Thursday, March 25, 2021

Poetry in the Classroom

In Ekphrastic Poetry from Engage Their Minds, engagetheirminds shares,

“Today I want to give you some ideas for using ekphrastic poetry in your classroom. If, like me, you have no idea what that is, don’t feel ashamed.”

April is National Poetry Month. This author shares some resources to use when planning ahead for this month. I was intrigued when she talked about Ekphrastic Poetry. Not only can I barely pronounce but I had no idea what it was.

According to ThoughtCo:

“Ekphrastic poetry explores art. Using a rhetorical device known as ekphrasis, the poet engages with a painting, drawing, sculpture, or other form of visual art.”

This would be a great classroom activity that all students of various abilities can take part in.

First I would teach them different types of poetry such as rhymed poetry, haiku, limerick, blank verse, and free verse. I wouldn’t pick more than five because I think it would be too overwhelming for the students. I would pick one type and spend a few days teaching about it by showing examples, substituting words, and then making up our own.

After I have taught all the different types, we would start looking at different pictures of art. I would give students a choice of artwork and ask them to pick out three and write a poem for each but each poem must be a different type of poetry.

For students having difficulty with writing, I may pick out some poems and have them create their own artwork to go with the poem.

I believe this would help students appreciate poetry and artwork at the same time. By helping students see that poetry can be fun, I think this lesson would be successful for the entire class.

How do you teach poetry to your students? Please share.

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

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