Integrating Poetry into Your Curriculum

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-ways-use-poetry-your-classroom

Many teachers find it hard to find time to teach a "Poetry Unit" with the many things that they are teaching in their curriculum. Keith Schoch suggests, "consider using poetry within her curriculum, as an integral part of her language, reading, and writing lessons, rather than as an add-on. In other words, I ask her to find a purpose for poetry" (para 1). If you do not have time to dedicate a whole unit to teaching poetry, integrating it in to what you are already reading and extending the meaning of your unit in this way may be a great option. In the article "10 Ways to Use Poetry in Your Classroom", Schoch gives tips on creating a connection for the students in a positive way.

His first idea is activating prior knowledge. Bringing up what students already know and have learned makes it easier for students to connect it to the new knowledge that they are gaining. For example, if you are reading Huck Finn and have covered the background of that time period, you could remind students of the history as you read through poetry from the time period. The next thing he suggests is to establish theme in your poetry. If your 11th grade who is reading Huck Finn is talking about the American Dream you could find poetry that goes with that theme. 
The third way to help incorporate poetry is to explore language. If your school requires you teach grammar (snooze) than why not spice it up by using poetry?

Poetry can also help to focus on facts. Reading text books can become boring. Many poets wrote about things that were happening at that point in history. Explore these ideas with some poetry to make learning more fun. You can also use poetry to set the scene. Before starting a new novel, poetry can be used to set a scene. If you are reading Frankenstein, reading gothic poetry can help show your students the type of writing from the time period to show them how the elements work. Schoch also suggests using poetry to inspire writing. Giving the students the option to write an assignment in poetry or prose gives those with a creative side the ability to open up and show what they know.

The seventh suggestion that this article makes is to use poetry to see new perspectives. Reading about history from one person's point of view is boring for students. Poetry allows them to read many perspectives in a short amount of time alongside a novel or compared to each other. Poetry is also a great way to ignite curiosity. Opening up new perspectives can help students who are naturally inquisitive to go out and look up new things on their own. Poetry can be pleasurable for students if addressed in the right way. Having poetry spread out through the year versus in one unit can make it easier for students to digest and enjoy poetry. The last thing that Schoch suggests is to use poetry to capture character. He feels that having students explain a character or a person through poetry instead of writing a boring report or analysis.

This article shows that there are many ways to incorporate poetry in to your class instead of just in a unit. It an be used in many ways to push learning in a fun and creative way.