Top Tips for teaching poetry

We asked our Teacher Trailblazers for their top tips for teaching
poetry. Heres what they came up with.

New Tips from 2015 Teacher

Trailblazer Donna Kedward
1.

Read poetry for pleasure. Dont always introduce poetry

into the classroom as a form of work. Start or finish the lesson
with a poem that has recently caught your attention and explain to
the students why. I always find that standing at the front and
performing poetry engages the students and they see it as fun and
entertaining.

2.

Create displays. Always display a variety of students poetry

around the classroom and in corridors. Use vibrant images to put
alongside them and soon enough, you will find people reading
them and commenting on them. You could create a space for
comments; naming the poems they like and why. When students
see people praising their work, they will enjoy the success and it
will encourage them.

3.

Use visual stimuli. This is particularly helpful if your

students find it hard to think creatively. Often, I display an image
on the board. Encourage students to mind-map words, feelings
and emotions the images create and when they have a page of
effective vocabulary, the thought of writing poetry becomes less
daunting. Additionally, use objects that the students can touch and
smell and encourage them to focus on the senses.

4.

Create a certain atmosphere. Try playing music and soft

sounds in the classroom. I often play music when the students
enter and they immediately engage with their surroundings. When
writing poems with themes of nature, play sounds from forests,
the sea etc. Get the students to close their eyes and put their head
on the desk and allow them to listen carefully. They become more
involved and often, effective phrases and vocabulary come to their
minds and they become excited by this.

5.

Be passionate at all times! Students thrive off your passion.

If you are keen and excited by the words that you read they will
too!

6.

Experiment with structure. This is important as it seems to

be what students find more challenging. Introduce poems that
have interesting structures and explore the reasons behind
enjambment, caesura and the forms they are written in. I use a bell
that students ring for every punctuation mark when I read the
poem out loud. Link this to pace and speed and how it can
represent certain things in the poem. Students can then experiment
with structure in their own poems.

Tips from 2015 Teacher Trailblazer Ben

Bransfield
1.

Poetry now. Expose your students to what is being published

at the moment and give them, and yourself, syllabus pit-stops: get
your department or library to order in a leading magazine such
asThe North or The Rialto, copies of the latest Foyle Young Poets
or Forward anthologies, or find competition winning poems online
that you like. Read them out loud, lots of them. Pause for students
responses but dont get bogged in dissection read multiple new

poems for pleasure in the precious time you have with them. Try
shadowing the TS Eliot Prize with one of your sets or with just a
few students.
2.

Written feedback. Isnt it a delight to collect in a batch of

poems rather than a stack of essays? We perhaps owe it to our
students to be more concrete in our annotations, though, and to
take their poems as seriously as their coursework: dont be afraid
to suggest line breaks, the removal of words that arent earning
their keep, to challenge abstract nouns, lazy adverbs, where you
think a poem might better start or end. Keep suggestions in service
of the students own voice, pinpoint and praise imaginative leaps
in sound and imagery. Not only will they appreciate your
attention, but suddenly creative writing just got important: in fact,
isnt it as necessary to their toolkit as anything else? Deliver your
feedback on a post-it, a postcard; suggest another poem to a
student that he alone might enjoy or attach it with a paperclip.
Whatever you can make time for.

3.

Next draft. As students increasingly move through

syllabuses at breakneck speed, returning to edit old completed
poems can be a fascinating reflective exercise that might initially
be met with grumbles. As poets, we might leave first drafts alone
for a month or more and yet as teachers we might unhelpfully be
suggesting to students that all can be polished in one homework
because-we-need-to-move-on; using a lesson to model the
redrafting process on last terms long-forgotten poem can help
students to learn patience, to practise creative development, and to
manage perfectionism.

4.

Marketplace. If you make students read out their own

poems one by one are they always actively listening to each
other or just waiting in boredom or terror for their turn? Abandon

pens, chairs, and let your students move freely around the space
for at least twenty minutes to read peers poetry left on tables;
participate alongside them, insist on silence, and you can
effectively turn your lesson into an exhibition, an event. Open a
discussion afterwards about what the students enjoyed; send them
out of the room on that positive high.
5.

