Strategies to introduce poetry

Hello elitez!!!!
here's one useful website that I came across. I recommend this as it provides some useful links and tips to teach poetry.
 Though this page targets kids, I find that the strategies may apply to teenagers as well
http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/poetclass.html


Dr Yeo's strategy was to drown all of us in an ocean of emotions to introduce poetry. This page however is kinder. These strategies will help you in introducing poetry to your students on the first lesson in a fun and exciting manner.

Poetry Class

Have you ever wondered how to get your students excited about poetry? Try teaching with humorous poetry! Here are some great lesson plans and tips on how to teach funny poetry in your classroom.

And this website provide complete exercises on the funny poems which are too long to be pasted here. Here's just one of the poems alone.

	Advice from Dracula
	by Kenn Nesbitt
	Don’t ever dine with Frankenstein; he feasts on flaming turpentine. He chomps and chews on soles of shoes and quaffs down quarts of oily ooze. At suppertime he’ll slurp some slime. He’s known to gnaw on gristly grime. His meals of mud and crispy crud will curl your hair and chill your blood. His poison, pungent, putrid snacks may cause you seizures and attacks. Your hair may turn completely white. You may pass out or scream in fright. Your skin will crawl. Your throat will burn. Your eyes will bulge. Your guts will churn. Your teeth will clench. Your knees will shake. Your hands will sweat. Your brain will bake. You’ll cringe and cry. You’ll moan and whine. You’ll feel a chill run down your spine. You’ll lose your lunch. You’ll lose your head. So come... and dine with me instead.

The idea here is to allow the students to visualise the images from this simple poem and respond to it appropriately. The teachers can also elaborate on the structure of the poem and the usage of sensory images in the poem so that the students will get an idea how a poem works. 

 Students should also learn  that a poem can be read in multiple ways and thus the meaning of the poem would also change accordingly. And the following strategy might help.:

Purpose: . Emphasizing different words will alter the meaning of the poem that the students are reading.

Exercise #1:

1. Use the following poem by Bruce Lansky for this exercise.

My Baby Sister

My baby sister’s really swell. I love her smile, but not her smell.

(Note: All poems used in this study guide are copyright by Bruce Lansky.)

2. Have students take turns reading the poem emphasizing one word over the others. For example the first student reads it emphasizing "My" and the second student reads the poem emphasizing "baby," and so on until the last student has read the poem emphasizing the last word "smell."

3. Reading the selected word with emphasis means to say it louder, slower and more dramatically than the other words in the poem. If you emphasize "My" it means my baby sister as opposed to yours. If you emphasize "baby" it may mean your baby sister as opposed to your older sister.

4. Discuss how the meaning of the poem changes as different words are emphasized.

5. Teach your students that as they practice other poems to present in class that they can decide which words to emphasize. They can underline these words so that they can identify these words as they practice their poems.

Students usually dislike poems because they feel that poems are too sophisticated to be understood and that they should understand the poems the way the teacher interprets them. Via these strategies, the teacher will not have much influence on the readings as the interpretations are formulated by the students themselves. So the next time they come across a poem the will be assured that they can provide their own interpretation to the poem as there is no one "RIGHT/STANDARD" reading to a poem. Hence the teacher's role is to hear the students' interpretations and encourage them. Hope these tips help!!!!

CHEERS! 

Rinita:)