On National Poetry Day we celebrate poetry in all its forms. We read it, we write it, we perform it - it is, as it is meant to be, a mass-celebration of this important and essential branch of literacy. But poetry doesn’t have to be just for one day a year.
Poetry has the potential to help children see themselves reflected in literature and to express themselves through their own writing. It can open doors to children’s own desires to read and express themselves.
Everyone can see their place in poetry, but only if it is showcased and widely promoted. Teachers need to read poetry aloud often and drop it into every moment of the school day, with no preconceived agenda. Give children the opportunity to hear and see a wide range of poets reading and performing their poetry. They need to see the universality of poetry and that poetry is for them; it transcends age, culture, race, religion. Include a wide range of poets performing a wide range of poetry - there is something for everyone.
Children need to feel the joy in reading poetry aloud, joining in, dramatising and performing poems themselves. If poetry is not given a voice, if it just stays on the page as a printed object, then it is not going to come alive for most children. Find opportunities for children to perform poetry themselves, to shadow an award or simply perform poems they love.
It’s so important for children to hear from, work with and watch professional poets - seeing a poet bring their own work to life and beginning to understand what that means in terms of the creation of poetry helps children to see themselves as writers. Listen to poets talk about their writing process; what inspires them, their unique voices, how they work, how they draft, edit and redraft - all this yields a wealth of information to consider the freedoms and support we give children in their own writing. A visit from a poet brings this experience directly to the children and can be hugely enriching and inspiring. Seeing the poet perform, live or on video is particularly important in opening up children’s perceptions that poetry can also be for them.
When seeing Valerie Bloom’s “Haircut Rap”, one child remarked, “I didn’t know poets can be black people too. I thought Valerie Bloom was white.” We need to expand the range of poets and poetry used in classrooms, ensuring these reflect the realities of all children so they can see themselves in the world of poetry and that it is a space for them. In sourcing texts for the classroom, teachers need to look for and make available collections that open children’s eyes to what poetry is, who writes it and what it can do.
Poetry gives you a voice to express what you want, in your own way. It is important for children to be able to recognise the poetry in their own lives by hearing poetry by a range of poets that do the same. They need to see that poetry can be used to encapsulate moments that are new, funny or familiar or as a more cathartic experience to express feelings such as guilt, sadness or loss. Children need the permission and opportunities to share and write about themselves, their feelings and important events. Through writing poetry, children are encouraged to reflect on their experience, to recreate it, shape it, and make sense of it. In a poem, it is possible to give form and significance to a particular event or feeling and to communicate this to the reader or to the listener. Poetry is powerful. Use it all year round.
Charlotte Hacking is a former primary school teacher and now the Programme Leader at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. She worked for a year with 20 teachers on the Power of Poetry research project - the summary of the findings of this research are contained within the free publication: Poetry in Primary Schools, What We Know Works. She tweets at @charliehacking.
