ABSTRACT
Poetry, a highly crafted kind of written language, offers a rich resource for teaching literacy creatively: its particular structures and forms generate interest, and its multimodal nature incites physical movement from the lips to the fingertips. Poetry deserves to be read and responded to actively and imaginatively, prompting a desire to read more and discuss, perform, represent and write it. All of these activities, supported by teachers reading aloud and providing opportunities to engage with both contemporary and classic poetry, are endorsed by national curricula across the UK. As well as contributing to creativity and literacy, poetry can increase children’s awareness of, and pleasure in, language. This chapter focuses on teaching poetry creatively, employing the eight strands of creative literacy practice.
