Thirty-six things to do with a poem

At the 1980 conference of the National Association for the Teaching of English at Warwick University, a group of teachers considered the classroom teaching of literature. It seemed to the group that poetry was rarely popular with pupils in the schools that they knew, and that a checklist of ideas for teaching poetry might be helpful. The list is introduced here by the group's leaders, Geoff Fox and Brain Merrick. Specific contributions were also made by Graham Baldwin, Barbara Bleiman, Roz Charlish, Dave Klemm, Colin Padgett, and Andrew Stibbs.Geoff Fox and Brian Merrick have both taught in secondary schools and now work in the School of Education of Exeter University. They divide their time between teaching literature and method to student teachers and working alongside teachers in schools and on courses.