Include reading poetry with your children
Vicki Seeger
“Human beings love poetry. They don’t even know it sometimes… whether they’re the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber… they’re listening to poetry.” — Maya Angelou
April is National Poetry Month and reading poems with your children is the family literacy topic for the end of March going into April. Many families shy away from reading poetry with their children because they are unsure what to choose or are unfamiliar with the many resources available to achieve one of the goals of National Poetry Month—simply to encourage the reading of poetry. Most children love poetry because of the playful words or the descriptive language used. This article is about ideas for sharing poems with your children, young and old.
To get familiar and comfortable with reading poetry, a good place to begin is by the work of the beloved poet, Shel Silverstein. His poetry will make adults and children laugh out loud, and the poems he has written are good for any age. To get familiar with Silverstein and his work, check out this blog post:
http://thewhynot100.blogspot.com/2014/05/46-short-and-sweet-shel-silverstein.html
You will find a short biography and photograph allowing you and your family to learn a little about the poet before you try out one or two of his poems. His poems are funny, so use your best expression while reading them! If you see a pattern to what your children respond to, then you can check out collections of his poems in a public library. You cannot go wrong with Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It. Each is a delightful collection of Silverstein’s work.
If your family wants to delve into classic poetry, check out the Poetry for Young People series. Each book is a collection of poetry suitable for children, beautifully illustrated, and assembled into a collection devoted to the work of poets like Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and others. The poems within each book have been carefully selected so that they are appropriate for families to read together and good exposure to literature students will learn about in middle and high school. An amazingly beautiful book for children is Susan Jeffer’s illustrations accompanying Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Your family can discuss the artist’s illustrations as well as the poem.
Another exciting way to include poetry reading at home is through texts that are written in free verse. These books will appeal to older readers. Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech, is a delightful book told through the eyes of a young boy wrestling with whether or not he likes poetry when he’s required to write it at school. With support from his teacher and the poems she uses in her classroom to inspire her students, young Jack learns that he might just enjoy poetry, after all! Jack is surprised when each of his dated entries become poems, worthy of display, even though he prefers a pseudonym. Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, is another powerful example of a story written through poems about the Dust Bowl and its impact on a young girl and her family living in Oklahoma. While this story is more mature (4th grade and up), readers learn about the power of a story told through poetry, again, all free verse.
We think reading poetry with your family is important. Many middle and high school students will tell you they do not like poetry. But, maybe if they are exposed to poetry at home where they can discuss what they read and hear when they are young, their ideas about poetry when they are older might change. Please read to your children and include poetry in your choice of texts. If you have specific questions or topics that you would like addressed in future articles please let us know at [email protected].
Vicki Seeger is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Northwest Missouri State University.
