After the students have worked with their groups have them share out to the class. First, students should show their box and discuss what they brainstormed. Then, one of the students should read the poem aloud to the class. The group should then explain to the class the connections between the poem and the box they first viewed.