The best forms in the best order? Current poetry writing pedagogy at KS2

Abstract

This article considers the pedagogic assumptions of four writers in the post-war period who have contributed significantly in the UK to the teaching of poetry writing to children (Hughes, 1967; Brownjohn, 1980, 1982 and 1990, collected in 1994; Pirrie, 1987, republished in 1994; Rosen, 1989). This article critiques the approaches of these writers, and the assumptions underlying their practice, in the light of recent writing theory (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1987; Sharples, 1999), which introduces the concepts of ‘content’ and ‘rhetorical’ space in writing. I argue that current recommendations (DfEE, 1998) are also flawed in that they provide teachers with a limited view of what poetry is, taking little account of the interrelationship between form and content in creating meaning. The article takes the form of an analysis of the intersection of these recommendations and the core literature described above arguing that their differing emphases place teachers at a disadvantage when thinking about pedagogy in this area.

• Poetry
• children
• pedagogy
• poetic form
• NLS