Reflection on poetry handouts

In The Literacies and Language of Poetry and Rhyme Suzi Clipson-Boyles says ‘We fail to acknowledge the literary colours of everyday communications’. I like the idea of recognising the poetry that is all around us and taken for granted. I agree with her that a heightened awareness of the poetry in language can empower one to feel ownership of a range of ways to use language. This is central to why I want to teach - I want to empower children by enabling them to make full use of language.

Suzi Clipson-Boyles states that it is good to encourage young children to feel confident and experiment with language. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with this, I think it is older children that tend to be more inhibited by poetry. Ideally the confident attitude to language would be initiated in early years and then extended continuously into later life.

This chapter makes a compelling case for teaching poetry. I would like to remember it to use if challenged on why children should learn poetry. I think most of her eight ‘learning links’ apply to the teaching of poetry to older children too.

Sean O’Flynn is inspiring. He notes, interestingly, that children like memorising and reciting poems. I had thought that this seems implausible and archaic, and then I remembered that as a child I loved reciting poems like ‘The Owl and The Pussycat’.

I haven’t observed any work on poetry in SSE yet and I’m curious to see, firsthand, children’s responses to poetry in the classroom. I would love to try out some of the techniques and activities that Sean outlines, especially if they are similarly successful.