Scottish Poetry Library Education

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Education » National Poetry Day 2007 › Teaching ideas

Want ideas for using the poems in the classroom? Look no further!

A little nap rap

› Read the poem

This poem creates a vivid picture of Christine's dream. Draw and label a picture to show all the animals and their activities as they are told in the poem.

Eilean Fraoich/Island of Heather

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Is this a daydream? How might we tell? What could it be about? What unlikely associations trigger memories? Use the pattern of lines in this poem to make a short poem of your own about a memory triggered in an unlikely way.

Spell

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Carol Ann Duffy's playful exchange of vowel or consonant in many of the words shifts this poem to the verge of nonsense or another language. Explore the changes. Translate it! Why has she done this? How might this relate to the idea of dreams?

Fram da far-haaf

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This poem lends itself to a choral performace. There are at least two voices here, one very earnest, one sceptical and mocking, but more than one child can be involved in speaking the lines for each. Children can explore characterisation and expression as they give voice to the lines.

No 115 dreams

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The word 'dreams' in the title could be a noun or a verb - does it make a difference to the meaning? The house and its various rooms are thinking and dreaming. What would your house and its rooms think or dream about?

Spell of the bridge

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Discussion of the craft of the writer: What does the poet mean by the 'silt bed of dreams' and the 'net of a stranger'? What is she worried about in this poem? Look at the way words and lines are repeated - what is the effect of the repetition? The poet has personified the bridge and the river - how has she done this, and why?

Brekin rainbows

› Read the poem

This poem moves from the everyday to the imagined to the thoughtful and back to the everyday again. Can you mark the moments of change in the poem? Which lines do you like best in each of the sections?

A riddle

› Read the poem

Try writing your own dream riddle. Make a list of the qualities of dreams, and then think about the opposites of those qualities, or think about the things you can do in dreams but can't in real life; then put together pairs of opposing or contradictory lines to tease the reader and make them wonder about the 'cans' and 'can'ts' of your topic.