How to Teach a Poetry Writing Class
If you are someone who loves poetry, maybe you could think about teaching your own poetry writing class. In order to be an effective poetry teacher you have to make sure you keep your class exciting. Most people who will sign up for your poetry class already love poetry they just want to learn how to become better at it. You will want to expose your students to various characteristics of poetry. Some of these are powerful description, rhythm, and rhyming.
The first thing that you will need to do is give your students some warm up exercises that they can do. Try putting together some tips that will help them to create, and revise their work. They should also understand how to read their own poetry properly. You could have one of the best poems ever written, but if you do not make it sound good, it wont be. Your students must learn to identify unique characteristics of the poetry genre. You will have to stress the importance of practicing their poetry writing skills. Such as their rhythm, rhyming and descriptive vocabulary. One of the most important things they need to know how to do is understand how to review and revise their own writing.
Some local community classes allow regular people without degrees to teach classes that they have a lot of skill in. You can try checking in your area to see if any colleges currently after this. It will take time but eventually your students will learn how to shape ideas and words into their own creative, descriptive poems. Your students should be able to explain the meaning behind their poem, in front of the entire class.
This will be a little nerve wrecking at first, but after some time they will all get used to it. Prior to the start of your first class you will need to create your own lesson plan. Try to make the first day of class as simple as possible. Start out by explaining the basics of poetry writing, and read some of the poetry that you have written yourself. Explain how you got started into the field of poetry and what you have accomplished so far. By sharing your own personal story with your class they will be able relate to you better. It will also help your students to understand why you are qualified to teach.
