Effective discussions increase students’ understanding of what they read, as well as the reading experience more enjoyable. Learn how you can make poetry discussions a success. You can help students develop effective discussion skills by providing some tools and teaching discussion strategies.
4 Strategies for Effective Poetry Discussions:
- Set clear expectations for students participating in class-wide discussion sessions, small groups, or in pair-n-shares. Model and explain expectations for respectful listening, differences between taking turns and discussion, what active listening means, and how to show respectful disagreement.
- “I Don’t Know” is not an option in your class. Explain to students that they are not required to “know” but they are required to “think.” Encourage students to ponder out loud, to guess, or to speculate.
- Use classroom space strategically. Educator Karl Krahnke notes that situating students in a circle or a horseshoe shape improves communication and class participation by simply allowing students to see and listen to each other’s responses. The circle is a physical signal that students are part of the community rather than apart from it.
- Ask good questions and call on individual students. Good questions are relevant, clear, and generally open-ended. It is a good idea to write down a list of questions that you want to ask during a class discussion. These questions can be used to get the class back on track if the discussion goes awry. Also, to increase the level of attentiveness, use direct questions to specific students.
Rewrite information retrieval style questions— those in which students are asked to simply look in the poem, find specific concrete information, and bring it back to the teacher. This type of page-turning, busy work should be avoided when trying to prompt student discussion.
Take for example the following question: “What metaphor does Milton use to describe Satan in lines 671-634?” Could be transformed into: “How does Milton’s description of Satan in lines 617-634 compare with depictions of the Devil you know from movies or TV?” By improving weak questions, the teacher can improve student engagement in class discussions.
Tools for Dynamic Poetry Discussions:
- Brainstorming Ideas— with your students, brainstorm some ideas about what they can discuss with each other or as a class. You can help get them started by writing the title of the poem on the board and asking them to brainstorm the poem’s structure or what the poem might be about.
- Venn Diagram— A Venn diagram is an illustration that uses circles to show the relationships among things. Circles that overlap have a commonality while circles that do not overlap do not share those traits. Venn diagrams help to visually represent the similarities and differences between two concepts and can be a valuable tool to help students connect ideas. Here are a few free Venn Diagram templates.
- Quote & Question— as students read, ask them to find one line, one quotation that stood out to them, and to write one question that puzzled them.
- Starter Stems— use open-ended discussion starters such as “I wonder…” “I feel…” “Because of…” “How does…” “What evidence…”
- Debatable Lines— have students select the one best line of the poem and then have them discuss or debate why their line is better than the others.
- Guided Topics— suggest a related topic, theme, or genre for discussion that will help you focus on the poetry lesson.
- Student-Generated Questions— generate a list of open-ended questions with your students. More advanced students can generate higher-level questions
- Mini-Post-It Notes— these tiny “flags” work well to identify keywords, stanzas, or lines that students want to share in a discussion. As they read, students make short notes, write questions on the “Post-It” notes to remind them of what they want to ask or discuss.
- Discussion Logs— are a more structured way to facilitate student discussion. These produce enough space to allow students to collect quotations, questions, and interesting words. They are different from a journal entry, whose purpose is extended and reflective. Here are some free templates for different styles of discussion logs.
- Fishbowl— is an excellent strategy for teaching tolerance. You will need to organize the class into medium-to large-group discussions. Students are then separated into an inner and an outer circle. In the inner circle, or fishbowl, students have a discussion; students in the outer circle listen to the discussion and take notes.
To make poetry discussions a success, students need to understand the value of actively listening to their peers, tolerating opposing viewpoints, and being open-minded. They also need to recognize the importance of staying focused and expressing themselves clearly.
Effective communication ensures that students convey his or her message to someone else. Whether it is amongst family members, teachers, or peers, effective communication helps students get through the tasks of life with ease. After all, effective communication is an important life skill for everyone.
If you are looking for more engaging materials for teaching poetry, check out 8 Tips for Teaching Poetry Effectively.