Lesson Introduction
1. Always choose poems that are slightly higher than age appropriate, though with a mixture of topics and appeal.
2. Use prominent days throughout the year to read poems by celebrated writers, as well as supply important biographical details:
- T. S. Eliot — September
- John McCrae, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen — November
- Robert Burns — January
- Robert Frost — March
- William Shakespeare — April
3. Review memorization skills and presentation skills each year.
4. Teach specific literary devices in the earlier grades and have students memorize lines that exemplify that particular device.
- imagery: concrete / abstract, sensory
- comparisons: simile, metaphor, analogy, synesthesia, personification
- contrasts: oxymoron, irony, paradox
- symbolism: metonymy, synecdoche
5. Have different genres for different levels: e.g. ballads, sonnets, mythology/hero epics