A random decision to search the Open University for free online courses during lockdown led me to re-acquaint myself with French poetry. I had loved this aspect of my degree course, but largely forgotten it once I had work and family commitments. I enjoyed the course so much that I started to wonder why I had never included poetry in my primary French lessons. The more I thought about it, the more I started to see how poetry could really enhance my teaching practice. My focus is on primary French, but the ideas are easily adaptable to other languages.
Why should we be including poetry in our language teaching?
The Key Stage 2 Programme of Study for Languages refers explicitly to pupils learning a language through ‘stories, songs, poems and rhymes’, which seems reason enough to include them. However, poetry also lends itself very well to meeting several other Programme of Study aims and objectives:
- Develop an appreciation of a range of writing
- Help pupils understand and respond to spoken and written language from a range of authentic sources
- Encourage the exploration of patterns and sounds of the language
- Enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts
- Provide an opening to other cultures
- Improve the accuracy of pupils’ pronunciation
- Provide opportunities to read great literature in the original language
Develop an appreciation of a range of writing
In a primary setting, it can be difficult to find engaging, appropriate texts in the target language. Books written especially for language learners definitely have their place, but can be a little confining. Authentic texts at the right level tend to be written for much younger children and can feel too babyish. Including poetry in our language teaching can address these issues and extend the range of writing to which our pupils are exposed. The following examples detail how I have used various resources to meet specific objectives. However, it is worth pointing out that the ideas could easily be applied to other poems, either in French or in another language.