Reflection on 4th Annual Literature Festival at Texas Tech University

I really enjoyed the conference because it opened my eyes to how important poetry is. I was really touched by the children in the morning reciting their poems. Honestly, I did love poetry when I was younger but have grown to dislike it recently. However, this conference made me see how important it is to include it in my classroom.

Poetry is a way for children to express their emotions and explore their imaginations. Also, poetry does not have to be in complete sentences, so I believe this is a good way to start with early writers. Students can make their poems however they want them to; they can be one word lines, phrases, sentences, expressions, or noises. Poems are a way that children can express their personality through their writing.

I am glad I attended the conference because it did change my views on poetry. I never really thought about using poetry in my classroom, because, like I said before, I have begun to not really enjoy it anymore. However, this conference seemed to recapture that liking for poetry. This would have been a bad experience, especially if I never included poetry in my classroom. I do not want to turn my students off from any form of reading and/or writing. This has also made me realize that even if I do not like a particular author, book, poem, or subject, I still need to have diverse learning/reading materials for my students. All of my students will be different and will have different wants and needs, so I need to accommodate for that.