Poetry for children and blake lesson plan

Poetry and children can be a great mixture in a learning or teaching perspective if the subject of poetry is introduced in a manner that would make it accessible as opposed to being elusive or scary for children. There is a lot of potential in poetry that is usually untapped as most teachers seem frightened that it is something that children will not grasp or like. As ‘Hey Poetry’ suggests, this is not the case! Children can enjoy poetry as much as adults. The different techniques described in the reading articles give a good starting point for us all to consider when thinking about teaching poetry to children. I believe that we need to come up with our own innovative ideas that suit us and to get over any issues that might deter us from enjoying poetry lessons with pupils. A child can tell if we, as the teacher, are not interested or enthusiastic about what we are going to teach them and thus taint their experience of learning poetry. Therefore, as teachers, it is our duty to create a fun and liberating environment for them to take in poetry in a positive way. Poetry is a very individualistic creative medium in which emotions, thoughts and experiences can be described in any way we want to. This makes it a form of writing that can really engage young minds and help build literary and emotional skills that will improve a child’s growth as a sensitive person. Always making poetry fun is not 100% possible since there are even poems that as adults we find dull or uninspiring but needs to be taught to fulfil the curriculum criteria. Analysing poems by dissecting each line can take the joy out of reading a piece of poetry but can also help pupils to understand the meaning behind the words and enhance their enjoyment of the poem. Poetry does have its own potholes but overall, poetry has a lot of advantages as a teaching tool for getting children interesting in reading and writing.

Blake lesson:

For a poetry lesson aimed at yr 4, lasting approximately 45 minutes, the poem would have to be quite straightforward and grab the pupils’ attention right away. Therefore, I would choose to do ‘A Poison Tree’. I would put the original version with the picture on one side of the whiteboard screen with a typed up copy on the other side. I would read out the poem first then get all the children to read it out with me. Then I would get the children to discuss their first impressions of the poem and what it made them feel.
After this they will:
• Be asked to write down 3 adjectives to describe their feelings about the poem on their own personal white board/a piece of paper
• Get each pupil to give me one of those words and I will write them down on the white board and sum up what everyone came up with (whether they all felt the same or not)
• Discuss the theme of dangerous emotions and what they can lead to, ask pupils for examples when they have fought with someone and got physical and how this is bad (maybe relate it to bad behaviour in the playground)
• Separate the pupils into small groups of 3 or 4 in random order and get them to write a short poem about a real or made up incident where anger led to violence
• And if there is any time left, get them to illustrate their poem by getting each pupil to draw their own picture letting them use Blake's original print as a guide
Hopefully from this lesson, it would introduce the children to Blake in an entertaining way and also get them thinking about the consequences of their actions. And as a bonus get them to do some creative written work as well as incorporating Art into it. I would also consider developing this theme into a drama lesson by getting them to improvise a short sketch in teams of 4 using their poem as the plot.