FEATURE ARTICLE
Immersing First Graders in Poetry:
A Genre Study Approach
Tara Concannon-Gibney
Learn how one teacher implemented a poetry genre study in her
first-­grade classroom.
P
oetry has been described as the “most feared
and least understood” (Hawkins & Certo, 2014, p.
196) literary genre. Compared with other genres,
poetry is often overlooked and neglected (Elster &
Hanauer, 2002), sometimes because it is not often in-
cluded in literacy assessment documents (Scherff &
Piazza, 2005) or because teachers lack confidence in
their ability to teach the genre effectively (Hanauer,
2007). As a teacher educator and a former elementary
teacher, I regard the lack of poetry instruction in el-
ementary classrooms as untapped potential as it has
given my students and me much joy and countless
opportunities for learning across grade levels.
Poetry is one of the first genres that many chil-
dren are exposed to through nursery rhymes, jin-
gles, and songs (Manning, 2003), and it is thought
that children themselves are “natural poets”
(Tompkins, 1998, p. 414) as poetry is frequently used
in play in the early years. When taught effectively,
poetry can motivate and engage even struggling
readers and writers (Wiseman, 2007), as it can be
rhythmic, creative, unusual, and accessible (Stange
& Wyant, 1999). Poetry’s rhythmic qualities such
as rhyme, alliteration, and assonance can extend
phonological and phonemic awareness in an enjoy-
able manner that is particularly useful to struggling
readers. Poetry can develop reading fluency through
repeated reading (Parr & Campbell, 2006) and pro-
mote vocabulary development because of its de-
scriptive nature. It can also encourage deep thinking
that can develop a student’s comprehension abili-
ties (Routman, 2000). Skill development in relation
to the conventions of print can also be developed in
a very manageable context as poems, by their na-
ture, tend to be much shorter than prose (Campbell,
2001). Therefore, poetry provides a wealth of oppor-
tunities for the development of literacy skills and
strategies in a meaningful context.
The most powerful way to teach any genre is to
adopt a reading-­w riting approach, as both students
The Reading Teacher   Vol. 72   No. 4   pp. 431–443
and teachers must read the genre to write the genre
and the skills just described will be developed
much more effectively if a dual approach to poetry
is adopted. As recommended by Calkins (1994), the
classroom needs to be immersed in the genre to
maximize learning. In this article, I describe my ex-
perience of immersing a first-­g rade class in an Irish
primary school in the genre of poetry. The genre
study included both readers’ and writers’ workshops
and teacher read-­alouds across the day in the hope
of developing a poetry writing community (Calkins,
1994) in our classroom.
Poetry Genre Study
A genre study can be useful in developing a commu-
nal energy and enthusiasm for a particular genre as
the group focuses on creating shared understandings
about the genre. It encourages a balanced literacy ap-
proach, as it is based on the development of reading-­
writing connections across the genre (Calkins, 1994).
My first-­g rade students had experience writing fic-
tion and personal narratives, but I wanted to expand
their repertoire of genres (Calkins, 1994). I had a wide
range of ability among my young writers, so I chose
poetry as a genre study because it is often deemed
one of the most accessible genres for struggling read-
ers and writers (Cullinan, Scala, & Schroder, 1995).
Indeed, Graves (1992) contended that “poetry is for
everyone” (p. 1). The wonderful thing about poetry
is that “you can experience in a short space what
sometimes takes pages and pages to experience in
prose” (p. 19) as a reader or a writer, so I felt that this
would be an enjoyable genre for my young writers
Tara Concannon-Gibney is an assistant professor in the
Department of Language, Literacy and Early Childhood
Education at Dublin City University, Ireland; email
tara.concannon-gibney@dcu.ie.
431 doi:10.1002/trtr.1728   © 2018 International Literacy Association
 Feature Article

