How to teach poetry

2. LEARNING INTENTION
To entertain and extend the writer’s imagination.
Success Criteria
•Develop an enjoyment of different kinds of poems.
•Develop your skills in analysing poetry.
•Recognise the influence of culture and experience on poets.
•Explore, recognise and use patterns in a variety of poetry structures.
•Experiment with the effects created by words.
•Explore the quality of sounds produced by rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration.
•Explore the use of similes, metaphors, and figurative language.
•Use poems you have read as models for your own writing.

3. POETRY VOCABULARY
Ballad
Free Verse
Line
Stanza
Sonnet
Verse
Tells a story or describes a person or thing. Has a regular rhyme pattern, very often
having four lines per verse, with the 2nd and 4th lines rhyming.
Can be used to create an atmosphere and express mood or feeling. Has an irregular
rhythm.
A unit of verse consisting of words in a single row.
A verse of a poem.
A poem that has 14 lines and its usual rhyme scheme is abbaabba, followed by two or
three other rhymes in the remaining six lines.
A division of a poem.
See rest of unit for more vocabulary relating to poetry!

4. JEANNE
Jolly
Energetic
Academic
Nice
Neat
Efficient
TASK
Write your own
Acrostic Poem
using your name
and/or surname!

5. A metaphor compares two unlike things using the words ‘is or was’;
e.g. ‘He is a computer’.
1. Read each sentence and write a metaphor for each. For example:
She is very fast. She is a speedboat.
a. He is very angry.
b. She is a warm person.
c. He is very mean.
d. She is very pretty.
e. He is very gentle.
f. She is very slow.

6. GREY
Grey is the playground just before lunch time.
Grey is the fog as it swirls around the houses.
Grey is the colour of the shells lying on the
beach in winter.
Grey is the rainy spray on an afternoon road.
Grey is the soft coat on my mouse.
Grey is grey,
And most of all
Grey is my tired mum’s hair.
TASK
Use a Y-chart to
determine what your
chosen colour looks,
feels and sounds like.
Then write a colour
poem using metaphors
(not the words directly
from the Y-chart) .

7. A simile compares two unlike things using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’;
e.g. ‘My friend is like a diamond’.
1. Read each sentence and write a simile for each. For example:
She shines like …….. the sun.
a. He laughs like a ………..
b. He waddled like a ……..
c. The crowd poured into Jade Stadium like ……… into a paddock.
d. As big as a ………
e. The players lumbered like …….. through mud to get to the try line.
f. He clung like a ……. to his surfboard.

8. SHAPE OF A GREYHOUND
A head like a snake
A neck like a drake
A back like a beam
A belly like a bream
A foot like a cat
A tail like a rat.
TASK
Use the model to write
your own simile poem.

9. LITERAL LANGUAGE
Literal language is meaning exactly what you say; e.g. Go jump in the lake.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language is saying one thing and meaning another; e.g. ‘Go jump in a lake!’
1. What would the meaning of these
sentences be if you took them
literally:
a. The test was a real killer!
b. Are you chilling?
c. Please give me a break!
d. That boy is two-faced!
e. My friend drives me up the wall!
2. Read the sentences and decide if they
should be taken literally (L) or
figuratively (F):
a. He was the apple of my eye.
b. He was very nice.
c. She had a mouth like a speedboat.
d. He had a crush on her.
e. She was a very good student.
f. He had a bleeding heart for animals.

10. Alliteration repeats a
consonant over and
over; e.g. ‘Betty bought
some butter but the
butter was bitter’.
TASK:
The ‘Toothpaste’ and
‘Snail’ shape poems use
alliteration. Write a
shape poem from one of
these ideas using
alliteration: A rugby ball,
a snake, a flower, a
ghost, a star, a banana,
a pair of glasses, your
choice.

11. Read the rap to yourself. Use the rhythm.
Write-a-Rap Rap
Hey, everybody, let’s write a rap.
First there’s a rhythm you’ll need to clap.
Keep that rhythm and stay in time,
‘cause a rap needs rhythm and a good strong rhyme.
“But what’ll we write?” I hear you shout.
There ain’t no rules for what a rap’s about.
You can rap about a robber, you can rap about a king,
You can rap about a chewed up piece of string…
(well, you can rap about almost …… anything!

12. You can rap about the ceiling, you can rap about the floor,
you can rap about the window, write a rap on the door.
You can rap about things that are mean or pleasant,
you can rap about wrapping up a Christmas present.
You can rap about a mystery hidden in a box,
you can rap about a pair of smelly old socks.
You can rap about something that’s over and gone,
you can rap about something that’s going on and on and on
But when you think there just ain’t nothing left to say…..
you can wrap it all up and put it away.
It’s a rap. It’s a rap. It’s a rap rap rap rap RAP!
By Tony Mitten

13. TASK
•Make notes to help you write a rap about the Treaty (at least 8 lines long).
•Think about: things that happened that are not fair (protest) or use some of
the ideas from the leaves off the ‘poet-tree’.
•Write a draft first:
Line 1 The Treaty is ……….. and
Line 2 ……………..
……………………..
Line 8 ……………..
•Practice reading your rap and clap the rhythm.
•Change anything you need to.
•Read your rap to the class, using expression, timing, volume, speed and
rhythm.

14. A limerick is a fun poem that has five lines. Lines one, two and five have three strong
downbeats and the ends rhyme. Lines three and four have two strong downbeats and
rhyme.
O’Toole
There once was a boy named O’Toole
Who didn’t act smart when at school.
He tried to read books
But got dirty looks,
And he grew up to be quite a fool.
Anna Maria
Anna Maria from France
Hated to sing and to dance
But she boogied one day
What and awful display!
When her neighbour set fire to her
pants.
TASK: Try write your own limerick.