Poetry Session

Blake’s Poetry

I would teach A Poison Tree to a year four group. I would start the lesson by reading the poem to the class. I would then split the class into four groups and give each group a stanza to add actions to; the groups would perform their stanza to the class. This activity would help the pupils to think about the meaning of the poem, develop their ability to work together and build their confidence with poetry. I would then explain the concept of theme, explaining it as what the poem is about, and ask the pupils to guess what they thought the theme might be.

This activity would lead on to a discussion about anger. I would ask the students about a time that they have felt angry, what were some of the signs that they were getting angry? For example, clenched fists or sweaty palms, and what happened? Did they shout, or cry or go very quiet? I would then split the class into three groups I would give one group an image of a match, the match symbolizes the trigger of anger, and ask them to add to the image things that make them angry. I would give the second group an image of a firework, symbolizing the signs of anger, and ask them to add to the image what happens to them when they get angry. The third group would be given an image of an explosion, symbolizing the actions of a person when they get angry, this group would add what they do when they get angry to the image. The images would be used for displays in the classroom, to help students to be aware of some of the signs when they are getting angry.

The final activity would connect to the poem again and the students would be given a couple of minutes to think about what advice they would like to give to the person in the poem that is angry. They would write their advice on a piece of paper and put it in a bucket, the bucket symbolizes a bucket of cool water to calm the angry explosion down. The teacher could type up the advice given by the students and place the advice back in the bucket. The bucket could be left in the classroom and if a student feels that they are getting angry (by spotting the signs of anger – displayed on the wall) they could take a suggestion from the bucket to help them to calm down.

Reflections on the handouts

I found the chapter Literacies of Language and Poetry in Rhyme interesting. Fear of poetry does seem to be something that we develop as adults. I read a lot of poetry as a child but never read it for pleasure now; I only ever read it when I have to study it. William Blake’s Tyger Tyger was a favourite poem of mine when I was younger and I can still recite the first verse despite never sitting down and trying to learn it, as far as I can remember. I was surprised by the poem when we read it as a class because I can’t remember ever being confused by it or disliking it because I didn’t understand it. As a child I think I must have been able to enjoy the images and sounds of the poem without getting ‘bogged down’ in the meaning of it, I wish I could do that now.

So, what happens as adults? When do we start getting ‘bogged down’ by poetry? And how do we stop that happening as teachers?

Another interesting point made in the chapter Literacies of Language and Poetry in Rhyme was that poetry is all around us, in greetings cards, advertising jingles, newspaper headings, etc. but we are not intimidated by any of that. On my serial school placement the children are having a competition to design the school Christmas card, the winner is decided by a vote in assembly. To promote their design the year six class performed a jingle, it didn’t occur to me at the time that this is poetry!