Our middle school English teacher asked me to come over today and help introduce her poetry unit to the sixth grade class. Even before I started, just the mention of poetry brought a groan - hence the 811 emergency! Very few teachers of literature in our district have embraced poetry so I love introducing this unit. After the students explore what different types of poetry there are, Mrs. Rausch has the students write poetry and compile a book. I think we may have to have a poetry cafe -- with an open mike and let them read their poetry the beatnik way.
After a quick introduction about why poetry is important then we dived in to an Internet scavenger hunt to find definitions and examples of different types of poetry. It's fun to reintroduce Mother Goose rhymes and point out the lyrics to songs are poetry. I'm going back tomorrow to finish the lesson and read some poetry aloud. Be enthusiastic and the enthusiasm spreads. I can hardly wait until to hear what these budding poets create!
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