Share with your team. In department meetings, share poems

that you have discovered, and poetry writing lessons that have
gone well. Forward plan and dedicate some departmental time,
perhaps even whole school INSET, to sharing best practice with
your colleagues. If you champion creative writing at your school
then other teachers might be inspired to follow your lead and
ultimately more students will benefit. Ask your maths department
to demonstrate the possible permutations of a sonnet as a starter,
align your poetry stimuli for a week with the science syllabus:
forge completely unexpected cross-curricular links to show
students and to remind parents that poetry permeates everything.

Tips for 2014 from Teacher Trailblazer

Katherine Whittington
My top three tips for establishing a culture of poetry in a school.
1.

Make the Library space and stock all about the students.
Ask them what they like about it and what would make them use it
more. Target some of the more reluctant students they might just
surprise you. Let them make stock recommendations, talk to them
about their favourite poets. Act on your promises, make changes.
And then plaster the walls in the students work our Library is
full of poems by our young writers, and these individuals are like
celebrities within the school.

2.

Maintain momentum, however difficult that might

sometimes feel. Our glorious English department run inter-House
poetry competitions throughout the year, ensuring poetry is always
a topic of discussion. And we stagger trips and events across each
term, so creative writing is always on the students minds.

3.

Encourage every student to recognise they have a unique

voice and a story to tell. Celebrate diversity and experience, or
even lack of experience. If they speak another language, allow
them to integrate it into their work.

New Tips for 2013 from Teacher Trailblazer

Helen Kanmwaa
These are just a few ideas which have worked for me in a
creative writing group at school
1.

Alter the space. It is amazing to see how the physical layout

of seating can positively affect the energy and atmosphere in a
group. Try moving the furniture, or getting rid of it, if the carpet
isnt too unpleasant

2.

Alphabet soup. Get the students to write an alphabetical list

of favourite words. Emphasise that its the sound they should
focus on, not the meaning, and they dont need to impress with
polysyllables: dim is as good as crepuscular! Give them plenty of
time, in silence, to do this, reminding them that they dont need to
do it in strict alphabetical order. When they have finished, they
can devise a poem using as many of the words as they like, but no
others. Repetition and punctuation can help them to create an
auditory delight. The result will probably not mean anything, but
might well suggest and evoke all kinds of things!

3.

Surprise subject. Coming up with a starting point for a

piece of writing can be difficult. This is a good way in: Give the
students three small scraps of paper each. On the first, they write
an abstract noun, on the second, an adjective and on the third, a
concrete noun. All the papers are put into three containers and
shaken up, then each student takes one paper from each. From
their combination of words, they are challenged to create a phrase
which will then be the subject for their writing. Bizarre and
evocative outcomes are inevitable, like The Passion of the Forlorn
Photocopier or The Hostility of Quiet Rooms.

4.

Neologisms. Sometimes you just cannot find the right word;

sometimes the solution is to invent one! Look at examples of new
coinages in poetry (Hopkins is great for this) then let the students
play! Their challenge is to invent a word for a thing that doesnt
have a name, like that feeling you get in your nose just before you
sneeze..

5.

Everyday inspiration. Impress on your students how

important it is to listen to the world around them and to read like a
writer. Everything is research. Inspiration comes from the most
unexpected sources. A Dulux paint chart provided some wonderful
writing stimuli with colour names like Lunar Falls, Urban
Obsession, Found Fossil and Favourite China.

More tips from 2012

1.

Mind the gap Give your pupils gap-fill versions of the

poems you study first occasionally, they will chime with the
poet and feel like a genius; other times, they will come up with an
equally valid or even better choice for a gap. Either way, it will
give them a taste of the supreme agency that comes of having the

whole of a language at your command to choose from at any given

moment.
2.

