Playing with Poems: Rules, Tools, and Games

Strategies for Using Poetry in the Classroom

The word "strategies" is almost too scientific a word to use when speaking about the teaching of poetry. There isn't a formula or recipe for teaching. Teaching and connecting with your students can be as elusive and mercurial as poetry. Poetry is an art form that captures sounds that have been placed in the context of language, and then distilled onto the page. In poetry there are no rules! Some poems rhyme, some don't. Some poems are neat and tidy on the page, some run down and around in shapes. Therefore there are no right, or wrong answers. This may make some feel uncomfortable, or squeamish. What we don't realize is that we already have internalized the elements of poetry into our being from a very young age. According to Robert Pinsky in The Sounds of Poetry, A Brief Guide:

We have learned to deal with the sound patterns organically, for practical goals, from before we can remember, without reflection or instruction or conscious analysis. We all produce the sounds, and understand them, with great efficiency and subtle nuance.(13)

Children don't need to be told exactly how to find the cookie jar in the kitchen. It's possible to gesture, or make a reference to where it is without being grammatically correct. Thus in teaching poetry to young children our task should not be considered insurmountable. What I am seeking to accomplish in my approach is to let loose this subconscious awareness of sounds while inviting students to attach a conscious thought process to these sounds. I am asking them to expect the unexpected by letting the author take them to unknown and previously unexplored places in their imaginations.

I have broken these strategies, or practices up into seven overall goals to be reached. These may be attacked daily or grouped alone. You will need to gauge the stamina and interest of your class.

1. Have students read the poem aloud with an open mind. Have them read the poem many times aloud. They may read to themselves in a whisper voice or aloud with a partner.
2. Have the students learn to listen, with their whole bodies. If there is a musical quality to the poem try not to discourage swaying or tapping of feet. Clapping out beats or sounds may also be appropriate. Have them listen with their eyes open, but not focused on the page of text. Then try the same thing with their eyes closed while someone else reads, and again with their eyes open while following along with the text. Encourage them to listen the internal sound of their own voice while you read silently. This is when we get the real character, voice, or mood of the poem.
3. It is most important to have students respond to the poem. Advise them to be sensitive to the images and specific words that grab them in the poem. Make connections between themselves and Langston Hughes the writer. Record those responses in either pictures or words in specified notebooks or poetry journals.
4. Have students collaboratively discuss these responses using norms and protocols agreed upon by the group.
5. Work with your students over time to develop a vocabulary of terms that can be accessed in your discussion, just like you would do in Science, or Math.
6. The ultimate goal will be for students to have success in memorizing short poems 2-10 lines long. These will be the poems of Langston Hughes and the poems they have written in class.
7. Finally they will experience a sense of pride when they perform their poems in front of an audience at the Poetry Café.

The largest goal I have for my students is to make a personal connection to the text, which will enable them to connect their experiences and those of Langston Hughes' as portrayed in his poetry. In learning about his life, as a child growing up in the Midwest during the early 1900's, and later as an adult in Harlem they will begin to see how their own environment has shaped who we are. We will take many walks around our school (both inside and outside), and around the town. We will observe, take photographs, and write about them with a poet's eye. They will experiment with writing about Brisbane Community Park, Midtown Market, the Library, and the Recreation Department where they spend many hours after school each day. They will also start to make connections with their fellow classmates through poetry written about each other's family, pets, bedroom, or even favorite foods. By sharing these poems with each other we will refine our skills as writers and connoisseurs of poetry.

Ultimately we will create a Café- like atmosphere as a place to stimulate this process. Rearranging the classroom so that desks do not divide us, as we are throughout the regular part of the day, will promote a fun, vibrant, chatty, and alive place where dreams can be realized.