I was introduced to reading at a young age, and learned to love it quickly. My parents made sure I excelled in the subject; They took me to the library, read to me every night, and rewarded me for books completed.

Through my first couple years of school, I remained above grade level in reading. My love for it continued to grow. However, I was reading mostly picture books and typical fiction stories. I hadn't really explored other genres.

All of that changed when I entered third grade. In Mrs. Smith's class, literature became a focus. We were taught about exploring different types of books and the adventures these books could take us on.

The unit I found most exhilarating was poetry. Poetry was something I had not really explored in the past, at least not deeply.

It started with her giving us the freedom to explore poetry for ourselves. I will never forget the day that a stack of kids' poetry books was stacked around the room, and we were given freedom to read and explore whatever we wanted. We talked about funny poems, happy poems and sad poems. We talked about rhyming, rhythm, and similes.

The most popular poet that held shelf space on the book case was the most obvious: Shel Silverstein. The class fell in love with his over the top, out of this world stories. I still own copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and A Light in the Attic.

Mrs. Smith soon introduced an activity we'd do the rest of the year. We had to pick a poem each week, memorize it, and perform it for a first grade class.

All of the students loved this project. Along with getting exposed to a wide selection of poetry, we were getting fluency practice and building our confidence.

My favorite poem I had to memorized was "The Homework Machine" by Shel Silverstein. I still have the poem memorized and can spout it off to this day. I've read it to my students and they think its just as hilarious as I did.

Being able to carry over aspects from Mrs. Smith's poetry instruction to my own third grade students is so rewarding. I love to see my students faces as they explore this genre, and see their love of poetry flourish.