Curriculum to study and write poetry?

[MamaHill]

My 12 year old son (just started 7th grade) is a super creative kid.  He's very interested in poetry right now - writing it and reading it.

 

He is working through WWS 1 this year for his writing curriculum, however, I'd like to feed this love of poetry.  While I will research different poets for him to read and ponder, I'd like to find him a writing curriculum to help him understand the basics. In fact, he asked if I had "any books that could help him understand and write poetry better."

 

In my googling, I've found a few curricula that help with poetry memorization, but we already do that.  And that's really not what he's looking for.

 

Any suggestions?

[mlktwins]

This is a pretty recent thread on poetry.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/645365-ack-we-havent-done-poetry-this-year-what-can-we-do-in-a-three-week-unit/

 

[Crimson Wife]

Michael Clay Thompson's poetry books are pretty good. 7th grade you could either do Building Poems or A World of Poetry but if he's unfamiliar with the concepts, I would go with BP.

[deerforest]

We used MCT and Blackbird. You could complete the Blackbird one fairly quickly and I felt it was more grounded or practical than MCT. Not sure I'm describing it quite right but it focuses more on poetry types, themes, analysis and not nearly as much of meter and patterns as MCT. I really did like them both differently.

 

http://blackbirdandcompany.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=23_25

[stlily]

I just purchased "Grammar of Poetry" for my daughter for the upcoming school year. We haven't used it yet but it looks very good.  There are some videos on You Tube of sample lessons.  There are DVD's you can purchase but I only have the book.  I'm not looking for a full course I just wanted something that would serve as a guide to aid me in teaching her. It's written from a Christian perspective, I believe.  I have to look through it again to be sure.  You can find more info and a sample here: http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/001924

[lisabees]

This is a pretty recent thread on poetry.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/645365-ack-we-havent-done-poetry-this-year-what-can-we-do-in-a-three-week-unit/

 

I was the OP in that thread; I got Art of Poetry by Classical Academic Press.  We will start in the fall. 

[HollyDay]

Classical Writing has a poetry course. 

Art of Poetry and Grammar of Poetry

Prose and Poetry Toolbook

Introduction to Poetry Forms and Elements by Judy Cook (we've actually used this one and enjoyed it)

[LMD]

We just finished poetry for beginners from Classical Writing. We sort of did it in spurts over a couple of years rather than in one chunk.

It is quite technical in the analysis, and there's lots of writing practice in the 'imitation' sections. We finished the unit by entering a competition.

 

I like MCT too, but there's not much in the way of practical assignments.

[MamaHill]

Oh my! What an assortment of options! Thank you all so much for responding. I can't wait to dig into researching these this weekend.

 

Lauren

[Crimson Wife]

 Prose and Poetry Toolbook

 

If this is the one by Walch, I have used it. It's great for introducing literary analysis terminology, but I don't think it is as good for poetry as the Michael Clay Thompson books.