who were still developing f luency in reading and a different book for each read-­aloud session so the
writing. Although my class size was small by Irish students experienced variety and were also intro-
standards, with just 19 students in first grade (the duced to different poetry publications. Following
average class size is 28 students), the majority of the Graves’s advice, I was careful to choose poetry that
students spoke English as an additional language, genuinely delighted me so I could be a role model
and many struggled with literacy and often lacked for the students as someone who loved poetry and
motivation during our literacy block. Poetry seemed had a passion for the genre. For example, Wake Up,
like the answer. Sleepy Head! Early Morning Poems
So, in late fall, we began our PAUSE AND PONDER by Mandy Ross contains won-
poetry genre study. I explained to derful poems to start the day.
the students that we were going to We also enjoyed Bananas in
■ Do you read poetry aloud regularly?
spend four weeks fully immersed My Ears: A Collection of Nonsense
Could you include more poetry in
in poetry. We were going to read your daily routine? Stories, Poems, Riddles, and Rhymes,
poetry during reading lessons and Michael Rosen’s collection of free-­
during independent reading, write ■ Do your students have a negative verse musings on the everyday
poetry in writing lessons, and in- attitude toward poetry? Could a and the extraordinary. All the
genre study change their thinking?
clude poetry in our routines across Small Poems and Fourteen More
the day. Our goal was to read and ■ How could you adapt this genre by Valerie Worth (1994) pro-
write as much poetry as possible. study for older students? vides short descriptive free-­
At the end of the genre study, we verse poems about everyday
would develop a class publication objects. The students adored
and celebrate our learning in a poetry café (Kovalcik the illustrations in National Geographic Book of Nature
& Certo, 2007). Nineteen young faces bore a variety Poetry, edited by J. Patrick Lewis, which contains a
of expressions during this discussion, but most stu- wide variety of poems based on the wonders of the
dents were excited to learn about something new. natural world. I placed all the anthologies in a bas-
Poetry was unfamiliar to many of the students as ket in the library labeled “Teacher’s favourite po-
their only exposure to the genre in the past was nurs- ems” (see Figure 1). The poems that I had read were
ery rhymes, counting songs, and phonic jingles. Little
did they know that our poetry genre study would Figure 1
hold delightful surprises “around the bend of every “Teacher’s Favourite Poems” Basket
line” (Graves, 1992, p. 171) and that poetry was to be-
come a favorite genre among these young writers.

Reading Poetry
We began our genre study by reading poetry. I read a
wide variety of poetry aloud throughout the day, and
it was also the focus of shared reading and indepen-
dent reading sessions.

Teacher Read-­Alouds
The first element in the genre study was the in-
clusion of powerful read-­a louds (Campbell, 2001).
Reading poetry aloud is a powerful way to engage
and interest students in the genre (Graves, 1992) by
entangling them in word wonderments (Denman,
1988). Every morning, we would begin our day with
a poetry read-­aloud, and then another poem would
be read before recess and another before students Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article
left school in the afternoon. I had a selection of an- at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
thologies, but I was careful to choose poems from

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 Feature Article
marked with sticky notes. The students were en-
couraged to select a book from this basket (or from
the general poetry section of the library) during
independent reading time. I set up a “poetry share
chair” next to the library, where two students could
sit together and read favorite poems to each other
(see Figure 2). Some students even asked to borrow
the books overnight and dutifully returned them
the next morning.
Many of the poems that we shared during read-­
aloud sessions became our “touchstone poems”
(Calkins, 1994, p. 176), poems that we thoroughly
enjoyed on many levels and reread countless times.
A particular favorite was “On the Ning Nang Nong”
by Spike Milligan. Its ridiculous theme, delightful
rhyming structure, and playful alliteration contin-
ued to bring smiles to students’ faces regardless of
how many times we had read it.
Figure 2
Poetry Share Chair
Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article
at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
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Shared Reading
Following the teacher read-­aloud every morning, the
students would partake in a shared reading session.
For this, I used a combination of large-­format poetry
anthologies, poetry on charts, and poetry projected
on the smartboard. The shared reading sessions
focused on different reading skills and strategies
throughout the genre study, including fluency, con-
cepts about print, vocabulary development, and
comprehension strategies.
Fluency. Initially, many of the sessions focused on
the development of fluency skills (Rasinski, 2003)
through performance poetry to develop students’
confidence in reading aloud (Routman, 2000) and to
encourage enjoyment of the genre (Kammer, 2002).
Poems such as “The Hairy Toe” proved to be highly
enjoyable and were a delightful way to develop flu-
ency through echo and choral reading (Rasinski,
2003).
The Hairy Toe (traditional American, adapted by the
author)
Once there was a woman went out to pick beans,
and she found a Hairy Toe.
She took the hairy toe home with her,
and that night, when she went to bed,
the wind began to moan and groan.
Away off in the distance
she seemed to hear a voice crying,
“Where is my hair-r-y to-o-oe?
Who’s got my hair-r-y to-o-oe?”
The woman scrooched down,
way down under the covers,
and about that time
the wind appeared to hit the house.
The voice had come nearer,
almost at the door now…
Then in an awful voice it said…
“Where is my hair-r-y to-o-oe?
Who’s got my hair-r-y to-o-oe?”
“YOU’VE GOT IT!”
The repeated reading of the text developed students’
reading rate, accuracy, and expression despite their
perception that they were just having fun!
I modeled reading the text with expression, add-
ing body percussion such as hand clapping, foot
stamping, and finger snapping when necessary.
Fluency is often linked with concepts about print, so
to improve our performance, we discussed the use of
punctuation in the text, such as the use of commas,
 Feature Article

