ABSTRACT
Poetry is everywhere – in songs, rhymes, jingles, books, films – and children’s experience of poetry at home and in their popular cultural interests is a good place to start in teaching poetry. However, the question ‘what is poetry?’ has been a conundrum for people over the ages and it is worth asking children to add their ideas. Sight, structure, sound and sense are essential elements for reading and responding to poetry as well as an environment which provides rich experience of poetry in all its forms. The teacher’s role in critical in sharing and modelling reading and response to poetry, including poetry in performance. As well as being a delight in its own right, poetry can support learning across the curriculum and is particularly effective in supporting bilingual or multilingual (EAL) learners. The chapter includes many suggestions for good poetry collections and anthologies, as well as poetry websites.
