The didactic use of poems in a classroom

By Tim-André Eriksen

The use of poems in a classroom can be both fun and educating. With some of the types being easy to read with a lot of rhymes to other which needs much more work to understand. So what can a teacher do with poems in a classroom?

One example is radio theatre: it is an activity that is easy for the students to do and could be a lot of fun. What happens in a radio theatre is that a group of students get a poem and they divide amongst themselves what to read out-loud and makes sound effect of.  First the teacher should present the poem which should be used in class and read it out-loud followed by a presentation of what radio theatre is. After that the students should divided into groups. The justification to use this in the class is that first they get practise on oral reading along with listening; second is intensive reading. A perfect sample of poems to use in this case is Revolting Rhymes by Roald Dahl.

Another example is choral reading: First the teacher divides them into groups of three or four (depending on the size of the class) and make each of the group read the poem in different voices. One group could the read the poem like a scared person would or in a whisper. This makes it easier for those student who are shy or struggle to read out-loud.

In conclusion there are many ways to use poems in class to make oral reading in addition to listening a fun activity for the class and is an excellent way to create motivation as well as joy towards poems. Poems are very versatile and should be used not only for reading along side learning about poems, but also as a tool to help students speak more fluently together with building more confidents with the English language.

Sources

Roald Dahl (1982) -Revolting Rhymes - Penguin Toung Readers Group, 2009