periods, question marks, and ellipses. The students
were also eager to discuss the use of bold print and
exclamation marks and enjoyed raising their voice
in response to the print features. Initially, we used
echo reading to enhance our expression.
The students were also encouraged to use buddy
reading to practice their fluency (Rasinski, 2003). I
gave the pairs paper copies of the text and assigned
sections of it to each student to read. The listener
was then encouraged to give feedback to the reader.
This process was modeled by a student and myself
to ensure that the feedback was constructive and
kind. When appropriate, we progressed to choral
reading. The students took turns playing the giant’s
role, reveling in being allowed to shout loudly in
the classroom, demanding the “hairy toe,” while
the others read the narrator’s part. At the end of
the genre study, we performed “The Hairy Toe” for
parents as part of our poetry café celebration. We
also read and performed a number of other poems
from Poems to Perform: A Classic Collection Chosen by
the Children’s Laureate, edited by Julia Donaldson.
Comprehension Strategies. Poetry is also an effec-
tive genre to teach comprehension strategies as it
encourages deep thinking (Parr & Campbell, 2006).
Also, as the texts are shorter and more accessible to
readers, they provide a good forum for the develop-
ment of comprehension strategies that some read-
ers might find difficult to understand or use in prose
(Tompkins, Bright, & Winsor, 2005). In our genre study,
we focused on the strategies of inferring, visualizing,
and connecting during shared reading sessions.
A simple yet effective way to develop the notion
of drawing inferences from text using poetry is to se-
lect a descriptive poem such as “What Is an Alien?”
by Andrew Collett and remove the title. Using Duke
and Pearson’s (2002) gradual release of responsibil-
ity model, I named the strategy and explained how
it works. In this case, inferring would be used to try
to figure out what the poem might be describing by
looking at each of the clues in turn. Figure  3 shows
the thought process that I demonstrated. The students

Vocabulary Development. Some of the poems chosen Figure 3

for shared reading contained challenging vocabulary. Inferring the Subject Matter of a Poem
Because poetry is generally shorter and less text-­
dense than prose while still being linguistically
diverse, it can provide a very suitable forum for
vocabulary instruction (Elster & Hanauer, 2002).
“Stormy Weather” by Holly Gosselin (2014) is an
example of a poem that we used to study vocabulary:

Stormy Weather

When I hear a pitter-pat

Against my window pane,
I do not frown or mope about,
For I just love the rain!

I rush to put my boots on,

My spirits start to soar.
I grab my red umbrella
And go running out the door.

I find a great big puddle

And I jump in with a splatter.
It’s muddy and it’s very wet.
To me it doesn’t matter! (p. 59)

Using context, we discussed the meaning of words

and phrases such as pane, frown, mope, splatter, and
“spirits start to soar.” The students delighted in using
gesture and mime to act out the rain on the window
Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article
pane, moping and frowning over bad weather, and joy- at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
fully putting on their boots and jumping in puddles.

