Reading poetry has always been difficult for me. Like many others, I assume, reading poetry takes deep thought about what the poem is trying to say or portray and I don't always understand what I am reading. Atleast, that's what I have thought since high school when teachers used to provide us with poems and not really go into detail about them. I always enjoy seeing and reading a good poem though, even if I don't get the full message all the time.

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Writing poems is even harder than reading poems honestly. Whenever I write a poem I always feel like it has to rhyme or else I'm not doing it right. In high school, that is always how I used to write them whenever I was asked to. I thought that had to follow a specific pattern or else I was not going to get credit for writing the poem. Lately, I have realized that is not always the case. Poems can be about whatever you want them to be about and however you want them to written.

 

Teaching poetry honestly makes me a little nervous. Even though I talked about how writing poetry doesn't need to be complicated, it's still going to be hard to teach to Elementary schoolers! Especially when I still don't understand it fully. Personally, the experience I had about writing poetry in high school is not the experience I want for my future students when it comes to writing poetry. I don't want them to be scared of it! There are so many types of poems out there in the World and I just need to find the one to help introduce poetry in a fun, exciting way to my students to first help them understand poetry better than I do, and actually want to write their own masterpieces. 

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What makes a good poem? That's a really good question! There are many aspects to include when creating a poem. For me, I personally think a good poem is something that your readers can imagine in their head. It is full of the writer's creativity and passion for what they are creating. I think that is why it is so hard for me to write my own poems because I am not really one to be creative! Some others key features I think are important in a good poem are:

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• Word choice

• Setting the readers mind in their imagination

• The emotional aspect the poem is trying to reach

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Poetry Environment! Throughout my experience working with students at the elementary age, well any age really, I have learned that if you don't love what you are teaching, how do you expect them to love it or even want to participate? Setting up my classroom as a potential poetry environment has to be on a new level honestly. Writing poetry can be very exposing for some writers. I would want my students to feel safe to write what comes to their mind. I would want my students to enjoy writing poetry so they can write whenever they please.