Remember poetry? Do you ever find opportunities to use it in your English instruction? This April marks the 25th anniversary of national poetry month. We hope you enjoy this selection of previous blogs about poetry from TESL Ontario Blog.
“If you wanted a poem, you only had to look out of a window. There was material always, walking or running, fighting or screaming or singing.” Gwendolyn Brooks, African-American poet and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Annie Allen.
It had been a total failure. I had tried to introduce poetry to my class and have them write some, but they were reluctant and bored. However, something inside told me to give it another shot a few months later. I had been introduced to the concept at a TESL London workshop. The presenter was a convincing person and very nice, so
I had to try again.
I looked at ways I could do things differently. Since I teach levels 6 to 8, there were several resources I could draw on.
First, I asked them what they thought poetry was. You know what? I didn’t get much of a response. Things didn’t look too good – again.
So I went to phase two with a clip from Dead Poets’ Society.
I asked the question again,
“What is poetry?”