Folger Shakespeare Library's "Living Iambic Pentameter" lesson helps children learn to read the meter through a hands-on activity. Ask for ten volunteers -- five who want to be loud and five who want to be quiet. Give the "quiet" and "loud" students cards that read "ta" and "tum" respectively. Ask students to line up in front of the class in a "ta"-"tum" pattern. Tell students to read their cards in order, but remind "tas" to speak quietly and "tums" to speak loudly. Ask "tums" to stomp their feet as they read. After they have finished, explain that they just read iambic pentameter, and give definitions for "iambic pentameter" and "iamb." Repeat the exercise, but this time distribute cards that make up a line of poetry in iambic pentameter.
Use this lesson to help students understand iambic pentameter and consider it as a rhetorical choice. Jog in place with your students for a few minutes and ask them to feel their hearts beating. Explain that an iamb's rhythm is the same as the "bu-bum" sound their hearts make, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Ask students to compose a few lines of iambic pentameter to the beating of their hearts. Distribute poetry written in iambic pentameter, and read it as a class as you tap out its rhythm on your chest. Lead a class discussion considering the rhetorical motives a poet like Shakespeare may have had for choosing iambic pentameter. Do they think the fact that iambic pentameter sounds like a heartbeat had anything to do with why Shakespeare used it?
Although some high schoolers may have fun with this activity, it is especially appropriate for elementary and middle schoolers who need to get out of their seats and learn by doing. Write the sentence, "I am a pirate with a wooden leg" on the board, and explain that it is written in iambic pentameter. As a class, place parenthesis around the iambs, and then read the sentence out loud and clap its rhythm. Ask students to get up and read the sentence as a class again, but this time, tell them to stomp on the stressed syllables and drag their "wooden legs" on the unstressed syllables. This helps your students feel the rhythm of iambic pentameter.
Iambic pentameter is easier to read if you have muddled through the process of writing it. After a lesson on iambic pentameter, distribute a few examples, and then tell students to write their own poems or plays in iambic pentameter. Require that they begin writing by themselves, but allow them to get into groups to check their meters towards the end of the class period. During the next class period, have an open mic for students to read their creations. Read a few more pieces of classic poetry or drama in iambic pentameter as part of the open mic. Students who do not want to read their own creations can give a reading of a famous piece.