Poetry can be used to engage students in reading through assignments that have them study and practice a piece and then recite it to classmates, according to report by K-12 Dive:
“At Kent State University in Ohio, Rasinski launched and ran a reading clinic camp, Camp Read-a-lot, as part of the master’s degree program for teachers who wanted to become reading specialists. Students wrote and even performed their own poetry over several weeks, and he found they would walk away “finding joy” in reading, writing, and delivering their works — and being “successful at it,” Rasinski said.
“This approach, he said, was especially useful in helping strengthen reading fluency — the ability to not just decode words, but to read with continuity, accuracy and even some expression. And poems provided a successful vehicle.
“I find poetry is a good gateway into fluency,” Rasinski said. “The last thing a student may want to do is read a 180-page novel. But they can learn how to recite a poem.”
“Giving students a sense of purpose — why they are learning a particular piece, for example — can also help to encourage them not just to learn a poem, but to have the motivation to know it well.”
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