Hi everyone, I used some poems from text books with my class and the students enjoyed the poems. I want to try more poems with my class. Do you have any suggestions on where I can get more poems and ideas to use them?

Jenny 

To be honest, I don't really see the value in using poetry for language teaching.

It's not the weight of disadvantages/advantages in poetry itself that makes me say this, it's just that there's nearly always something more relevant that you could be using.

For example, if I were to choose between the following, I'd probably choose the poem:

• • a short, light-hearted, modern poem
  • a 1988 newspaper article on the growing economy of the Cook Islands
  • a Wikipedia excerpt on mosquito biology

The thing is, in reality I'm more likely to be choosing between the following:

• • a short, light-hearted, modern poem
  • a phone conversation between a potential University student and the enrolment officer
  • a conversation between two team-leaders during their coffee-break discussing how annoyed they are about the recent departmental budget cuts
  • a short mystery/detective story
  • an anecdote about something funny that really happened to the teacher recently

There's always something that is more practical, more relevant, and more interesting for the learners. And as above, it doesn't always have to be something real and practical. Fiction is fantastic - it has the colour and the variety of a poem while retaining more realistic language use.

Using Poetry in the classroom is not something you want to miss. There are various reasons to preach teaching poetry: First of all, believe it or not: kids and students love it. They love rhymes and the music inherent in poems. Besides, I think poetry lessons can make students love the language as they are encouraged to use it creatively. Moreover, it urges students to learn more vocabulary as they look for words that would rhyme with other words. This can be also used to consolidate the recognition of the stress in words..

 I used to avoid teaching poetry at first, to be honest, because I thought students will not be involved and they won't love it. Then, I read a few articles about teaching poetry and wanted to try it myself. The results were more than reassuring. My students are pre-intermediate learners so I avoided going into much detail: we talked only about rhymes. I asked some of my students  to provide any words that they can think of in English. The others tried to find words that rhyme with them. Then we wrote down the words on small seperate cards. I asked my students to put them in groups: some words belong to the School group. Other words belong to the Food group,etc..Then I told my students that this is how poems are written basically. I asked them to write a simple poem about one of the groups using the rhyming words provided.. I did not talk about scansion or difficult stuff..I think this is what they need for the time being..The result was more than satisfying.. I also encouraged my students to be creative as to the presentation: I showed some examples i printed from the net.. Some wrote their poem on a piece of cloth..Others on a paper shaped as a green leaf,etc..  So, I am not going to miss any opportunity to use poems in my classes! 

For great links on how to teach poetry:

http://www.netaxs.com/katz/teachers.htm

http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200404PoetryContagious.pdf

Teacher of English from Tunisia

Hamad Town Intermediate Boys' School, Bahrain 

My Blog:

http://virtualstaffroom.blogspot.com/

I still feel that all the arguments FOR using poetry go along these lines:

•  The magic of poetry would surely transform the clinical atmosphere of the language classroom into one joy and freedom.
• ...poetry lessons can make students love the language as they are encouraged to use it creatively.
• The art of poetic ‘harmony’ may also be approached as a way to motivate students to enjoy using English.

Is language really so dry that only poetry can add a touch of creativity?

There are hundreds of other types of written and spoken styles and genres of language that are as equally interesting and motivating... AND they are more appropriate to most learners' wants and needs.

The enthusiasm that sparks out of a recording of a heated argument between husband and wife, followed by role-plays based there on! The intrigue of a good short sci-fi, spy, thriller, or detective fiction mystery!  The creativity involved in reading the first half of a short love story based on a rather rocky relationship, and then being asked to complete the second half - being able to decide whether they stay together or split apart!  The sense of achievement of being the last one in the balloon in any variation of a balloon debate!  The pride in creating the most challenging interview questions in a mock interview scenario, or the most challenging general knowledge questions in a class quiz!

Language is not so dry... and poetry is just holding back our exploration!