A Poetry Reflection
Hello, and welcome back to Miss. Parsels's Poppin' Literacy corner! This week I will be reflecting on my personal experiences with poetry, teaching poetry, and establishing a poetry environment inside my classroom.
Personal Thoughts on Reading and Writing Poetry
When thinking about language arts, I would never say that poetry is one of my favorite genres. Although I can appreciate the amount of effort and work that goes into this craft, I just have never been a huge fan of poetry. In elementary school, I struggled with reading comprehension which made me very self-conscious in language arts class. Because poetry is typically not literal, I would struggle to understand the message the author was trying to convey. Reflecting on my struggles in elementary school, I see now that I didn’t understand figurative language and that, in turn, could have been a contributor to my difficulty in the comprehension of some reading passages. As an adult, I won’t typically select a poetry novel for myself, but I have enjoyed ones that I have read that my professors at ASU have assigned. With that being said, I typically read 2-3 poetry books for children a semester. One of my favorites that I initially read in RE4710 with Dr. Ward is The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. I mentioned this book in my last blog post, however, I just want to reiterate that this text is a phenomenal mentor text for students as well as serves as great text to engage students in reading through action-packed poems. If I would have been exposed to books like The Crossover as a child, maybe I would have a different attitude and connotation towards poetry.
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I am an individual who has never enjoyed writing, especially poetry. Since elementary school, I have always been self-conscious of my writing and never felt that it was as “good” as my peers. I vividly remember in third grade struggling to pass a state writing test that we had to complete and never being truly taught how to be a writer. I think in the schools that I grew up attending, it was expected for students to know how to be skilled writers, which as educators we know may not always be the case. As a child, I do not recall ever writing poetry. However, as an adult I find myself struggling writing poetry for my graduate coursework. What should be simple, takes me forever because I struggle to try to write in a poetry format. I think as an adult, I worry too much about being “perfect” and overthink the task at hand which causes stress and anxiety. Therefore, I cannot say that in my non-professional life that I enjoy writing poetry. When modeling how to write poetry for students I am more comfortable, but I still stress a little bit that I am not "doing it right". However, I am a beginning teacher and it is okay to not know how to teach everything perfectly in the first-year. With practice and experience, I believe that I will gain confidence teaching poetry in the next couple of years.
Teaching Poetry
As an ELA educator, I will never let my students know my feelings towards a specific topic, lesson, etc. because I do not want to influence their opinion. For example, when teaching poetry a few weeks ago to my fifth-grade class they were not excited because they had developed a negative connotation and attitude towards the genre in previous grade levels. However, I made it my personal goal to change their opinions. I aspired for them to feel comfortable and exhibit some pleasure when interacting with this genre of writing and reading. In my classroom, we did all sorts of fun activities with poetry that aligned with the standards, such as analyzing figurative language within songs and writing our own “silly” poems. After our unit, I asked students how they felt about poetry now that they had a different experience and most of them said that it was tolerable, which I was happy with. Twelve-year-olds are interesting creatures, so for something to be tolerable is a win in my book!
One thing that has changed my outlook on teaching poetry is my graduate coursework. Although we haven’t explicitly talked a lot about teaching poetry to students, other activities we have completed have inspired me to try it in my classroom with my sixty-one students. For example, after completing the “Where I’m From” writing pieces for class, I decided to try it out with my sixth graders. I decided to let them have a little fun with it and be silly. They absolutely loved it. I think that my favorite line that a student-created is “I am from the cold wasteland of Boone”. This creative and quite frankly funny line of this student’s poem will forever be ingrained in my memory and I am sure of all his classmates. With these fun moments, I am hoping that students will take them with them to seventh grade and continue to give writing and reading poetry a chance. Next year, I also hope to find more resources to teach poetry as well as find new strategies to help students understand figurative language.
