Dialog: Poets and Teachers on Teaching Poetry in Middle and High School

Here's a wonderful exchange--beginning with an email from a high school English teacher--on the poet John Gallaher's blog. Questions/discussion topics include:

• elements of poetry that should be included in middle and high school classrooms; 
• successful poetry lessons/activities from middle/high school classrooms; and
•  how to get beyond the need to decode poetry in order for teachers to teach it and students to appreciate it.

It's an important pedagogical issue, and a there is a fascinating discussion about it unfolding in the comments section of the post. To my mind, the most essential elements of poetry to teach in secondary schools are word play and word choice. 

• Word Play: There are so many poems from so many eras that demonstrate just how much fun the English language can be. From Catullus to Shakespeare to William Carlos Williams to Billy Collins, poetry can teach students to enjoy words in a way that no other use of the English language can.
• Word Choice: The words in a poem do more work than the words in any other subset of literature. Diction is, of course, critical to all good writing, but the importance that each word carries its weight is especially evident when seen in the context of a poem's structure and rhythm.

A side benefit of focusing on these aspects of poetry is that this kind of approach gives us another way into the poem. Job one does not have to be to decode the poem, but in exploring the way the words work and play together, some meaning is more likely to come organically from it.

For anyone interested in finding lesson plans for poetry for all grade levels and content areas, I highly recommend the Louisiana Poetry Project (for which I periodically contribute lesson plans). As the name suggests, the organization is focused on poets and poetry from Louisiana, but of course the poems are relevant anywhere. There is a poem and at least one lesson plan for every school day of the year, and some of the plans could be adapted to fit other poems as well. It's a great place to start if you want help and ideas for teaching poetry.

And don't forget to check out the exchange on Gallaher's blog, and to share your thoughts both here and there!

HT: Thanks to The Rumpus for publicizing the question.