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 Feature Article
were excited about this strategy and gave me many
suggestions as well, which were added to the chart.
Students then had the opportunity to try out the
strategy themselves (guided practice) and were given
another poem to discuss (“Count Dracula” by John
Foster) and annotate with a partner. A lively discus-
sion of their thought processes followed. The lesson
concluded with a reflective discussion on the strategy
use in the lesson.
Because poems are generally highly descriptive,
poetry is an ideal genre to begin teaching visual­
ization. I began teaching visualization by explaining
to students how visualization is when we try and
imagine what the poet is describing by using our
bodies, our drawings, or our imagination. Our first
lessons looked at how we could use our bodies to
help with visualizing poetry. I read the poem “I Made
a Robot” by Michael Rosen (2013) aloud:
I Made a Robot
I made a robot
out of boxes and cans
with buttons for his eyes
wooden spoons for his hands.
The robot’s mouth was a burger box
I painted it all red.
One day I wasn’t looking
and it clonked me on the head. (p. 24)
Then, we did some echo and choral reading to
familiarize students with the poem. The students
worked in partners to act out the roles of robot
and robot-­maker. It was simple, but it helped the
students understand the concept of visualization
through dramatization.
Other visualization lessons used drawings to aid our
visualization. For example, I modeled my thought pro-
cess in visualizing the scene in “When the Giant Comes
to Breakfast” by John Coldwell. I read the poem two
lines at a time and sketched each piece in front of the
students. At the end, I asked the students if I needed to
add anything else, so we read the poem again to be sure
and added some final details. The students were then
given the opportunity to try the strategy themselves
with the poem “Sand House” by J. Patrick Lewis (2007):
Sand House
I built a house,
One afternoon
With bucket, cup
And tablespoon.
The Reading Teacher   Vol. 72   No. 4   January/February 2019literacyworldwide.org
Then scooped a shovel
Full of shore
On top to add
The second floor.
But when the fingers
Of the sea
Reached up and waved
A wave to me,
It tumbled down
like dominoes
And disappeared
Between my toes. (pp. 62–63)
Working in pairs, students took turns reading,
drawing, and labeling the sketches. They were giv-
en a grid with four boxes to allow them to sketch
each stanza individually. When they were finished,
they compared their drawing with another duo in
the classroom and discussed any differences be-
tween their visualizations. We also looked at the il-
lustration in Yolen and Fusek Peters’s (2007) anthol-
ogy to see if there were similarities between the
illustration and our visualizations.
Because poetry is often a personal exploration
of self, text-­
to-­
self connections can be effectively
explored during a genre study. According to Graves
(1992), “poetry, as it reflects the sounds, joys, sor-
rows, and anger in our lives, will touch parts of our-
selves that bring joy as well as aspects of ourselves
we simply don’t like” (p. 7). Poems such as “I’m in a
Mood Today” by John Foster (2007) can prompt dis-
cussions about emotional well-­being.
I’m in a Mood Today
I’m in a mood today.
I don’t want to come out and play.
I don’t care that it’s sunny.
I’m feeling funny.
I’m in a mood today.
I’m in a mood today.
Why can’t you just go away?
I want to be on my own.
Just leave me alone.
I’m in a mood today. (p. 53)
We read this poem together and discussed its
tone and how it should be read aloud, given its
theme. I explained to the students that when a
poem reminds you of something in your life, that is
known as making a connection. I shared a personal
experience that I had that made me feel like the
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 Feature Article
poet. I wrote my connection on a connection puzzle
piece (see Figure 4), and then I encouraged pairs of
students to talk about a time when they had been
“in a mood,” as the poet describes. Students were
then encouraged to write down their connection on
a puzzle piece that was then shared with the larger
group.
Guided Reading
During the genre study, we tried to include poetry
in guided reading lessons as much as possible so
the students would have the opportunity to read
poetry at their instructional level in a small-­g roup
setting and in whole-­class situations. As poetry is
not a genre that tends to be leveled, I sought po-
ems that complemented instructional goals across
a range of early literacy skills. One resource that
was particularly helpful was Chanko’s (2014) Leveled
Poems for Small-Group Reading Lessons, which pro-
vides examples of possible poems to use in this
type of reading lesson. Yolen and Fusek Peters’s
(2007) Here’s a Little Poem: A Very First Book of Poetry
also contains many useful poems for guided read-
ing at this grade level.
An example of a poem that we used in guided
reading is “If You Smile at a Crocodile” by Meish
Goldish (2014):
Figure 4
Connections to a Poem
Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this
article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
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If You Smile at a Crocodile
The crocodile
Has a toothy smile,
His teeth are sharp and long.
And in the swamp
When he takes a chomp
His bite is quick and strong!
So if you smile at a crocodile,
There’s just one thing to say:
If he smiles too,
Be sure that you
Are VERY far away! (pp. 35–36)
We began this particular guided reading ses-
sion by predicting from the title what the poem
might be about. We then discussed some well-­
known sight words that appear in the poem with
capital letters at the beginning, such as And, Has,
and Be, as sometimes the different format can
cause unnecessary confusion (particularly for
struggling readers). We clapped the syllables in
some of the words that might have been unfamiliar
to students, such as crocodile, toothy, and teeth. We
also discussed the meaning of swamp and chomp
for vocabulary development. I then encouraged
students to whisper read the poem themselves.
We discussed various concepts about print, such
as the use of the exclamation mark and bold print,
and rehearsed the impact that these would have
on our expression. The students then reread the
poem to a partner. As we had already done some
work on questioning in previous guided reading
sessions, I encouraged the students to create a
question about the poem to ask the group. Having
answered everyone’s questions, we chorally read
the poem together.
Writing Poetry
Alongside these reading lessons, the students were
encouraged to write poetry in writers’ workshop.
Our writers’ workshop followed the lesson struc-
ture outlined by Calkins (1994): beginning with
a minilesson, followed by writing and teacher–
student conferences, and culminating in a sharing
session. Our minilessons focused on various poetic
techniques and devices. This learning was further
developed in the context of writing conferences and
celebrated during sharing sessions. Although the
genre was restricted, the students were allowed to
choose their own topics and poetry forms (Graves,
1994).
 Feature Article

