Use Poetry to Build Reading Fluency

April is National Poetry Month so it's a great time to remind teachers and parents that poetry is a great tool in helping build reading fluency.

Modeling and repetition are key tools in gaining reading fluency and poems are great resources due to the rhyming and repetitive nature as well as their length. Many poems are short in length giving an emerging reader something encouraging to read. 

Poetry Collections for Children

We've listed a few wonderful books of poetry collections for children of all ages in honor of National Poetry Month.

• A Child's Calendar by John Updike 
• The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry by Bill Martin Jr. (Editor), Michael Sampson (Editor), Eric Carle (Foreword)
• Edgar Allan Poe's Pie: Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems by J. Patrick Lewis 
• Sketches From a Spy Tree by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
• I Just Hope It's Lethal: Poems of Sadness, Madness, and Joy by Liz Rosenberg (Editor), Deena November (Editor)