How To Engage Reluctant Readers: Student-Centered Poetry Anthologies

In today's blog, High School English & Drama Teacher Hollis Ball shares how a student-centered poetry anthology is the perfect way to engage reluctant readers in poetry...

Picture this: You just finished an impassioned introduction to poetry, expounding on the merits of rhythm and rhyme, and sharing radical ideals of self-expression that can only be found in poems.

You look out over the classroom... Students begin to climb on their desks, rising high above you. At first it begins with just one voice, but soon they are chanting in unison, 'O Captain, My Captain!', eager to embark on this poetic journey with you.

Dead Poets Society couldn't have imagined it better. But the reality of engaging students in poetry ranges widely. So how do we engage our less-interested scholars in a way that is both effective and rigorous? How do we foster more than just a passing interest in poetry for our younger students?

How to create student-centered poetry anthologies

A personal poetry anthology allows students to search for poems that resonate with them - and with the right guidance, it can expose them to a wide variety of styles and authors.

With a simple yet challenging checklist, the anthology project allows students to curate their own diverse collections, and to reflect on their choices in writing, developing their own individual definitions of poetry along the way. It also allows for self-reported grading, a highly effective strategy for inspiring student achievement!

As they begin the process of finding and selecting works, you should help introduce students to contemporary poems that defy convention - poems they've never encountered before, but which still appeal to young readers from their subject matter and distinctiveness:

• 'Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem, Too' by Jim Hall
• 'To This Day' by Shane Koyczan
• 'The Right One' by Rupi Kaur

Of course, your kids will ask if they can include song lyrics, and the answer is YES! After all, Bob Dylan is a Nobel Laureate in Literature (though I would limit song selections to just one or two!)

Explore 150+ high-quality poetry recitations on Digital Theatre+ | Antonieta Martinez | 'Oranges' by Gary Soto: The Recital

Find personal connections in each piece

Students should be encouraged to write a preface to their anthology, which is a personal essay reflecting their thoughts, observations, and/or feelings about the works a student has chosen (and the process of choosing them).

I ask my students to write a preface of 2-3 pages in standard MLA format. In writing a preface, students not only engage in authentic assessment, but they also reflect on their own process of creating the anthology, ready for it to be shared with one another - and the broader school community!

As my current school is a bilingual and bicultural German-American community school, I require poems in both languages - these requirements can be broadened or limited to your particular unit of study.

Explore new poetic forms and styles with ready-to-go Class Starter activities!

By following guidelines that require a diversity of authors, students wrestle with the problem of defining 'poetry'. Perhaps they come to agree with Poe and see it as "the rhythmical creation of beauty", or maybe they simply see it as Gwendolyn Brooks did: "life distilled".

Ideally, students can come up with their own unique definitions of poetry that fit both their individual anthologies and the concept of the creative arrangement of words into something meaningful.

To this end, students should also be asked, "What is the poem in you?" No personal anthology is complete without a personal poem wherein students can synthesize their learning.

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End with a class poetry slam!

Ask each student to choose 2-3 poems to share from their anthology. This can be very intimidating for some students - I like to remind them that poetry is meant to be heard, but you might also adapt this to timid language learners by permitting group performances or only asking for volunteers to perform.

Whatever adaptations you make, the poetry slam is a memorable bookend for the personal poetry anthology project.

At my last poetry slam, two boys who started this project with dread asked if we could make it a competition. They had both developed such an interest in their own work, each wanted to outdo the other! Their anthologies had opened their eyes to a world of language and creativity that they otherwise may have shunned for the rest of their days.

Remember: April is National Poetry Month in the US. Take this chance to turn your kids on to the wide world of poetry!

Hollis Ball teaches English and Drama at the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin. You can explore his TeachersPayTeachers store here.