5 Benefits of Teaching Poetry & 5 Useful Links to Support you!

Because he swings so neatly through the trees,

An ape feels natural in the word trapeze.

 

Wilbur, R (2004) “Because he swings so neatly through the trees” from The Pig in the Spigot.

March 1st marks the birth date of Richard Wilbur who was born in New York City in 1921. He went on to become one of the most famous American poets of the 20th century. I mention him today as I would like to discuss the importance of poetry in the lives of our children.

Poetry enables children to develop a whole range of skills.

Listening/Phonemic Awareness

Long before we ever consider reading development with children, we are laying the foundations for it. Key to this is the development of phonemic awareness. One of the most renowned reading researchers, Keith Stanovich, has highlighted phonemic awareness as one of the best predictors of later reading acquisition. The development of phonemic awareness begins with a sense of rhyme and alliteration. Undoubtedly, there is no easier way to develop these than through poetry. Researchers Fresch & Harrison (2013) point out rhyming verse is the easiest of all language constructions to remember which is why we focus so intensely on teaching rhymes and poems in the early years. To boost your child’s development, share songs, rhymes and poems with them on a daily basis. 

Oral Language

Poetry supports children’s oral language development. Through it, they learn vocabulary and grammar. Moreover, they learn about intonation, expression and cadence. Exposure to new words and ideas provides a foundation for the emergence of more sophisticated oral and written expression later. This promotes a child’s confidence in their ability to express themselves clearly and get their ideas and thoughts across. The importance of articulate self-expression cannot be underestimated. Moreover, the simple act of word play, experimenting with puns, idioms, double meanings and unusual meanings enables children to understand more nuanced language.

Social and Personal Development

The earliest poetry children are typically exposed to features word-play and humour. Sharing this as a group is a wonderful social experience. As children mature, they can be exposed to poems that capture deeper thoughts and feelings. In this way, poetry can serve to support children to understand they are not alone. Poems can provide a voice a child may not otherwise have. The writing of their own poems allows children to explore ideas and feelings they may have heretofore kept hidden.

Creative Writing

As alluded to above, poetry can support a child’s writing development. One of the benefits of poetry is that it can be less structured than other forms of writing. Children are free to explore and experiment with form in their early days before later studying poems adhering to strict formats, e.g., haikus or sonnets.

Performance Skills

As noted, poetry is often one of the easiest linguistic forms to recall. This means children may more readily volunteer to perform poems than read/perform aloud any other written form. In this way, poetry can provide children with a gateway to drama and performance that serves them well throughout their lives.

A quick online search reveals a wealth of poetry resources. Here are five of my favourites websites and an additional article I simply could not resist sharing!

Five sites to Support the Teaching of Poetry

Check out Poetryline for a wealth of poems, definitions of poetic terms, and planned teaching sequences.

Read the biographies of famous poets, explore over 12,000 poems divided into age categories to help you as you search for content, and access teaching tools at Poetry Foundation. 

Again, featuring lots of useful teaching tools, poets.org is an excellent resource for teachers. I particularly like the way poems are thematically organised. 

The Poetry Society website is packed full of resources and ideas for promoting poetry. I particularly like the poetry mixtape idea and can see great value in getting children to collate their own favourite poems… albeit the concept of a mixtape may require a little explaining nowadays!

Poetry Out Loud promotes public speaking and poetry recitation for older students in the US. Once more, poems on this site are organised thematically. There are useful links to students performing poems which may be helpful for pupils to watch and discuss.

Finally, for no other reason than to spark wonder, I include this article by Paul Anthony Jones featuring 5 poems with amazing word play Which one is your favourite?

Image Source: Pixabay