Teaching Poetry

I love poetry and have never been formally taught. Every year we do poem memorization work with Jade, and she is great at reading it aloud and memorizing it. This year I really wanted to focus on the appreciation of poetry, and the making of poetry. After a lot of research I finally found what I think is going to be a great teaching resource for me. It’s called Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children by Kenneth Koch. I just finished his first introduction to the book and he has a marvelous way of helping the child understand the poetry by using relational interacting. He suggests ideas for personal poem writing based on certain emotions or comparisons on a particular subject. Then the teacher.. that would be me…. is to read a poem to the child. Afterward he goes line by line explaining it (to me) in a way that I can teach her. It’s simple and complex at the same time.. which of course I love! I think Jade is going to love it as well. Researching poetry curriculum is now complete and added to our list which will be added to our final schedule shortly!  Poetry – check!