Poetry ... and children who don't like it ...

[Luanne]

... and don't want to give it a chance even. I've tried to get my daughter to try reading poetry ... any poetry. She thinks it is all pointless. I do still continue to read poems to her that I find interesting (even good sometimes). I have tried to explain to her that just like other writing, all poems aren't going to be good. The problem isn't with the poetry itself, but with the poem.

 

Does anyone have any ideas how to get her interested in reading poetry? ... or should I just let it go?

 

What good experiences come from reading poetry?

[Lovedtodeath]

My dd has put her nose up to every poetry book. A book that is itself written like a poem, like Llama Llama red Pajama she loves. She also enjoys the poems in FLL and Queen's LL. I am not sure why... anyway, just in case yours is averse to the poetry book, I thought I'd throw that out there.

 

Poetry really helps develop fluent reading and read aloud ability due to the rhythm. I don't have a better explanation as to how/why. HTH and you get some more.

[Spy Car]

Well I've been reading and re-reading all the samples of Michael Clay Thompson's Poetry component of his Language Arts series, and I've been knocked-out. It is so fantastic that I'm almost beside myself. Grow son, grow!

 

If these materials don't inspire a love (and understanding) of poetry, I think few things would.

 

http://www.rfwp.com/mct.php

 

Bill

[amtmcm]

LLATL has EXCELLENT Poetry units in the Orange (4th grade), Green (7th grade) and Gold (high school) books.

 

Your DD may not like poetry any better after doing one of these unit studies, but usually if the child is following lessons in a book they know they have to do them. And LLATL lessons are gentle and playful, so maybe she will warm up a bit to poetry.

[Karen in CO]

She doesn't like sweet, gentle poetry or flowery poetry. She likes BIG, dramatic poems. Her favorites are poems like Jabberwocky and The Tyger. I would gently try some variety in the poems before dismissing them.

 

 

Also, why are you concerned about her reading poetry? Is it just to read and learn? Is it to memorize? Are you teaching about specific poets or styles of poetry? Or just for exposure and enjoyment? How to proceed should be tempered against your long term goals.

[Rosie_0801]

I think it's pretty hard to dislike all poetry. Maybe try something different. Does she like history? Try some of Henry Lawson's works.

 

Rosie

[skaterbabs]

Ogden Nash and Edward Gory both have kid-friendly poetry.

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

Here's a different way to approach it. How 'bout YOU read it to her at lunch? We did this for awhile at it was a great way to include a giggle, a conversation, and a little bit of magic into our meals (the kids ended up LOVING it, even).

 

Our library has a variety of books -- there are really some crazy poetry books out there. When I was trying to get my son interested in it, I would only check out books with the craziest of titles. Inevitably, he'd laugh through several of them. (insert evil laugh here):tongue_smilie:

 

We also read through A Child's Garden of Verses, and something else that was reccommended in a Sonlight core at one point or another.

 

One year, I used the Pizza Hut reading incentive program to get him to read poetry. Each month, he had to read one poetry book. He did it each month!

 

Maybe this is me just being a mean mommy, but at some point, it won't matter if he LIKES poetry -- he's going to have to study that genre and -gasp!- write some. But, through his grammar years, I'm trying to be as gentle as possible, but at the same time let him know that it is something he will have to hear/ memorize and recite (we have an annual recitation with our homeschool group each year).

 

And, now that I think about it, the above action plan seemed to have worked for my son -- he isn't nearly as freaked out when I say "go get a poetry book" at the library, nor is he whiney when I make him memorize something.

[laylamcb]

A book that is itself written like a poem, like Llama Llama red Pajama she loves.

 

:iagree:

 

Both of my kids LOVE poetry, and I think this might be part of it: They don't particularly see a difference between, say, The Cozy Book or A House Is a House for Me and A Child's Garden of Verses. They've just ALWAYS listened to "poetry," IYKWIM.

 

(Word of warning: Not every book that rhymes is a good story-poem. Is there anything worse than bad poetry?! Yuck.)

[MamaT]

We do poetry every morning, just like Bible, math, or grammar. We do it together and my kids just know school starts with sitting down with poetry together first thing in the morning.

 

There has definitely been some poetry they have liked more than others.

 

You might look through www.poets.org or www.poetseers.org to get some ideas on poets she might actually like. She can't dislike them all.:001_smile:

[Peela]

We just use poetry for memory work. We started with IEW's program for poetry memorisation, and have added our own, mainly Australian poems.

They don't get a choice, and I have never made them read poetry themselves. But they do enjoy it. Thats all I hope for- that they will be familiar with a range of well known poetry, that they can appreciate it, that they know many humorous or moving poems to rattle off to their own children.

I myself am not a huge poetry fan, but I have learned to enjoy and love many poems through reading them and memorising them with the kids.

The good thing about the IEW program is that it starts with many funny and short poems, and no matter the age of the child, thats where you start.

[stripe]

I'd say - be sure you branch out. Try different styles. Long poems. Short poems. Very short poems. Tightly worded poems. Ornate, flowery sorts. Goofy poems. Serious poems. Morbid poems. (Edgar Allen Poe, anyone?) Experimental forms. Very strict forms. Relate it to other forms of expression. It does not all have to be "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day." Study rap.

 

I don't know if it's important per se to be a poetry buff, but I think it's a bit odd to skip all poetry. It seems limiting somehow.

[Rosie_0801]

have added our own, mainly Australian poems.

 

Such as? You're not going to tell me I have to like Banjo Patterson are you?

 

Rosie

[stripe]

Waltzing Matilda? ... I always loved that word "swagman."

[Stacia]

I could have written Peela's post (except for the Australian poems, lol). ;)

 

You can teach an old dog new tricks. I used to not really care for poetry myself. But, since we've been doing IEW's poetry program this year, even I have learned to like/enjoy it. (My kids do too.)

