What Is Poetry?

Overview

In this first lesson of Poetry: Read, Hear, Create, students encounter a varied selection of age-appropriate poems through a gallery walk. They notice how poets use form, voice, imagery and sound, then co-construct a working definition of poetry and begin a personal response journal.

Learning intentions

• WALT explore how poems communicate ideas, feelings and experiences.
• WALT notice features of poetry, including form, voice, imagery and sound.
• WALT discuss personal responses using evidence from poems.
• WALT co-construct a class definition of poetry.

Success criteria

• I can describe something I notice about a poem’s form, voice, imagery or sound.
• I can explain a personal response and support it with words or details from the poem.
• I can listen respectfully and build on another person’s idea.
• I can contribute an idea to a working definition of poetry.

Curriculum links

• Reading: engage with, interpret and respond to a range of texts, making connections between text details and personal experiences.
• Writing: record, organise and communicate ideas clearly for a purpose and audience.
• Oral language: participate in collaborative discussions, listen actively and express ideas with increasing confidence.
• Language knowledge: explore how text structure, vocabulary, figurative language, rhythm and sound shape meaning and effect.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 minutes – Hook: poetry can be anything? Open with the hook and lesson introduction slides. Display two contrasting short poems, such as a humorous free-verse poem and a patterned rhyming poem. Ask: “Which one feels more like a poem, and why?” Students make a quick individual choice, then share with a partner.

2. 5–12 minutes – What are we looking for? Use the poetry features slides to introduce four reader lenses: form (what it looks like), voice (who seems to be speaking and how), imagery (word pictures and senses), and sound (rhyme, rhythm, repetition and sound effects). Model thinking aloud with one short poem, distinguishing between noticing and judging. Explain that there is no single correct response, but ideas should connect to the text.

3. 12–30 minutes – Poetry gallery walk Arrange 8–10 poems around the room. Include a mixture of shape or concrete poems, free verse, narrative poems, poems using repetition or rhyme, and poems from Aotearoa New Zealand and diverse cultures. In groups of three, students rotate every two minutes. At each station, they record one notice and one response on the poetry gallery and response journal. Encourage students to read poems aloud quietly where appropriate. Play the gallery-walk instructions and timer on the gallery walk directions and prompts.

4. 30–40 minutes – Choose, read and discuss Students return to a poem that interested, surprised or puzzled them. They reread it silently, then practise reading a section aloud to a partner, considering pace, emphasis and pauses. Partners discuss: “What is the poem making you notice, feel or imagine?” and “Which words or features helped create that effect?” Students add evidence and a fuller response to their worksheet journal.

5. 40–52 minutes – Co-construct a definition Bring the class together and use the discussion and definition slides. Invite groups to share patterns they noticed. Record suggestions under headings such as purpose, language, structure, sound and reader response. Guide the class towards a flexible working definition, for example: “Poetry is crafted language arranged and performed in ways that communicate ideas, feelings, experiences or images.” Add the class’s own wording and explain that the definition can change as students read and create more poems.

6. 52–58 minutes – Begin the poetry response journal Students complete the first journal entry on the poetry gallery and response journal: name or describe their chosen poem, copy a brief phrase, and explain what it made them think, feel or picture. Remind them to use a sentence starter if needed: “The phrase ___ creates an image of ___ because ___.”

7. 58–60 minutes – Share and close Display the plenary and reflection slide. Students share one new idea about poetry with a partner, then volunteer responses. Collect worksheets or have students place them in their poetry folders for use throughout the unit.

Resources

• the poetry introduction, teaching and plenary deck
• the poetry gallery and response journal
• 8–10 printed poems, enlarged or displayed around the room
• Blu-tack, clips or table stands
• Timer
• Student poetry folders or exercise books
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Whiteboard and markers
• Optional: audio recordings or teacher read-alouds of selected poems

Assessment

• Listen during the gallery walk and partner talk for students who identify a textual feature and connect it to an effect or response.
• Review the gallery notes for specific observations about form, voice, imagery or sound rather than unsupported opinions.
• Use the first journal entry as a baseline for students’ ability to refer to a poem and explain a personal response.

Differentiation

• Support learners with a reduced choice of four poems, teacher or peer read-alouds, enlarged text and sentence starters on the worksheet.
• Allow students to respond through labelled sketches, keywords, oral rehearsal or speech-to-text before writing.
• Pair disengaged students with purposeful roles such as reader, evidence finder or timekeeper; invite them to select a poem connected to humour, sport, music, identity or the natural world.
• Extend confident readers by asking them to compare two poems or explain how changing the line breaks, punctuation or reading voice might change the effect.
• Support EAL learners by pre-teaching selected sensory words and accepting home-language discussion before an English response.