I have long used poetry to inspire writing in my composition classrooms, but during those early pandemic years I went all in on using poetry to teach composition. I have found this practice so rewarding personally and pedagogically (not to mention allowing me to fill writing journals and inspire my own poetry writing) that for the last year I doubled down by actively seeking new poems to work into my writing-marathon-workshop classes: see One Poem to Rule Them All, A Poetic Invitation (to the third power), and High Voltage Warning.
At this liminal moment between the end of the Summer I semester and the beginning of the Fall 2024 semester, I am collecting more poems to consider adding to my teaching toolbox. I’m looking for high impact poems that can serve multiple purposes beginning with inspiring the discussion, thinking, and writing topics to support my students as they craft a This I Believe essay (or this version), a rhetorical analysis, or a formal argument.
I also want poems that can be used iteratively for both revision and reflection as well as audience consideration. Finally, when I’m choosing poems to use with my writing students I want to highlight poems that offer great craft lessons for my developing writers. I love using poems as our primary mentor texts for composition writing because the right poem can do so many things and be easily read and explored in multiple ways within one bite-sized class session. Most of all I love how a poem can show (not tell) developing writers the power and magic of language. How delicious is that? Poetry really is the Swiss Army knife of pedagogical tools. Have I missed any applications for using poetry to teach composition?