Plenty of poems Give your pupils a pack of several poems

by the same poet or on a similar theme for one lesson. Then get
them into groups to discuss individual poems before giving
feedback as a whole class in turn. The one-poem-per-lesson model
can get very boring and doesnt really reflect how poetry is read
for pleasure at all.

3.

Use poems studied as stimuli Get your pupils to write

poems based on the poems you study it releases them from the
responsibility of revealing themselves too directly and avoids the
terror of the blank page.

4.

The magic of poetry Get your pupils to learn poems off-byheart it gives them the sense that reciting a poem can feel a lot
like casting a spell. Its also a homework that you dont have to
mark!

5.

For the love of poetry Fill the spare two minutes at the end
of a lesson by reading a poem without any work attached. Nothing
gives us a better sense of the fact that poetry is about making a
connection between people, not just making the grade in an
analytical essay.

6.

Dont Be Yourself Children can find it difficult to express

themselves in poetry from their own point of view. They can get
too bogged down in the literal and struggle to look awry at the
world around them. Tell them to be a banana, a lost dog, a falling
leaf, a neglected grand piano Instantly, you will have opened up
their imagination and they will have a whole new perspective to
play around with.

7.

Share Your Enthusiasm When trying to inspire your pupils

to write, stick to poems that you like yourself. It doesnt matter
why you like it. Even if a poem is obscure or you think that it may
go beyond their full understanding, as long as you can convey
your passion, your pupils will respond. Tell them who first
introduced you to the poem and how it affected you then. Tell
them why it still affects you now. They will be intrigued and will
approach the poem with a desire to unlock the secret magic.

8.

Think Cross Curricular Dont assume that poetry and

English have to go hand in hand. Some of the best ideas for
poetry can come from other areas of school life and be used in
other subject areas. Open an atlas and you have a wealth of weird
and wonderful words with which to find rhymes. Pi can be learnt
to fifty places and beyond with mnemonics crafted into verse. The
metre of assembly hymns that your pupils know already like the
back of their hand can be used as a ready-made framework for
metrical poetry. Using poetry in a totally unexpected context and
for an unusual purpose will engage even the most reluctant poets.

9.

Use a visual stimulus The Pullitzer Photography Prize

website is a great place to start. Rather than showing the whole
photograph, why not ask students to be the zoom on the camera.

10.
Explore different perspectives Use Matt Maddens
Exercises in Style to show students how exciting it can be to
look at the relatively mundane through a new pair of eyes. The
book is a worthwhile investment but Matts
website http://www.exercisesinstyle.com/ is a good way in.
11.
Use the internet to your advantage The web is a way of life
for your students and so use to engage them. Why not start with

Eminem showing us how easy it is to find a word to rhyme with

orange. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQBVneC30o
12.
Ask students to respond poetically to other poems For
example, Not a red rose or a satin heart, I give you a.. If
students struggle, give them a list of everyday objects to explore.

New Tips For 2011

1.

Find the extraordinary in the ordinary.

A good warm-up activity, to get students tuned in to their
environment and to shake off the dread of writers block, is to ask
them to write down everything that goes through their mind in a
one minute spell. The real benefit, however, is to show that there
are always interesting things going on beneath the apparent
normality of the everyday. In short: the mind has a mind of its
own and this can be a source of creativity.

2.

Make space for the imagination.

Using images to give students inspiration for writing is
commonplace. One angle is to ask students to think beyond the
frame. What is not seen perhaps slowly becoming more important
and leaving room for the imagination to take hold.

3.

Take risks with learning.

That goes for teachers as well as pupils. Make space in the
curriculum for reading poetry, even long narrative poems. Play
games with poems, such as poetry charades or imagery Pictionary.
Make students love language, enjoy its drama, its tension and they
will not forget it.

4.

4. Find the right pupils.

Enlist the help of poetry confident young people, ideally leaders
among their peers, the rest will follow!

5.

Tie workshops to national events.

If you are asking a poet to come into the school, make sure that
the workshops coincide with National Poetry Day or World Book
Day or another celebration of poetry or literature to enable them to
see the wider benefits of what they are studying.

