First Published in 1999. Based on the author's experience of teaching poetry to children for more thirty years, this book offers guidance on engaging young children minds in poetry in line with the Literacy Hour.
Children and poetry: poetry and the National Curriculum; the minds of young children; poetry in the primary school; the work of Clwyd Poetry Project; poetry and the National Literacy Project; the perspectives offered in this book. Ways of working with poetry: listening; speaking; reading; memorising; creatively conversing; expressively engaging; composing; presenting, performing and publishing. Planning, assessment, recording and reporting: the making of choices; aims and schemes; assessing children's poetry-writing; the literacy hour and beyond. Literacy hour lessons: interpreting the National Literacy Project's framework; the literacy hour and the Clwyd Poetry Project model; preparing for and conducting a poetry literacy hour; a week's lessons for - reception, yr1, yr2, yr3, yr4, yr5 and yr6. Dreams and the imagination: children's thinking; reverie and imagination; developing imagination in the classroom; using poets' work; projects for Key Stages 1 and 2.
