Teaching English through Poetry

Poetry offers wonderful opportunities for reading, writing, speaking, and listening
practice for ELLs. Poetry also gives students a chance to expand vocabulary knowledge, to
play with language, and to work with different rhythms and rhyme patterns. Getting students
to think about poems they are familiar with can help make the transition into Englishlanguage poetry smoother. Working with poetry from different countries and languages is also
an excellent opportunity to encourage students to share their cultural heritage with the class,
and to take pride in an art form that is part of their identity and may have been passed down
across many generations.
Poetry can range from simple and fun to complicated and abstract. Depending on the
English level of the students, there are a variety of ways to start bringing poetry in the
classroom.
Talk about the differences between stories and poems. Provide students with a copy of a
short story they've already read and a short poem. Ask them to work in groups and make a list
of the differences between the two pieces, noting characteristics such as length or style. Have
students share those differences with the class.
Start with poems that are manageable. Make sure the poems you present first have simple
and familiar language, images, and themes so that they are accessible to ELLs. We can use
poetry with predictable language patterns, repeated words, phrases, lines, and identifiable
rhymes, so that they are easier for students to read.
Give students a chance to illustrate poems. Have students work in pairs to discuss and
illustrate a short poem, or one or two lines of a longer poem. This will encourage them to
think about meaning, and then express their interpretation in their own way. Ask students to
share their illustrations with the class so that everyone has a chance to think about the
different meanings that their classmates discovered.
Read a variety of poems out loud. Reading a poem out loud brings it to life. Students will
begin to understand and notice different rhythms, rhymes, and feelings represented, as well as
understand how the language creates an image or mood. The poem should be read in a natural
voice, and the teacher can highlight the fact that you do not always stop at the end of each
line, but instead use the poem's punctuation as a cue to where the pauses should be.
Be sure to include some poems written for kids and young adults. Children's poetry can be
so much fun, and it also gives students a chance to talk about important ideas and feelings.
Discuss the vocabulary used in different poems. Poems offer a wonderful opportunity to
teach new vocabulary related to a topic or idea, as well as a chance to think about language.
Why did the poet choose a certain word? How does that word make you feel? What kind of

sound does the word convey? Students may want to pick a word or phrase that is meaningful
from a poem and write it on a "poetic word" wall sort of a graffiti wall of sentiments.
Students can continue to add to the wall as they discover new items, or even as they write
their own poems.
Give students a chance to read poems out loud together as a class and to each other.
Reading poems out loud will improve students' confidence and oral language skills, as well as
their reading fluency.
Discuss grammatical/syntax patterns found in poems. Poems may have unusual sentence
structures that students will not encounter in prose text. Analyzing such sentences can help
ELLs develop a better understanding of conventional English syntax.
Continue reading poetry out loud to your students. When introducing more complex
poems with increasingly difficult English vocabulary, read the poem through and ask students
for an initial impression regarding the meaning of the poem. A student might say, "I think it's
about someone who lost someone they love." This can begin a discussion with questions such
as, "Why do you think that? Is there a certain word or phrase that makes you think that? Does
someone else have a different idea?"
Encourage students to share their personal interpretations. Students will soon see that
each reader finds a different meaning in the poem, and that's ok. Students shouldn't be focused
on looking for the right and wrong answers.
Here are some different types of poems to try in the classroom:
ACROSTIC:
In Acrostic poems, the firet letters of each line are aligned vertically to form a word:
Elegantly and efficiently shaped
Good to eat
Great fun to find at Easter
Smooth shelled
ALPHABET:
Each line begins with the letters of the alphabet in order:
A young girl was busy working on her project for school
But suddenly she had a question.
Could this be her lucky day?
Deciding to find out, she
Entered her backyard and
Found hundreds of green shamrocks waiting for her.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL:
Write a poem about yourself using this form or another poetry form.
Line 1: __ Your name

Line 2: _, _, _ 3 personal characteristics or physical traits

Line 3: Brother or sister of__ or son/daughter of
Line 4: Who loves__, __, and __ 3 people, things, ideas
Line 5: Who feels__ about__1 emotion about 1 thing
Line 6: Who needs__, __, and __ 3 things you need
Line 7: Who gives __, __, and __3 objects you share
Line 8: Who fears__, __, and __3 items
Line 9: Who'd like to see, __1 place, or person
Line 10: Who dreams of __ 1 item or idea
Line 11: A student of__ your school or teacher's name
Line 12: __ Nickname or repeat your first name
COLOR:
A poem about your favorite color. Express your feelings about a single color with analogies or
similes or list nouns which are (or remind you of) that color.
Another easy form is to use the 5 senses (looks like, sounds like, smells like, tastes like, feels
like).
An example is:
Orange
Orange is the sun after a summer day.
Orange is the sound of a busy bumblebee.
Orange is the taste of cold glass of orange juice. .
Orange is the feeling after a baby smiles.
Orange is the smell of a late July day.
Orange is the feeling of a puppy's fur.
Orange is the color of peach marmalade on a side of toast.
And orange is a color that is safe and alive.
HAIKU:
Haiku is Japanese poetry that reflects on nature and feelings. You use your observation skills
to write what you see in a new or different way.
There are three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second, and five
syllables in the third.
Reading poetry aloud is a great way for ELLs to practice pronunciation and fluency, as
well as a chance for students to play with rhymes and language. In order to increase
confidence and fluency, have students start by reading some poems together as a class. Then
have students choose a poem that they enjoy and then practice reading their poems aloud in
pairs, experimenting with expression, volume, and speed. After students have had time to
practice, listen in and offer some feedback on expression and pronunciation. Once students
have one more round of practice, ask students to share their poems aloud with the class.
Poems can make wonderful class presentations, whether students read different poems from a
collection aloud, act out a longer dramatic poem, or take turns reading a rhyming text.