Writing Poetry Vs. Writing About Poetry

For me, the difference between writing poetry and writing about poetry is that when writing your own poetry, you are constantly aware of what you are writing and I think more crucial. Since poetry is more of an art of words and writing about poetry is more of an essay format, you are going to be much more critical of what you are writing for poetry.
Similarities between the two would be the forehand knowledge of poetic terms and techniques. You must know them to analyze poetry and to write poetry. I felt that writing about poetry first dramatically helped set a stage for what I would later attempt to write. By reading good poetry first and having to analyze and pick it apart I got to really see how poetry could impact and how each technique, when used specifically and purposefully, had its place. From this poetry experience, I have learned new techniques to get students thinking about and writing his or her own poetry. The found poem and wrecking poem were brand new to me and really good tools to allow me to gradually move into writing my own poetry. Instead of just telling us to write a sonnet or freewrite, we had specific rules to follow which I think helped the poetry newcomers dramatically.
In the future, when teaching poetry to high school students, I am going to first going to show the students some famous poems to have them analyze. After they have grown familiar with the artform, I will then have them write and I will try to structure their writing as to not box them in but also not leave them with too much to go on since that can be intimidating.