Do you like teaching poetry? If you don’t, keep reading because I can help you! What kinds of poems do you enjoy? If you teach third, fourth or fifth graders, you’ll want to use poems that will connect with students, and I’ve found that means humor! If I can get students to read and write poetry, I’m doing a happy dance!
So how DO you begin teaching students how to analyze poems? I recommend starting by reading your favorite poems aloud. Dig out your childhood poetry books. What poems do you remember from your childhood? Can you recite any poems? What were your favorite poems? Who were your favorite authors? If you share your love of poetry, students will see that.
Bring poetry books from the library into your classroom and set up a big display area. Use post-it-notes with arrows and put them on the pages of the poems you enjoy and write things like, “Great use of alliteration!” and “The author repeats the word, ‘thump’ three times.” etc. This simple task shows students what’s in your mind when you read the poem. Talk about the message of the poem. Talk about what the poem is about. Reread the poem aloud, listening for patterns and for the overall flow of the words. Do any words stand out? What words? Why do you think the author chose the words she or he did to convey the meaning? Read the poems more than once. With each reading, you’ll discover things not seen before. These pieces of the puzzle help create the mood, feeling tone, and message of the poem. Most importantly, do this process with students so they realize you can’t read a poem once and “get” the meaning on the first go-round. It takes many readings.
One of my favorite poets to read aloud with students is Shel Silverstein. Possibly my favorite poem is, “Sick” with reasons that . . . “Little Peggy Ann McKay cannot go to school today. She has the measles and the mumps, a rash, a gash, and purple bumps.” {You have to put on your silly acting hat and use a great voice when you read this poem!} At this point all of the students will be with you! Next up, I read Silverstein’s poem, “Sarah Cynthia Silvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out.” Do a Google search for a video of the Poem Read by Shel Silverstein. Now students will be hooked! The walls of resistance will be coming down. All students can connect with these two themes of being sick and not wanting to take the garbage out (a great text to self connection).
The fun part of analyzing poetry is figuring out what the poet was trying to say. This is where the use of figurative language comes in. It’s what makes the poetry have that music-like rhythm and flow. It’s the flow of the words, the rhythm of the beat, the pattern of the syllables, it’s the words carefully chosen to create images in the reader’s mind. THIS is the fun part of poetry. Finding all these written treasures!
I must say that my personal experience with analyzing poetry as a high school student was not easy. Flashback to my 10th grade year; one of my most challenging years because I attended school that year in England. My uncle, aunt, and cousins were kind enough to let me live with them to get the foreign exchange student experience of a lifetime but that year was far and away one of the hardest academically. One of my favorite teachers taught English literature, but I had never ever analyzed poetry and his class was a university-bound level literature class. My English classmates had lots of previous experience analyzing literature. We analyzed two of Shakespeare’s poems, “King Richard II” and “Anthony and Cleopatra.” We spent the entire year on those two poems! I remember translating the meaning of each word in every line. I had notes scrawled in between the lines trying to decipher Shakespeare’s meanings. To help us learn, my teacher took our class to see Shakespeare’s birthplace at Stratford Upon Avon and we watched a Shakespearian play in the theater in London. What an experience it was.
Elementary school students today are being taught to analyze poems early on in their school career and as a result, I can tell you, today’s learners will be much more prepared to tackle Shakespeare’s works one day because of their poetry work in elementary, middle, and high school.
Before you begin teaching the poem to your students, I highly recommend you digging in to the poem and understanding it before you teach it to students. Teaching children to analyze poetry isn’t one of those things you can just pick up and teach; some poems really are hard for adults to understand, let alone ask students to understand. The time you spend time thinking, reflecting, asking questions about what you’ve read, and understanding the poem will pay off when you teach with confidence.
If you teach the Common Core curriculum, your fourth and fifth graders will read nine poems on the Common Core task exemplars list. I LOVE teaching poetry and spent two weeks reading the nine CCSS poems with a critical eye and created 4th and 5th grade poetry analysis task cards and mini units for each of the nine poems on the exemplars list.
Here’s how I would suggest learning about CCSS poems. First, learn all about the life of the poet to get a sense of his or her background and life. Next, search the web for online links and videos that you can use to show students the poem. Understanding the time period the poem the poem was written and the background of the poet is essential to drawing conclusions about the poem’s meaning and puts it in historical context. Next, read the poem line by line, searching for words that students need to understand. Now search for underlying meaning. Look for metaphors, use of similes, alliteration, and other figurative language that is used to convey meaning and paint the visual picture. Next come up with lists of questions you can ask students about the poem. Next, list possible answers students might come up with. Determine the mood and theme.
If creating your own poetry tasks isn’t your thing or if you are just flat out of time, I have you covered! I have 9 sets of Poetry Analysis Task Cards that are ready to print and use! You will get analysis task cards from poems on the CCSS Text Exemplar list, teacher summary, poem web links, task cards and answer keys, a recording booklet you can use for all of the responses, poet biography, how to read a poem, and more! Poems included are: “The Echoing Green,” “The New Colossus,” “Casey at the Bat,” “A Bird Came Down the Walk,” “Fog,” “Dust of Snow,” “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf,” “They Were My People,” and “Words Free As Confetti.” I’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to! To see the Poetry Analysis Bundle for Grades 4-5 on TpT, click HERE.
Next up in importance to teaching students to analyze poetry is giving them time to become poets and write their own poetry. Teach students that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme and doesn’t always follow rules. Allow students to experience the fun of writing their own poems about what interests them. My Independent Poetry Unit bundle has 6 poetry products designed to make teaching poetry fun for you and enjoyable for your students. I priced it to give you great value and help you teach with confidence.
In my TpT store you can find lots of poetry products like poetry vocabulary posters with definitions and examples, PowerPoint slideshows, an interactive notebook set of figurative language foldables, Cootie Catchers that practice figurative language, 33 poetry vocabulary terms and more. The bundled poetry project gives 5 poetry products to give you everything you need to teach a 6-week poetry unit.
My independent poetry project teaches students about different poem forms, gives the definition, and examples so students get the hang of the poetry form. At the end of the unit, hold a “Poet Celebration” and have people review the poems students have written. I taught and refined the unit and the set on TpT is my best selling item and is a loved favorite by students, teachers, and parents. Here’s a peek at some of the poetry project pages. It comes in black and white as well as color.
Teach, and LOVE teaching poetry!
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