Reflection on poetry articles and Blake lesson plan

I have always liked poetry although I am daunted by it; I worry that when reading a poem I am missing something vital. For this reason in the past I have enjoyed dissecting and analysing poetry for meaning and form but have neglected reading poetry purely for the enjoyment of it and the appreciation of the language. I like Sean O’Flynn’s notion of not getting bogged down with analysis and to simply like the way a poem sounds. The idea of song lyrics being the same as verse has really helped me in not feeling intimidated by poetry; I love music and find that I can remember the words to most songs after hearing them once. Poetry is a versatile medium to use, I like the idea of getting children to learn poems by heart and write their own, this would help with their reading and writing. I really want to write a song now once I find some inspiration…

I think it is a good idea to get children reading poetry from an early age as too many children just dismiss it, which is probably because they are intimidated by it. The idea of imagery as ‘making pictures with words’ is very appealing and would encourage children to be imaginative, which may help with their writing.

Suzi Clipson-Boyle’s explanation of why adults don’t like poetry hit the nail on the head; the way we are taught it in school probably has the reverse effect in our enjoyment of poetry. My A-Level teacher actually made it enjoyable; I remember his titles for the modules: ‘Larkin about’ and ‘The Keats to the door’, which I found quite amusing.

I like the idea of making poetry accessible to everyone; we all experience the emotions that poetry can evoke so it shouldn’t just be the ‘middle class, clever people’ who can appreciate it. Exploring and experimenting with language can be fun; involving children in this from a young age will enrich their education. Using poetry across the curriculum is a good idea; I remember using ‘A Ring a Ring o’ Roses’ in a GCSE dance about the plague and then researching the historical context, which was really interesting.

It is important to try and make studying poetry an enjoyable task for children; looking at poems in a collaborative an interactive way would facilitate this. I like the idea of making a word collage regarding a theme; this would be both fun and creative. I am a bit of a geek and I love words and language and when writing ‘sounds nice’; encouraging children to play with language will stimulate their imagination and they will hopefully gain some pleasure from it and be enthusiastic in writing their own poetry.

William Blake Lesson Plan

I would use ‘A Poison Tree’ to introduce a year 4 class to the theme of emotion. Initially the poem could be read as a class and then using the interactive white board the teacher could use the children’s ideas to create a mind map of the emotions evoked by the poem.

The children could then be split into small, mixed-ability groups and each given a different emotion to explore; these could either be emotions evoked by the poem or one of their own choice. In their groups the children could create a collage or poster portraying their emotion; so for example if they had the theme of ‘love’ they could use words associated with love, as well as pictures of roses, couples etc and also maybe examples of love songs or other extracts of verse they can remember. These posters would be displayed in the classroom.

As a final activity the children could be asked to think about a time when they felt the emotion of anger portrayed in the poem and then write their own poem describing how they felt. In order for this task not to be too intimidating it could be limited to a certain number of lines and children would be encouraged to include images that they associate with this emotion.