UKLA Academic Book Award 2016: Highly Commended
Making Poetry Happen provides a valuable resource for trainee and practicing teachers, enabling them to become more confident and creative in teaching what is recognized as a very challenging aspect of the English curriculum. The volume editors draw together a wide-range of perspectives to provide support for development of creative practices across the age phases, drawing on learners' and teachers' perceptions of what poetry teaching is like in all its forms and within a variety of contexts, including:
- inspiring young people to write poems
- engaging invisible pupils (especially boys)
- listening to poetry
- performing poetry
Throughout, the contributors include practical, tried-and-tested materials, including activities, and draw on case studies. This approach ensures that the theory is clearly linked to practice as they consider teaching and learning poetry to those aged between 5 and 19 from different perspectives, looking at reading; writing; speaking and listening; and transformative poetry cultures. Each of the four parts includes teacher commentaries on how they have adapted and developed the poetry activities for use in their own classroom.
Making Poetry Happen is an engaging exploration of the matters arising within curricular and their consequences in the poetry classroom. Exercises, case studies, anecdotes and relevant research from numerous student and teacher perspectives guide a transformative approach to the teaching of poetry. Encompassing the many facets of poetry and reaching across year levels and countries, this book shows how poetry can be the making of education.
Informed by researchers, teachers, writers and poets who are teachers, this book offers expansive pedagogical approaches to revitalise poetics in education, working alongside, and independently of, the companion book, Making Poetry Matter. Making Poetry Happen does not tell teachers how to teach. It is a poetry bible. Written by teachers for teachers to share the wild heart of poetics in the classroom.