Poetry teaching at lower secondary level

Literature and poetry in particular are often neglected in English language teaching, especially at lower secondary level. Yet, using poetry in teaching would be beneficial for learners since it plays a significant role in language development. Besides promoting language development, poetry also offers possibilities for developing language skills, for nourishing one’s imagination, among others. Nevertheless, many students fear poetry or find it boring because of the approach that is used for teaching it. However, poetry can be fun if taught in the right way. Thus, this book introduces methods useful for poetry teaching and lists several activities which foster pleasure in reading and writing poetry. Additionally, a lesson plan which uses a creative approach towards poetry and focuses on the learner has been created and conducted in two different classes in the eighth grade. This lesson plan was designed to make students experience that poetry can be enjoyable. To evaluate the lesson plan, several methods of action research, like observation, using a questionnaire and looking at learners’ products, have been used.