Finding Topics Understanding How Poetry

Because poems often tend to be short, written and Looks and Sounds
completed quicker than prose, young writers need to When we began the genre study, the students tend-
have an abundance of topics at their fingertips. To ed to write their poetry as they would write prose,
ensure that my first graders did not have a shortage which highlighted the need to explore line breaks.
of writing inspiration, we began our genre study by We looked at Valerie Worth’s (1994) poem “Flamingo”
creating our own poetry heart (Heard, 1998) in our and discussed what the poem looks like.
first minilesson. I modeled my own poetry heart (see
Figure 5), placing all the things I love inside the heart
Flamingo
and the things that I am not so fond of outside the
heart. The students were delighted with this task The
and set to work creating their own hearts, which Flamingo
were carefully included in their writing folders for Lingers
constant reference during the genre study. This ex- A
Long
ercise highlights the personal nature of poetry and
Time
its accessibility as many topics are grounded in
Over
the everyday lived experiences of children (Barton, One
Hamilton, & Ivanič, 2000). At regular intervals during Pink
the genre study, I would encourage students to add Leg;
to the heart and tally what subjects they had already Later
written about. He

Figure 5
Poetry Heart

Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.

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 Feature Article

Ponders They noted that the poet chose to write one sentence
Upon over four lines. When we looked closer, we discovered
The that the rhyming structure of the poem had encour-
Other aged this particular layout. We also discussed the
For
speed and tone that I used in reading both poems.
A
The layout of “Flamingo” led me to read it slowly, in
While
Instead. (p. 64) a rather stilted manner (much like the bird itself),
whereas the layout of “Today I Saw a Little Worm” en-
The students commented on the short lines, the couraged me to read it faster and in a more upbeat
lack of regular sentences, and how “it sounds like manner (which suited the theme). Therefore, we con-
one long sentence.” They also noted that it did not cluded that line breaks vary from poem to poem and
rhyme but “sounded like a song.” can affect the poem’s tone and meaning.
Then, we looked at “Today I Saw a Little Worm” Fascinated by this result, we reread the po-
by Spike Milligan (2001): ems that we had already encountered thus far in
Today I Saw a Little Worm our genre study and discussed the topic further. I
shared a poem that I had written in various differ-
Today I saw a little worm
ent formats, using different line breaks, and dem-
Wriggling on his belly
Perhaps he’d like to come inside
onstrated how it affected how the poem was read
And see what’s on the telly. (p. 25) aloud (see Figure 6). The students found this rivet-
ing, and after this minilesson we had many conver-
The students reassured me that it still “looked like sations about how and why they had chosen certain
a poem” despite having longer lines than “Flamingo.” line breaks in their own work.

