Bringing Poetry Alive for 5-14 Year Olds

Wednesday, 05 October 2011

Dr Michael Lockwood [with book] and three of the contributors: from left to right, Dr Andy Kempe, Dr Margaret Perkins and Professor Andy Goodwyn

In the UK, as in many developed Western countries, researchers report a pattern of children's enjoyment of poetry declining as they move through their school career.

From the simple pleasure in songs and nursery rhymes experienced before schooling and the generally positive attitudes children show in the early primary school years, too many children are switched off poetry by the early years of secondary school.

This is all the more disappointing as we know that poetry can aid learning right across the curriculum and that it can hold an appeal for those children who find other texts too daunting.

To coincide with National Poetry Day on Thursday 6 October, Bringing Poetry Alive: a Guide to Classroom Practice has been written by tutors and alumni from the University's Institute of Education in order to help teachers combat this ‘problem' with poetry. The book makes practical suggestions for a more a active approach to experiencing and enjoying poetry for teachers of pupils aged from 5 right through to 14, with an emphasis on the performing, writing and 'creative reading' of poems, rather than too much formal analysis too early.

The book, which is edited by Dr Michael Lockwood with contributions from past and present tutors in the Institute and from children's poets Michael Rosen and James Carter, both former Masters students, was launched at a party at Bulmershe on 29 September organised by the publishers SAGE.