6.

Enthusiasm and determination.

Your love for poetry must be clearly demonstrated together with
the belief that this is their chance to shine and succeed. This will
be a great motivator!

Timeless Tips for Teachers:

1.

Convince your Head Teacher to pay for you to go on an

Arvon course.
Keep copies of everything and ask the poets you work with to let
you use their workshop activities.

2.

Become a voracious reader of contemporary poetry.

Start to write your own poems or at least try writing with your
pupils as they attempt the exercises you set them and then model
the redrafting process for them so they can see clearly how the
raw material produced by workshops can eventually become
poems.

3.

Share all your tips with your colleagues.

Then poetry writing becomes an integral part of the courses and
the ethos of the whole department.

4.

Accept that writing poetry takes time.

Persist; put the first draft in a drawer for a month and let the mind
work on it at a subconscious level as the initial excitement dies
away.

5.

As a teacher, do not seek to dominate.

Be a prompt, a diversion, a raconteur or a source of jokes, but
write with your students and show your vulnerability.

6.

Julia Camerons The Artists Way recommends the

morning pages.
Write three pages of A4 to clear the brain of normal thoughts and
patterns. Encourage this stream of consciousness writing at the
beginning of the lesson. The students then discuss patterns they
observe in their thinking. This leads on to fresher thinking for the
rest of the lesson.

7.

Encourage the use of juxtaposition.

Duffys clever-smelling satchel from Mean Time is a good
example of an image and the use of the unexpected. Juxtapose
abstract with concrete images. Play with the senses: if you could
smell joy what would it be like?

8.

Create the right atmosphere

Good warm-up exercises include using music to create the right
ambience or starting sessions with automatic writing. This
exercise gets brains and hands ready for writing.

9.

Develop imagery
One exercise which helps students develop their powers of
imagery is to give students an object written on a card, such as the
moon, a tree or the sun. Ask them to write three similes and pass
their book on. Every child adds a simile to their class mates books

for ten moves. The books are returned to the owners and then each
student uses the images as a bank in writing their own poem.
10.
Follow the advice of great poets
Some of the most interesting parts of the best poems will be
found to be strictly the language of prose, when prose is well
written (William Wordsworth, 1805). Try to write a piece of
grammatical prose and cut it up into line-lengths.
11.
Use art, photographic images or a visit to the great
outdoors as a stimulus for ideas
Pupils love to select paintings to write responses to. The more
detailed the images are the better and pupils should be encouraged
to ask questions about the pictures and to map the results. What to
write about is often a problem; works of art help the ideas to flow.
12.
Stop making poetry scary
Too much emphasis is placed on poetry being difficult or
needing to have some profound meaning. Use simple workshop
exercises to make poetry fun, accessible and part of everyday
school life.
13.
Bring poets into the department
There are some fantastic poets out there who are brilliant at
teaching teachers to teach poetry.
14.
Imitate published poems, but write from experience
Most students seem to be more successful when they write about
something they have experienced which has had an emotional
impact. They are usually adept at collecting words and phrases to
express their feelings, but often need a structure on which to hang
their words; therefore allowing them to model their poem on a

poem they have already read, but which is written on a different

subject, helps support their writing.
15.
Less is more
Challenge students to prune their poems. Do they really need
those articles and conjunctions that are disturbing the rhythm of
their work? A comma or careful lineation can often be a good
substitute. Do they really need all those verses, too? Every word
should bring something to the poem and if it doesnt they should
remove it.
16.
Book yourself in for a writing course or workshop
Seeing a teacher take creative writing seriously encourages
students to value writing more, and the experience you get with
your own writing will vastly improve how you teach it in class.
More opportunity for teachers to work alongside writers would
revolutionise creative writing in schools.
17.
Learning to draft is crucial
Some poets rattle off poems in a few moments, but these poets are
rare. Encouraging students to spend time on a single poem is
valuable, as is making sure they keep copies of these drafts.