We are going to take you through “Enjoy Literature We are going to take you through “Enjoy Literature!” and look specifically at the Poetry section.

Each section starts with an introductory "window on the genre"; first, students are encouraged to think about the background; in the following section, for example, we help students think about why poetry is so special, pointing out its different forms and features, such as the importance of sound.

We then do some kind of warm up exercise about poetry We then do some kind of warm up exercise about poetry. For example, you can ask questions like: Do you like poems? Why? What types of poetry do you know? Who is your favourite poet? etc. to awaken students’ motivation for the topic and help them discover a relationship between poetry and their own experience.

POETRY THE BALLAD THE QUATRAIN THE COUPLET THE SONNET THE EPITAPH THE SPIRITUAL The poetry section includes ballads, couplets, epitaphs, haikus, quatrains, sonnets and spirituals. Before speaking about the ballad, I'd like to say that choosing a collection of poems like the ones in this book wasn’t an easy job. Imagine throwing a party to which you can invite only a few guests. We wanted this book to be fun and interesting, which is why there is a mix of old poems and new ones. This is an anthology, so it offers you the opportunity to select poems and texts for enjoyment, according to your own likes and criteria, such as your students’ language level and interests. So the most important principle behind sharing poems with young learners is to use poems that both you and they enjoy. For us, this has meant choosing both traditional and contemporary poems from a variety of cultures and traditions. FREE VERSE POEMS AND VARIATIONS THE HAIKU POETRY COLLECTION

THE BALLAD POEMS AND REASONS And now we are going to show you an example about The Ballad and more precisely about The Fields of Athenry. The section about the ballad starts with an information box about the genre, the ballad generally speaking, and then you find another box about the history of The Fields of Athenry.

What is a ballad? Ballads tell simple stories in verse They were popular in the Middle Ages They usually end with a moral They are often popular songs

The Fields of Athenry   B1 BBBBB Ballads like The Fields of Athenry are written nowadays but they speak about events that happened centuries ago.

At this stage you can play the song, allowing your students to see the words of the ballad as they listen. Then you can sing it with them! Singing is a fun way for everyone to learn, especially for young learners who, through song, can enjoy music and learn new vocabulary at the same time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtQ6a8gA7qk

Reading and singing It's a good idea also to encourage students to read the ballad in front of the class, to say the title of the poem and the author clearly, to practice reading it slowly and think about what the words say and how they sound. Also encourage students to sing the song together with the recording. At this age, I find that students usually ask to sing the song themselves, without being asked to do it.  This picture shows how the vocabulary box helps students to understand the meaning of the most difficult words. As we say in the Introduction of the book, tricky words are not an objection for students when they are really involved in the adventure of reading. If they are interested, they can learn and memorize a surprising amount of new vocabulary.

EXERCISE C At this stage students can listen to the song again and write the missing words choosing them from a given list.

WRITING POETRY The writing session is the most creative section in the book. Students can discover that they are able to work with words, writing their own poems or short stories in which, even in the simplicity of the form, you can see real, personal and original artistic creativity.

The section TIPS FOR TEACHERS on p The section TIPS FOR TEACHERS on p.10 offers tips and step–by–step guidelines which help learners in the writing process. Some possible steps are: PREWRITING, WRITING A FIRST DRAFT, REVISING, EDITING, PUBLISHING. You can also find other activities such as preparing a Power Point presentation, which you can show on special occasions at school, such as at the end of the school year. Encourage students to recite their poems along with their pictures.