Poetry is fun and there is a way to make it fun. Have you ever heard of a Poetry Party? Basically, students memorize a poem that they will then present to their classmates. How is that fun you ask? Well, students can be as creative as they want with their presentations and you might be surprised with what they come up with. Celebrate April as National Poetry Month by throwing your very own Poetry Party!
If you are currently teaching online or hybrid, Flipgrid would be a great way to organize a Poetry Party with your students! Instead of presenting in front of the class, students could record their presentation and publish them to a “Poetry Party” topic on Flipgrid. You could also ask your students to watch their peer’s video and record a video response that highlights a strength or something to improve on.
#1 : Build a bank of leveled poems
The first thing to do is to make sure that you have a variety of poems that your students can choose from. Having a wide range of poems is a MUST for having a fun and exciting Poetry Party. Students will start with very easy poems (4-6 lines) as the expectations will be lower in the beginning. But, as they progress and as the expectations increase, they will need more challenging poems (and they will beg you for them!). Also, having a wide range of poems will prevent your Poetry Party from being boring with 30 something students reciting the exact same thing. Finally, I also provide a Poem of the Week for students who don’t want a leveled poem or in case they lose theirs.
You can build your own resource using these guidelines, BUT if you need some help getting started, click here for a list of about 200 poems and their corresponding poetry book. This list of poems is what I will be using with my students and was gifted to me by the Intermediate Helping Teacher of my school district.
If you are currently teaching online or hybrid, you could provide a virtual poetry library to your students. Kenn Nesbitt’s “Poetry4Kids” is pretty awesome. You can sort the poems by grade reading level, by topic or by length (similar to my levels). A few other interesting resources to find poems online include “Poets.org” and the “Poetry Foundation” page.
#2 : Teach students how to recite a poem
Ok, now that you have a multitude of poems that your students can choose from, it’s time to get to the tea(ching). The goal of the Poetry Party is for students to work on their oral communication skills in a fun and engaging way. For them to be successful when reciting a poem, you will have to model and teach what a good presentation looks like. This is a great way to talk about verbal and non-verbal cues. For this reason, I provide a Poetry Party Guidelines sheet to my students that includes the instructions for presenting as well.
Encourage students to be creative with their presentation! They could add actions, costumes, props or anything else to make it more interesting for the audience. In addition, remind students that the success of their presentation also depends on how well they have memorized the poem they chose. At this point, I would explain to my students the rubric I will use to assess their progress and I would discuss each success criteria with them. This is what my rubric looks like :
*I teach in BC (Canada), so we use a 4 point proficiency scale to assess students’ progress.
If you are currently teaching online or hybrid, you could post the rubric and other relevant documents for the Poetry Party in your Google Classroom. That way, students can easily access it whenever they need it.
#3 : Provide a poetry tracking sheet to your students
At this point, you and your students are ready to have some poetry fun! Each week, every student will pick a poem that they will memorize and recite for the following week. You can allow extra time to students who need it if you wish. You could also choose to have a certain number of students present every day (ie. : 5 students/day) instead of having all the presentations on the same day. The day of, students must hand you their poem and their tracking sheet. This is the tracking sheet I will use with my students :
The goal of the tracking sheet is for students (and you) to be able to…
- follow their progress (ie. : color completed vs color chosen)
- know what areas they need to improve (ie. : success criterias, comment box)
- set goals for themselves (ie. : highlighting one thing to work on)
At the end of my class’ Poetry Party, I plan on using the student’s top 2 presentations to report on the competencies and the content touched through this activity. This is where the tracking sheet comes in handy for you, as the marking and grading has already been done every time a student presented! You can plan your Poetry Party to run for as long as you want. Have it for the whole month of April (4 weeks) or extend it if you wish to give students more opportunities to present and improve (and have fun at the same time). The choice is up to you!
If you are currently teaching online or hybrid, you could use Google Sheet as a tracking sheet for your students. Click here for a free template students can use to “turn in” their poem and monitor their growth. Looking for a digital gradebook to keep your marks all in the same place? Click here for a free template you can use. Don’t forget to make a copy for yourself as you will not be able to edit my templates (File > Make a copy).
#4 : Discuss students’ progress with them
Your Poetry Party is up and running now! Students have started presenting, but how can you help them reach the learning targets? Again, the tracking sheet will be your ally here! After a student is done presenting, conduct a short interview (2-3 min) with them while the next student gets ready for their presentation. Here’s a list of questions you could discuss with your students :
- What do you think you did well?
- What was the best part of your presentation?
- What was easy/hard for you with this poem?
- What do you think you could do better next time?
- How will you reach that goal?
Make sure to have your student write down their goal on their tracking sheet to help them remember it. Or, to save some time, have them highlight the success criteria they wish to improve on. Next time your students present, you will then be able to discuss if they’ve achieved their goal or not. This will help you and your students know if they’re improving and identify ways to reach their goal.
#5 : Have fun!
The ultimate goal of the Poetry Party? Having FUN! Therefore, there are some things you should keep in mind to make sure you are maximizing your student’s learning experience.
- If a student loses the poem they’ve chosen… no need to panic. They can try to find another copy of their poem or they can memorize and present the “Poem of the Week” instead.
- If a student starts presenting and they CLEARLY are not ready… I would recommend stopping them and offering them a second chance. They could either choose to practice their poem more and present another day or they could present the “Poem of the Week” if they’ve memorized it and feel comfortable presenting it. Either way, we don’t want students to embarrass themselves in front of their peers.
- If a student is not interested in the poems you have in the bank… Why not let them choose? They can always find their own poem and have it approved by you before their presentation day.
- If a student is too shy/uncomfortable/unable to present in front of the class… offer them an alternative way of presenting. For example, you could use Flipgrid and have the students record their presentation and publish it in a “Poetry Party” topic. Then, invite the other students to watch the video and ask them to leave a video response if they wish to.
So are you ready to have some poetry fun with your students? I know I am! Hopefully, this post will have helped you in organizing your own Poetry Party with your students. Feel free to leave any questions you may have in the comments below. And Happy National Poetry Month!
Signé Isabel @creationssigneisabel
Want to get your hands on the FREE resources I made for my Poetry Party? Check out my store!