Figure 6
Skills Lesson on Line Breaks

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Poetry Forms Figure 7

Our craft lessons generally focused on various forms Teacher Modeling of Simple Rhyming Poems That
of poetry, which served the dual purpose of expos- Use CVC Words
ing the students to a variety of formats while also
allowing a discussion on poetic techniques (Calkins,
1994). I shared examples from other poets on the
smartboard and also attempted to write my own
simple rhymes in front of the students. In some in-
stances, we collaborated as a class and wrote poems
together. My minilessons always maintained a gen-
tle tone, as I encouraged the students to try the new
poetry techniques that we had just learned rather
than mandate it (Calkins, 1994). When students did
attempt to use the new techniques, their efforts
were celebrated in conferencing and the sharing
session. As I predicted, once we were immersed in
poetry for a few days, all the students tried tech-
niques that most appealed to them first and then
progressed out of their comfort zone to experiment
with a variety of poetic forms and techniques.
We started with simple rhyming texts, devel-
oped from our knowledge of CVC (consonant-vowel-
consonant) word families. I modeled how a simple
poem could be created using a list of CVC words that Figure 8
contained the same rime (see Figure  7). Because Collaborative Simile Poem
the students were very familiar with these word
families from phonics lessons, using them to write
a poem was not a very difficult task. Even strug-
gling writers attempted this at some stage dur-
ing the genre study. Indeed, working with rhyme
helped further develop and refine the students’
phonological awareness (Parr & Campbell, 2006), so
it was particularly beneficial for struggling readers
(Morrow, 2001).
The first graders were enthralled by similes. I
introduced the concept using “Grandpa” by Berlie
Doherty. I also read My Mom and My Dad by Anthony
Browne, which are picture books written using po-
etic language that is littered with similes. We then
attempted a class collaborative poem, which the
students adored (see Figure 8).
We also delved into alliterative poems such as
“Betty Botter” and “Peter Piper,” neither of which
has an attributed author. I asked the students,
“What do you notice about this poem?” On receiv-
ing their responses, I countered, “How will we write
a poem like this?” I think that it is more powerful if
students are led to describe something themselves
through their own understanding rather than be- class. We then used the anchor chart and sample
ing told what they are looking at. I wrote down poem to write a collaborative alliterative poem as a
their responses as a helpful anchor chart for the class (see Figure 9).

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Figure 9
Collaborative Alliterative Poem

We explored the use of adjectives and descrip- Figure 10

tive language through our study of riddles. The stu- A Student’s Riddle Poem
dents’ interest in this type of poem grew from the
inferring lesson discussed earlier in this article. We
looked at further examples of riddles, such as “Love
Is…” by Peter Dixon (2001):

Love Is…

Love is…
Licks
Sniffs
Scratches
Claws
Funny tails
And muddy paws.
Love is having someone
Pleased to see you
Every morning. (p. 14)

I also attempted to compose my own riddles.

This became the most popular poetic form, as it got
the most attentive response in the sharing session
Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article
when every student wanted to be the first to reveal
at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
the answer (for an example of a student’s work, see
Figure 10).
We also studied simple subjects such as count-
ing poems (a poetic form that the students were fa- the students’ own poems. We soon discovered that
miliar with orally), color poems, and acrostic poems. counting rhymes can have many different formats.
“Caribbean Counting Poem” by Pamela Mordecai was I shared very simple poetry books, such as Maurice
a particular favorite and was emulated regularly in Sendak’s One Was Johnny, and more complex texts,

