Teaching Poetry in 10 steps

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While a wealth of knowledge about the teaching of poetry exists, many teachers are still fearful about teaching it. Others have tried unsuccessfully to write poetry with students and have turned to merely reading poetry on occasion as a means to teach the genre. This article seeks to debunk the mystery surrounding the teaching of poetry through concrete examples. The two main assertions are that teachers can use the lessons of other poetry teachers to begin and then may make the transition to “what they know” and begin creating poetry lessons of their own. A variety of student examples are shared in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of several of the poetry lessons used by the author. One child's work is offered as a case study of the changes that can occur in writing when students are encouraged to take inspiration from the work of other poets. Finally, a top 10 list is provided to give the reader additional support. It contains suggested steps to follow in order to achieve success in the poetry classroom.