Poetry ideas for the primary class

Poetry offers a "rich, varied repertoire and a source for much enjoyment for teacher and learner alike" (Collie and Slater, 1987, p. 226). In primary classes, poetry can be exploited to facilitate the learning of language and prepare students for the subsequent encounters with literature at later stages of their education. These benefits can be obtained only with judicious text selections and pedagogical decisions, or else the introduction of poetry at this early stage of education may defeat its purpose and generate aversion to poetry. This paper proposes a language-based approach to poetry for use with high-level primary students in English-medium schools. In order to demonstrate the arguments, the researcher proposes a lesson plan based on a stylistic analysis of a poem.