I love talking about the power of poetry. I have been giving teacher workshops for many years on this topic and it always feels fresh and new. Maybe it’s because I get to read aloud poems all day. Or maybe it’s the fact that before my eyes I see teachers being transformed into poetry lovers as well. After all poetry is magical. When beginning a unit of study on poetry I remind myself that this is very different from a poetry activity (i.e. You have your whole class make a spring acrostic poem). A unit of study allows children to feel the power, purpose, and sounds of poetry. I often tell my students, “For the next few weeks we are going to read, write, think, eat, breathe, sing, dream, draw, and live poetry!”  Before you begin your poetry unit you must consider the poets and poems that will mentor your students. Choose a variety of poems and poets that show your students all poetry can be. Don’t only use rhyming poems. Look for poems that add to your student’s knowledge base of poetry and being a poet.  

• Poets: Children should be familiar with different poets, from different backgrounds, with different voices. I love to find anthologies where poets talk about poetry and their process. Two favorites are: A Jar of Tiny Stars Bernice E Cullinan, Editor and The Place My Words are Looking For selected by Paul Janeczko.

• Sounds of Poetry: Children need to hear the music of poetry. Feel the rhythm. Clap their hands and move to the beat. Rhythm can come from rhyme, repetition, white space, alliteration, onomatopoeia. The two poetry books I always go back to are Honey I Love by Eloise Greenfield and On the Wing by Douglas Florian.

• A Poet’s Inspiration: Children realize poetry can be about anything and everything. It’s how poet’s look that makes the difference. Find poems that show where poetry comes from. Observation and wonder – All the Small Poems by Valerie Worth Persona Poems – Dirty Laundry Pile Selected by Paul Janeczko Memories – Toasting Marshmallows Camping Poems by Kristine O’Connell George

• Poems Create Images: Image is the seed of a poem. Find poems that create images in the reader’s mind. Poems that your children can picture and connect with. Poems that create vivid images often include sensory detail, vivid verbs, simile, small details or specific language. I have been using Pieces: A Year in Poems and Quilts by Anna Grossnickle Hines and Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky by Georgia Heard.

• The Look of Poetry: Children see that pets, more than other kinds of writers, consider how their words will be placed upon the page. Find poems that play with shape and structure, white space, font size and punctuation. Flicker Flash and Splish Splash by Joan Bransfield have wonderful concrete poetry. Dear World by Takayo Noda are poetic notes to the earth. Little Dog and Duncan by Kristine O’Connell George has interesting use of white space and font.