I have so many poetry books, that I use, that it’s always difficult to pick one out and say that it’s my book of the month, but I’m trying to be more disciplined and share my love of this art form so I’m going to try to pick anthologies that we can use right now, whether it’s directly with our classes or on-line with our pupils in the ‘ether’! The poems in A kid in my class, written by Rachel Rooney (winner of the CLiPPA Award) and illustrated by Chris Riddell (former UK Children’s Laureate) offer a wonderful range of different forms and characters that will be loved by your pupils.
What I love about the collection is that they can be read and discussed, in depth, or used for writing. Pupils could explore similes by reading a couple of the poems , such as Cool or As shy as and then write their own about themselves or characters that could be found in school:
Another great poem is The Questioner. I would use this to challenge the pupils to identify the use of contractions and then to create their own versions using contractions – eg. I’d, I’ve, I’m, it’s, isn’t won’t, can’t , you’re, you’d, you’ll, doesn’t , that’s, haven’t
I think that this poetry anthology will be really, useful right now, as they can be used so easily whilst we’re still in this difficult phase. Pupils will love the poems individually and as a collection. I’d create a class anthology to share with other classes and schools.