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 Feature Article
such as Engines, Engines: An Indian Counting Rhyme by
Lisa Bruce, to include a multicultural element in this
aspect of our poetry study. Counting rhymes appealed
to the students as they shared a fairly straightfor-
ward and recognizable format (counting from 1 to 10)
and could be free verse or written in rhyme.
Having explored a number of poetic forms, we
created an anchor chart to review our study so far
and to act as a reference guide when the students
needed inspiration (see Figure  11). Seven different
poetry forms were listed on the anchor chart, and I
challenged the students to try to attempt as many
different types of poetry writing as they could man-
age before the end of the genre study.
Figure 11
Anchor Chart: Poetry Forms
Note. The color figure can be viewed in the online version of this article at http://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
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Culmination and Celebration
Prior to beginning the genre study, my students had
a very limited understanding of poetry and most
had never written poetry before. By the end of it, I
was truly inspired by their newfound ability to write
beautiful poetry with confidence and ease. Even my
struggling writers seemed to enjoy composing po-
etry and my struggling readers were eager to read
new and familiar poems. Comprehension strategies
had been challenging for many of the students, but
poetry seemed to make the cognitive tasks more ac-
cessible to them. Poetry also seemed to affect the
students’ fluency in reading as they were often keen
 Feature Article
to comment on and demonstrate expression in read-
ing after this unit of study.
At the end of the genre study, the students were
encouraged to examine all of the poems that they
had written over the four weeks. They discussed
their work with a peer and in teacher–student con-
ferences, seeking to choose their favorites for inclu-
sion in a class anthology. When the anthology was
complete, parents were invited to our poetry café
(Kovalcik & Certo, 2007), which began with a perfor-
mance of “The Hairy Toe” and was followed by read-
ings from the class anthology. The anthology was
proudly placed in the class library while we enjoyed
hot chocolate and cookies. The classroom was filled
with “poetitude” (Parr & Campbell, 2006, p. 36) and
delighted students! What a joy it was to have tak-
en the time to immerse ourselves in this forgotten
genre (Gill, 2007) and develop our literate communi-
ty (Graves, 1992). As a class, we had learned so much
about poetry in the most enjoyable way; as Robert
Frost stated, poetry “begins in delight and ends in
wisdom” (as quoted in Calkins, 1994, p. 378).
I was fortunate to have a large degree of teacher
autonomy in developing this poetry genre study. If
you are confined to a more prescriptive curriculum, it
is still possible to implement elements of this genre
study in your classroom. Perhaps limit your genre
study to just a few poetry forms rather than the range
discussed here. Poetry could be included as part of
classroom routines or as teacher read-­alouds across
the day without affecting mandated lessons. Poetry
can also integrate easily across the curriculum, using
books such as Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and
Everyday Heroes by J. Patrick Lewis, I Like Being Me: Poems
About Kindness, Friendship, and Making Good Choices by
Judy Lalli, or National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry,
TAKE ACTION!
1. Stock your classroom library with high-quality poetry
books.
2. Read poetry during read-alouds.
3. Make poetry the focus of shared reading lessons and
guided reading lessons.
4. Teach reading skills and strategies through poetry.
5. Develop writing minilessons based on poetry skills
and strategies.
6. Share your own attempts at poetry writing frequently.
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edited by J. Patrick Lewis, in science or social studies.
Indeed, many of the poems referred to in this article
could be used to enhance engagement within a unit of
study in science, such as “Flamingo” when exploring
animals in life sciences or “Stormy Weather” when ex-
ploring weather patterns and the water cycle. Infusing
poetry into the school day in some small way if a full
immersion in the genre is not possible will still delight
your students in word wonderments (Denman, 1988)
that will be enjoyable and unforgettable!
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LI T E R AT U R E C I T E D
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Lewis, J.P. (2007). Sand house. In J. Yolen & A. Fusek Peters
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MORE TO EXPLORE
■■ Michael Rosen’s website: http://www.michaelrosen.
co.uk
■■ Nell Regan’s “Poetry Day Ireland 2015: Lesson Plans for
Schools”: http://www.poetryireland.ie/education/
resources-for-teachers/lesson-plans/
■■ Short, funny poems to recite from the Family Friend
Poems website: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/
poems/funny/short/
■■ “Theme Poems,” a student interactive and
corresponding lesson plans provided by
ReadWriteThink.org: http://www.readwritethink.org/
classroom-resources/student-interactives/theme-
poems-30044.html
■■ Another genre to consider: Gibney, T. (2012). Teaching
memoir in the elementary school: A genre study
approach. The Reading Teacher, 66(3), 243–253. https://
doi.org/10.1002/TRTR.01108