 

There is hope. :001_smile:

[Guest bookwormmama]

Here's what we do... I was worried about my children being able to memorize poetry and I had an aversion to it as a child myself so I figured my kids would too.

I was wrong however, but this is what I have done...

Everyday I read aloud to them a poem from one of our poetry books and I have them close their eyes as I am reading it. I don't ask them to memorize it. They just have to close their eyes. When I am done reading, I ask them to tell me what they "saw" in their mind while I was reading. {My kids are ages 9, 7 1/2, 6, and 5}. They see some pretty interesting things. Often they will ask me to read the poem again and again and again and again. They have memorized so many poems this year {without me intending them to memorize, but just because they keep wanting me to read it over and over} that I am floored about it myself. I do read the poems in such a way that I try to make it flow together like a story in many cases... and I really think that helps them. In my English class in high school I was taught that you shouldn't read a poem choppy like you think a poem should be read, but fluently and fluidly, like you're reading a story. They will catch the cadence of the poem even without pointing it out deliberately. My kids always do and it's what makes them want to hear it over and over and over again.

A really great poetry book that my kids have loved is "Where the Sidewalk Ends". We also use Mother Goose Rhymes, A Child's Garden of Verses, and Favorite Poems of Childhood {by Dover books}.

[Peela]

You're not going to tell me I have to like Banjo Patterson are you?

 

Rosie

 

:001_smile: You don't have to like what you don't like, Rosie. :001_smile:

We have memorised My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, And Clancy of the Overflow of Banjo Patterson......we are beginning the Man From Snowy River, but it's difficult because every time I read it aloud I choke up. My kids roll their eyes and don't get it. Something about that poem really gets me every time, though. Maybe one day I will be able to read it without choking up.

I guess I do like ol' Banjo. We read a book of his poetry a while back and some of the poems were good.

I want to do Bellbirds by Henry Kendall too. I love that poem- I grew up on the east coast and we would drive to the Blue Mountains and hear all those beautiful bellbirds. My mum has them at her place up near Newcastle too. Over here in W.A., there arent any, so its hard to share the mood of the poem with my kids when they are not familiar with them.

Overall, I am pretty much an ignoramus when it comes to poetry. Its probably like wine- its a developed taste, and if you dont normally drink you dont appreciate a very fine wine as much as someone who has been exposed to wine for a while.

[stripe]

I'd appreciate more suggestions of good collections -- I've been checking quite a few out of the library, and I have found so many that I do not like. Several of the collections contained lots of truly horrible poems, about children dying after they were disobedient. I find that to be excessive and scary! I did find the "Classic Poetry" collection by Michael Rosen to be nice selection, if a bit advanced. But certainly better than most I'd seen (I didn't care for the Opies' Oxford Collection, as an example).

[Julie in MN]

Well I've been reading and re-reading all the samples of Michael Clay Thompson's Poetry component of his Language Arts series, and I've been knocked-out. It is so fantastic that I'm almost beside myself. Grow son, grow!

 

If these materials don't inspire a love (and understanding) of poetry, I think few things would.

 

http://www.rfwp.com/mct.php

 

Bill

 

Ah, ya've done it again matey! Got me looking at something I don't need :smash:

[Loupelou]

My kids love Jack Prelutsky, they think he is hilarious. It's helped them to see that poetry isn't "boring".

[Mothersweets]

My kids love Jack Prelutsky, they think he is hilarious. It's helped them to see that poetry isn't "boring".

 

My kids love his poems, too. They are fun to read aloud - the words move off your tongue so well!

[ChristineMM]

I felt I neglected poetry in the last couple of years so this winter I made the kids read poetry to themselves for 15 minutes 3x per week. I told them 15 minutes is not much to suffer through even if they felt it was torture. LOL.

 

I started with funny children's poems and moved into poems about nature and the season at the time (winter then spring). I have not forced poetry above their grade level. We are not analyzing it. They don't think it is torture nor are they jumping up and down with inspiration or passion about it.

 

I think there is a huge variety in poetry and that we can expose our kids to different kinds of poetry. There are poems about historical events, poems about nature, poems about American patriotism, poems with humor. I even have a book of math poetry. I have but have yet used the poems to be spoken aloud in two voices. Variety!

 

Also this week my kids are doing a HS class with a poet that does kind of a rap style, poetry jam style so that will be yet another kind.

 

I am trying NOT to push my personal tastes for poetry onto my kids nor try to force them to like what some people may say that enlightened educated people would like...my kids are boys who are in elementary and middle school grades and sometimes I worry that I'm trying to push too much of my ideals onto them. Just like people have different taste in fiction so they do in poetry.

 

But please help your child see that poetry comes in a wide variety not just one niche thing like about flowers, about romantic love etc. HTH.

[swimmermom3]

We read poetry right after spelling first thing in the morning. The oldest ds chooses a poem from A Treasury of Poetry for Young People (American poetry for American history) and the youngest chooses from any book by Shel Silverstein, Favorite Poems, Old and New, and Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages. That's about as planned out as we get. The poetry choices are theirs and they read them to me. And then we talk about them, or not. I might give them a three sentence explanation about assonance, but I just want the enjoyment to be the focus. Weird, but now it's one of their favorite subjects!

[Aurelia]

We always read at least one poem at bedtime, though I usually get requests for more. We have books by Jack Prelutsky, one illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, A Child's Garden of Verses, Favorite Poems of Childhood and The Llama Who Had No Pajama in addition to rhyming books like Goodnight Moon/Buenas Noches Luna and a bunch by Dr. Seuss. It seems like the more Ariel is exposed to it, the more she likes it.