Poetry with Parents

This morning I had the pleasure of working with 18 parents of children in my class for our first parent’s workshop. For one lesson these parents joined their children to explore Poetry reading, and have a go at writing their own poems. This was a great experience as a teacher, as it allowed me to really demonstrate the way we work in school, and the kinds of activities and atmosphere for learning we try to create.

I decided to do a one off lesson on poetry, focusing on analysing Kennings and defining their structural features, before having a go at writing our own poems following these rules.

Many parents seemed a little wary at first of approaching the topic of poetry, but they were quickly warmed up by the confidence of their children. It was great to see the visible pride when their children came up with ideas and responses to poems which were unfamiliar to them.

I found it really useful to spend an extended time with parents and get to know them better, and the comments suggested that parents found it really valuable to join in with their children. It is interesting how differently some children can be in school, and several parents seemed quite taken aback by the confidence and engagement of their children.

I would really recommend running this kind of workshop, and hope we will be able to make it a regular event.

Read more at our class blog, and parental engagement blog.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMQw_hTW8UQ]