When you study a poem, you are learning how to extract information from a different kind of text. Analyzing poetry has so many benefits: not only verbal skills, but also memory, writing, imagination, and vocabulary. All it takes is pleasant exposure to poetry to gain these benefits. Just read, enjoy, recite, and memorize poems to learn language arts the natural way. Get inspired by DeeDee and Ximena as they reveal how they have poetry and tea days to teach poetry in their homeschool.
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Paul Howard, the illustrator of Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection, says, "The book taught me that poetry is about life and that life is in itself poetry."
Ximena: "I didn't really appreciate poetry as much, even after all those high school poems I needed to analyze, until we started incorporating it in our homeschool."
03:32 What is poetry analysis?
04:18 How Ximena's high school experience with poetry led her to bring poetry to her homeschool.
04:53 Benefits of analyzing poetry: verbal skills, memory, reading, writing, comprehension. Plus learning new cultures if your poetry is from authors all over the world. Poetry sparks your imagination.
06:13 Teaching poetry is another way to naturally teach language arts so that the skills, vocabulary, etc. seep into your child's use of language without forced worksheets or exercises.
06:50 Poetry is therapeutic to both the writer and the reader. A poem can become an outlet for the emotions and energy inside you.
07:06 DeeDee's son, unprompted by any school assignment, wrote a poem to express his feelings. Ximena says, "And this [poem] is not anything that we could have really taught in a lesson. It's the fruit of just many years of enjoying poetry."
07:32 Analyzing poetry improves critical thinking and creative problem solving. Some poems are easier to analyze than others! For example, The Red Wheelbarrow is just four lines. You read it and wonder, "What is this about?" To understand it takes critical thinking.
08:06 It's fun to reveal the layers of meaning on what seems to be a simple poem. The kids get joy from figuring it out.
08:21 Analyzing poetry teaches empathy. You can delve into social issues, suffering, and oppression through poetry.
09:07 A study of poetry can also cross over into the arts. If they learn how to understand poetry, they will look at work of art with that same mindset of wondering what the artist meant by the painting or what the composer meant to convey. The perspective of digging deeper, looking for symbolism, will apply across the board.
14:53 Practical tips for incorporating tea and poetry into your homeschool.
15:01 Just start! Even if you feel intimidated or unsure, just start reading poetry and memorizing it with your kids.
15:51 You can learn as you go, alongside the kids.
16:26 Study poetry monthly with your co-op or each morning at home.
20:48 How to analyze a poem, for newbies.
26:08 Poetry and tea makes it easy for the entire family to be part.
Thanks to show sponsor BookShark. Request a homeschool curriculum catalog or download samples at bookshark.com.
