Poetry for Middle School Students

Students of all ages often struggle or shy away from reading or writing poetry. It is a difficult task to tackle, but I think if it is presented in a positive way, students could really learn to love it.

*One way to introduce poetry is to emphasize to students that they encounter poetry everyday...through music! Listening to and dissecting the lyrics to favorite songs is a great way to start. Then students could even try their hand at writing lyrics.

*Since poetry is an expressive art form, teachers could use a book such as Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. This book is about a teacher that inspires his class to write poetry to express their feelings through the written word. Who knows, maybe it could work for your classroom too!