1. Poetry in the new curriculum
Nicola Bloom
Put up graffiti boards – poems that play with words -Welsh incident.
Put up Are you a poet? Do you know it?
Have Mirror, Mirror on sheet – Mirror, mirror, tell me do Which of these fine words is true?
Have Questions
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2. challenge learn inspire grow bloom
Aims
You will
have a selection of good poetry for use with children from Y1 to Y6
understand different forms of poetry and their key features
have an understanding of ways of teaching children to read, write and perform poetry
Play Mirror, Mirror
Questions
challenge learn inspire grow bloom

3. challenge learn inspire grow bloom
Agenda
What is poetry and why is it important?
Planning for poetry in the new curriculum
Types of poetry
Writing poetry
challenge learn inspire grow bloom

4. challenge learn inspire grow bloom
Why teach poetry?
Why is it important that we teach poetry in primary school?
Come up with the definitive answer to a teacher
who asks you this.
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What is poetry?
Poetry is “simply the most beautiful, impressive and widely effective mode of saying things.”
Matthew Arnold
“Language is the naming of experience, and what we name we have power over.”
Kingman, 1988
“Practice in such discourse is the only way of making sure one says things right and powerfully and courteously to oneself.”
Jerome Bruner, 1967
“Choosing words is at the heart of what a writer does... Poetry is where you learn how to choose words.”
Pie Corbett
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6. Why is it important to teach poetry?
It concentrates and encapsulates thought
It provokes
It entertains
It makes you see things differently
Children won’t meet it unless we introduce it
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7. Why is it important to teach children to write poetry?
Learning to write poetry involves learning skills which are important for all writing
observation
visualisation
precision
in vocabulary
in punctuation
use of imagery and figurative language
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8. Why is it important to teach children to write poetry?
And it sometimes involves additional skills more specific to poetry
using and understanding the effects of rhyme and rhythm
using scansion and metre
understanding the effect of structure on the page
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9. challenge learn inspire grow bloom
Planning for poetry
Look at Poetry in the new curriculum handout.
Consider your long-term planning. Are there any opportunities where you could sensibly link poetry with a theme or topic? (Without having to look for a poem on...)
Where will you bring in poetry for reading?
Where will you bring in poetry for reading and writing?
What kind of poetry?
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10. Clouds

11. Sunset

12. Sea

13. Snow

14. Rainbow

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If you believed in it I would come
hurrying to your house to let you share my
wonder,
but I want instead to see
if you yourself will pass this way.
challenge learn inspire grow bloom