NATIONAL LITERACY STRATEGY: CREATING A POETICAL CLIMATE

PLEASE READ HERE ALSO

The National Literacy Strategy reminds us that poetry is a central aspect of literacy, and, from the articles which I have written, parents and teachers can readily understand how poetry, particularly metered and rhyming poetry, helps produce phonemic awareness which is a key ingredient in literacy. “Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about and work with the individual sounds in spoken words.“ Well, many poets do this, but particularly poets who write with rhythm and metre as, in order to produce this, they need to think about the sounds of the words and to use them. Please read here:

In fact if you Google Phonemic Awareness you will see many websites which explain the importance of using rhyming and rhythmic poetry before children start school and also when they start school in order to develop phonemic awareness. Further we read that “children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who do not.”

CREATING A POETIC CLIMATE FOR YOUR CHILDREN

Even before your children start school you should read them nursery rhymes and poems that rhyme. Have fun with them and make them laugh. Make your poetry reading a really enjoyable experience that they will ask for over and over again, as they do

I saw a little children’s clock for sale in a shop a little while ago. It is a delightful clock which children, I knew, would love. So I bought it for my grandchildren. Of course, the problem is that when a poet buys a clock, they think of a poem. This clock has a sheep, a pig, a cow and a cockrel on it, so as “cock” and “clock” rhyme so well, it didn’t take me long to relate my clock to Hickory Dickory Dock. If you go to the poems I have written for small children, you will find the poem and the picture of the clock. My grandchildren come to see me regularly and they both (Jessica and Daniel) love this poem. Daniel is just 3 years of age, and it is very much part of his routine when he is here to ask me to put on my computer, go to Google and write JOSIE’S POEMS and then he can and does direct me to his favourite poem at this moment in time: “Hickory Dickory Dock, There’s Some Animals on My Clock.” Now I have put the music to this with my poem, and he wants me to put the music on and sing the poem over and over and over again. I have recorded this music so that parents can also do the same with their own children. You will have to laugh when you hear it, for even after we have sang it together five times, a little voice asks for it again, and I have left that little voice with the musical recording because Daniel laughs when he hears it and I know others will also, including you. It will act as a reminder that you never read a poem just once to children, but do it many times and let them recite it also.

This may only be a story for you, but it is one aspect of creating a poetic “climate” which is referred to by the National Literacy Strategy, and you can create this climate in your own home or school classroom. Start by taking your children to this poem and let them sing the words to this adaptation of “the mice” poem to the music. Even the five year olds will love this and will laugh when they hear what follows the fifth time. They will also love the other updates of nursery rhymes they have loved, I know, and it might well spur them on to trying simple rhymes based on nursery rhymes themselves. Following the adaptation of “There’s some animals on my clock” I felt also inclined and spurred on to write:

Hickory Dickory Dock

There’s too many miles on my clock

And just for spite, my hair’s turned white.

Hickory Dickory Dock.

Go on – what can you write for this poem? All you need is two rhyming words to fit into the third line, which is not as difficult as you may think.

To get back to the more serious stuff: Go to the National Literacy Strategy and on to “Writing Flier 3”, which is easy to find. We will look into what they suggest for your poetry climate, and we can see what other things they might suggest to you. but I probably have already put them in place for you anyway.

THE APPEAL OF POETRY IS PLAYING WITH LANGUAGE

I quote: “Poetry is included in the NLS Framework in every term, as a central aspect of literacy. Its appeal lies in the desire to play with language and ideas, as well as the recreation and preservation of experiences that matter. There is a strong cycle that links reading, discussing, performing, listening and writing. As writers, pupils should build up a repertoire of forms and stylistic devices that they can call upon to create poetry. In many instances pupils will be focusing upon crafting language within a focused and manageable length and in a known form. Many aspects of sentence level work, plus the skill of revising, can be refined effectively through writing poetry.”

We will just deal with this today. I agree wholeheartedly with this, as you will know, and I have written many poems which well illustrate the desire to play with language and ideas. Please go to the limmericks on this website, and also go to the poems which relate to similes and metaphors. You may use my poems as a template to encourage your children to write their own, and I have encouraged you to do so. I have also written alliterative poems and poems packed with assonance so that children can see what fun they are, and I have encouraged children to try some of these things themselves.

Children love routine, and I have suggested that perhaps for five or ten minutes each day – and perhaps to keep them quiet whilst you do the register – the children should get out their “poetry writing book” and write at least five metered lines each day using some of the techniques which I have introduced them to.

Now encourage them to try some at home and bring them in and read them. Also, perhaps this week, get them to follow up my poem about Percy Peckle who Pickled a Pear with five lines of alliteration per day:

Eg: Cheeky Charlie choked on chocolate

  Naughty Nigel never noticed Norah

Just simple sentences but important if you want them to write poetry. Get them to look at advertisements and see if they notice any of this. I am getting old, but I think of “Put a Tiger in your Tank” etc but here are a few newer ones:

Allied Irish Bank: Britain’s best business bank.

Doral: Discover the Doral difference.

Jaguar: Don’t dream it. Drive it.

Girl Guides: Dream, Dare, Do

Fila: Functional . . . Fashionable . . . Formidable

Hire Knowledge: Specialized staffing solutions.

That is all for today. You may already have been putting my poetical new year resolutions into practice and therefore your classroom will already be Creating a Poetical Climate, but this is just a reminder.