How to Teach Reading Poetically

Poetic Knowledge Series

A beautiful Christian tradition is that St. Anne is often shown in religious art teaching her daughter, Mary, the Mother of God, to read. Her serenity is an inspiring image for us mothers to ponder as we think about the disposition we want to display while teaching our children.

“Ok, but what does that look like?” is the first question I get almost every time I am sharing about poetic knowledge with someone. There is an initial light in their eyes at the idea of giving children experiences of truth, goodness, beauty, but that light can quickly be clouded by frustration as they struggle to relate that beautiful idea to the nitty gritty of real life. Now, poetic experiences are the beginning of all human knowledge, so it is natural to start with examples of all the ways we are already giving them to our children. Playing in the creek? Poetic knowledge. Sword fighting with a gallant young knight shouting, “For Aslan!”? Poetic knowledge. Peeling oranges for your toddler who then wants to smell the peel, pull the pieces apart herself, and finally joyfully devour the fruit with juice running down her chin? Poetic knowledge. It is fitting to begin with the recognition that as philosophical and deep as this concept is, it is actually a very normal part of being human. The common homeschool family’s life is often naturally rich in poetic experience because something in the mother’s gut tells her that lots of reading aloud, free time for nature exploration, and yummy, nourishing snacks are an essential part of raising children.

At the same time, there nonetheless remains a forgotten frontier of learning and wisdom that modern man is in need of recovering from the past. As we consider school lessons, in a world of textbooks, worldview analysis, and science-based testing, it is going to take some time for us to learn how to nurture the proper atmosphere and follow a poetic approach that gives our children this much more organic way of learning. So let’s turn to a very practical example: reading lessons. At the end of Chapter 1 in Poetic Knowledge, James Taylor gives us an example of how reading could be taught poetically. He says,

“Modern scientific theories of learning have given us the battle over look-say, phonics, basal readers, with all manner of audio-visual machines, graphics, and ‘high-tech’ aides and methods. Frank Smith, in his book Insult to Intelligence, offers what may seem an old-fashioned and simplistic alternative:
‘One of the leaders in research on how children learn to read, Margaret (Meek) Spencer of London University, says that it is authors who teach children how to read. Not just any authors, but the authors of the stories that children love to read, that children often know by heart before they begin to read the story. This prior knowledge or strong expectation of how the story will develop is the key to learning how to read, says Professor Spencer.’
This is simply an example of poetic learning, in the sense that the child is left alone, undistracted by methods and systems, so that the senses and emotions come naturally into play when being read to, where wonder and delight gradually lead the child’s imagination and memory toward the imitative act of reading. Smith continues to say that the same approach can be used for the child learning to write, that is, by first simply listening to stories. Poetic experience and knowledge is essentially passive, and listening is above all the gateway, along with looking, to the poetic mode.”

I love this example because its so simple, and yet I am well-aware how intimidated most moms would be to follow this method and not have a specific curriculum guiding them. Personally, I am currently half way through Teach Your Child to Read with 100 Easy Lessons with my second child. We have been taking a very gentle, slow approach, and he is coming along nicely. But I can see the difference between what Taylor is describing and what we are doing. 100 Easy Lessons is taking a mechanistic approach. He learns a sound, he practices blending some sounds, and he ends by reading a generally dull “story” to practice the sounds he knows. He likes doing the lessons because he is eager to be able to read, but what is absent is a delight in the words or stories themselves.

I am reminded of how with my oldest daughter the moment reading really began to click in her mind was when she picked up Paul Galdone’s Rumpelstiltskin (a favorite of hers that she had heard read dozens of times) and asked to read it to me in place of her very-involved, twaddly, multi-year reading curriculum. Getting through her assigned reader had been a chore for both of us, so that day I said yes. What followed was a week of her gleefully reading it to everyone who would listen. Within the first day she knew every word in that book. And I don’t mean she just memorized the sentences as they were in the story. You could point to any random word on the page, and she could read it to you. I didn’t stop doing our formal curriculum that day. Like most first-time homeschool moms I was motivated by a nagging fear that if I didn’t do it she would end up with a “gap”. So we slogged through to the end. But in hindsight, I am convinced that exactly like Taylor describes, what taught her to read was much more the moments from that week onward when she began picking up her favorite books and asking to learn them. The authors, her love for the stories, and her strong expectation of what would be said is what really taught her how to read.

With that background and what I’ve learned through Taylor’s writing, I am transitioning the way I do reading lessons in our homeschool towards a poetic approach. I am still the kind of homeschool mom that doesn’t like to stop something that I’ve started, so my son will continue with 100 Easy Lessons, but I am alternating his lessons with days where we simply enjoy his favorite books together. Next year, with my third, I intend to follow the poetic approach from the beginning. Here is an outline of the step-by-step way to teaching reading poetically. Keep in mind that each progressive stage assumes a continuation of all the previous stages.

1. 0-2 years old: Show them lovely picture books, talk about the pictures. Read your own books in front of them.

2. 3-5 years old: Read living books and the Bible to your child every day. Linger with them over their favorites, and even begin pointing at words when they ask.

3. 6 years old: Teach them the long and short sound of each letter as a brief preparation. This can be done in 1-2 weeks at the beginning of the school year with a first grader (if they haven’t absorbed it already from their older siblings).

4. Let them pick which book they would like to read. Read it with them, teaching them to sound out each word and blend those sounds together. Laugh together that English words often don’t make sense.

5. Read that book for a couple days until they know it by heart. Don’t panic if they have “only memorized” it for now. Reading English is undoubtedly a type of memorization. You can model for them the individual sounds of letters, but it is a normal part of learning to read to memorize the sounds letters make when situated in particular words rather than to memorize a phonics rule and try to remember which one applies.

6. Alternatively, open to Genesis 1. Read a couple verses. The next day, start back at verse 1 and get a few verses farther. Repeat until you reach the end of Chapter 1. Start Chapter 2.

7. Pick another familiar book, another familiar passage of Scripture, and read them again, and again, and again. Delight in the beauty of the words and the stories together.

I think we can see why this approach is so uncommon today. It’s the most simple, natural thing in the world, and there isn’t a dollar to be made off it. Even if, like me, you are not ready at right this moment to go all-in on such an unfamiliar approach, I hope that this article gives you inspiration for ways to include more poetic experiences of books with your learning readers rather than depending solely on mechanistic methods. We don’t have to remain perpetually frustrated about the gap between ourselves and the beautiful ideas we learn about in classical education. Step by step, one day at a time, we can draw nearer and nearer to a way of life that is rich in joy, delight, and love!