Notes for Using Poetry with Children

Reasons for using poetry

provides enjoyment expands knowledge about the world encourages an appreciation for language, expands vocabulary helps identify with people and situations expresses moods familiar to children gives insights into themselves and their feelings

Children prefer
rhyme, humorous narrative, and content based on familiar experiences enthusiasm declines as children get older favor contemporary over traditional least favorites are complex imagery and subtle emotion

Criteria for selecting poetry

1. Poems that are lively, with exciting meters and rhythms, are most likely to appeal to young children. 2. Poems for young children should emphasize the sounds of language and encourage play with words. 3. Sharply cut visual images and words used in fresh novel manners allow children to expand their imaginations and see or hear the world in a new way. 4. Poems for young children should tell simple stories and introduce stirring scenes of action. 5. The poems selected should not have been written down to children's supposed level.

6. The most effective poems allow children to interpret, to feel, and to put themselves into the poems. They encourage children to extend comparisons, images, and findings. 7. The subject matter should delight children, say something to them, enhance their egos, strike happy recollections, tickle their funny bones, or encourage them to explore. 8. Poems should be good enough to stand up under repeated readings. Listening to poetry 1. Before reading a poem aloud to a group, read it aloud to yourself several times. Mark the words and phrases that you want to emphasize. 2. Follow the rhythm of the poem, reading it naturally 3. Make pauses that please you, pauses that make sense. 4. When reading a poem aloud speak in a natural voice. 5. After a poem is read, be quiet. Developing choral speaking 1. When selecting materials for children who cannot read, choose poems of rhymes that are simple. 2. Choose material of interest to children. 3. Select poems or rhythms that use refrains. 4. Let children help select and interpret the poetry. 5. Let children listen to each other as they try different interpretations within groups.

Elements of selecting poetry

rhythm rhyme repetition imagery

Shape

Types of Poetry
lyric narrative ballads limericks concrete poems free verse, haiku, cinquain,diamante parody After teaching them about a kind of poetry, work with the students during the writing process on developing motivations. Let them begin by sharing ideas. Studies show that teachers in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades pay little attention to poetry. Notes from Through the Eyes of a Child by Donna Norton p. 356-400

Write a cinquain
Line 1:A word for a title Line 2:Two words to describe the title Line 3:Three words to express action Line 4:Four words to express feeling Line 5:The title or word like the title title describe title action, action, action feeling about the title title Example: Ferdinand Happy, strong Sitting, smelling, growing Loves to smell flowers Independent

second grade class

Write a diamante
Line 1:Noun Line 2:Two adjectives Line 3:Three participles Line 4:Four nouns or phrase Line 5:Three participles indicating change Line 6:Two adjectives Line 7:Contrasting noun noun describing, describing action, action, action transition nouns or phrase action, action, action describing, describing noun Example: Toy Stuffed, velveteen Sitting, lying, riding Love made him real Walking, running, leaping Real furry Rabbit fourth grade class

Write a Limerick
A limerick: 1. is usually funny 2. has five lines 3. the first, second and fifth lines rhyme 4. the third and fourth lines rhyme 5. the first, second and fifth lines have 8 or 9 syllables 6. the third and fourth lines have 5 syllables Examples: There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, 'It is just as I feared! Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!' by Edward Lear There was a young lady named Bright, Who traveled much faster than light. She started one day In a relative way, And returned on the previous night Anonymous

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