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Additionally, when teaching poetry to both fifth and sixth graders it became very evident that poetry and writing, in general, is something that is overlooked in K-4 classrooms. I think that poetry is overlooked in the younger grades because of the emphasis on teaching students how to read and comprehend proficiently so that they can do well on standardized tests. Instead, the focus should be on teaching students to close reading strategies to help them strengthen their reading skills. With poetry specifically, I think it should get a little more attention in the curriculum that it currently does. I know that in sixth grade, it was not considered to be a priority standard for this school year, however, I felt it was important to do a mini-unit to expose students to the skills that they will need to know for the next school year. In terms of writing, I have become aware that it has not been emphasized in previous grade levels for my students, as I would consider most of my students to not be proficient. In sixth grade, they are still making simple mistakes such as forgetting to capitalize “I” in a sentence and forgetting to insert punctuation. As I’ve had extra time, I have tried to incorporate mini-lessons inspired by Serravallo’s Writing Strategies to address the major concerns. I have also tried to assign small writing assignments every other week or so to help students get practice with the skills that they are taught. Next year, I hope to teach a longer poetry unit and have students practice writing more poetry, rather than the very simple activities that I was able to have them complete in the small time span that was allotted for the poetry unit.
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How I Determine if I Have Read A "Good" Poem
How do you know if you have read a good poem? The answer is not all that simple. For me, I know that I have read a good poem when I finish reading and have that “Woah” feeling. For example, one poem that I enjoy every once in a while is The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. This poem has been a standout for me since high school. I feel some sort of connection to it that I cannot quite explain. In my current phase of life, this poem has “hit home” for me personally. I have been torn about decisions for where to continue my teaching career next year, as my teaching position is a temporary one-semester position, and I find myself figuratively staring at two roads. One road that leads to moving home and teaching in the county that I was raised in and that helped mold me into the person I have become and the other leads me to a small and wonderful community that has helped shape and grow me into a teacher. It most certainly is not an easy decision, but like Frost, I will eventually need to choose a path and I can only hope that I made the right decision.
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In addition to getting that “Woah” feeling after reading a good poem, I also look at the use of figurative language. I personally think that the use of strong figurative language helps add depth to a poem and creates that “Woah” effect. For example, using allusions, metaphors, and personification can help establish imagery for the reader which can be helpful for individuals who may struggle to imagine something without this sense of imagery that is established. However, students with difficulty in comprehension may need assistance when analyzing these poems because of the abstract thinking, and lack of literal meaning.
Creating A Poetry Environment in My Classroom
In my classroom, I have established a safe space for my students that allows them to express their thoughts and opinions in a respectful manner without fear of being judged or looked down upon. Students know that their voice matters, especially when they are in my classroom. When teaching poetry a few weeks ago, I transformed my classroom into what some might call a coffeehouse poetry slam session venue. After drafting their own poetry pieces, I invited but did not require, students to share with their classmates. I emphasized the importance of listening intently to our classmates to truly process what message the poet is trying to convey reminded students of proper poetry and classroom etiquette and encouraged students to wait to use their “poet snaps” until the end of the poem. I was thrilled when seven of the eight students in my homeroom volunteered to read their poetry aloud. They each took the “stage” (a chair at the front of my classroom) and appeared to have fun which made my teacher heart so happy.
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When students were not performing poetry, I tried to provide students with the opportunity to work both individually and collaboratively to help develop and strengthen their poetry writing skills. I talked with my students beforehand about how writing is a process and that our first drafts might not always be perfect and that it is perfectly fine to make changes or revisions. I emphasized that writing is a reflective activity and can continuously be revised. As a teacher, I also have the mindset that all of my students have the potential to be poets, even ones who have difficulty in language arts. I also try to find ways to celebrate each of my students and their poetry because when it comes down to it, their poetry is their view of the world. Next year, when I teach my poetry unit I have gained some great ideas for further developing a poetry environment in my classroom for students. Some of the ideas that I really liked from Awakening the Hearts: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School are having students participate in a living poetry museum and establishing poetry centers. I think that by incorporating these instructional strategies into my instruction for next year, I can continue to strengthen my teaching of poetry, as this year I kept it as simple and engaging as possible. Lastly, when establishing a poetry environment I think that it is so important to have the conversation with students about how poetry is not defined by a singular poem and that poetry can be found all around life, such as in song lyrics, to help make the idea of reading and writing approachable and relevant to students.