Here is my experience and personal feelings about poetry as a student and now as a teacher before I have learned about poetry instruction:
I have never been a big fan of reading poetry. Growing up I tried to avoid it as much as possible. My first real experience with my reading poetry happened in third grade when I had to memorize a poem and then go in front of the class and say it without the poem in front of me. I was terrified. The first because I was not a strong reader in general, I really struggled with it growing up and now you add in having to memorize the words. It was also not a poem I enjoyed, and I dreaded speaking in front of the class. It gave me so much anxiety. So much that I even asked my mom if I could stay home from school that morning just because I was so stressed with doing it. Ever since then, I have not really enjoyed poetry in general, because of that moment, I feel that stress was automatically associated with poetry in my mind. There have also been times since when I have had to read a poem in class and then have a discussion or essay due about it. That is where I have many memories of some of my teachers telling me, “well that is not really the point of this piece.” So, my experiences with poetry have been pretty negative which has caused me to pretty much avoid it if at all possible. Also, I feel like I just could never understand them very well and I do not think I was ever taught how to read a poem or how to analyze the language use in them. I also feel like the line structures confused my brain and just having the piece set out differently just got muddled in my head. However, last semester, when I read Garvey’s Choice, that was the first time I actually enjoyed reading poetry and was able to really get into.
Writing poetry for me has been a little better, but I have not really gotten to do it that much which is why it may be better for me than reading it. Also, I think writing it is easier because I don’t have to try and decipher what another person is saying, I know what I am saying so it is easier to understand. I just like writing better than reading in general. Again, because I was a struggling reader growing up, I never really was able to understand what I was reading, but with writing, I knew exactly what I meant and where my story was going. Additionally, I also liked that you had a little more freedom with writing poetry and did not have to follow conventional grammar like you do when writing an essay. You got to decide how you wanted the piece to look and to flow.
Teaching poetry is kind of a mystery to me. I have yet to teach poetry to a group of students just because in my internships that was never a requirement for me and as I have stated before, up until recently, I tried my best to stay away from it if I could. I have also yet to see it done in a classroom during these internships, by the classroom teacher. It does kind of make me nervous to teach poetry because I have had a very negative experience with it, and I do not want my students to feel the same way that I did. So, I still have a lot to learn about teaching poetry.
Right now, my criteria for a good poem, is probably not the best criteria to have; but I am still learning and still trying to have a more positive relationship with poetry. Therefore, I am hoping as I interact and learn more about poetry that my criteria will change. My criteria is that I can comprehend the piece in some way and make sense of the words that are there. Also, it can’t have a confusing pattern or use too many lofty/complex language. For me, this makes a good poem because I like to understand things and if I can’t understand them, then I automatically do not enjoy the piece. However, that is just me. I know there are many people who enjoy the complexity that can be found in poetry and enjoy spending many hours trying to analyze what it all means.
I have a few ideas that I would like to include in my class in order to create a “Poetry Environment” and I have many more ideas to add to it now after reading the first few chapters in Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard. One way that I would like to create a “Poetry Environment” would be to have a poetry wall. This wall could have poems that students create on it, poems that they have read from other poets on it, or even things that bring them inspiration to write. Also, I think it would be great to have a poem of the week section where I bring in a poem on Monday and read it to the students and all throughout the week we talk about it and reference back to it as much as possible. I think these could be inspirational poems, poems to encourage students or ones to lift them up, etc. I think this would be unique and could be easily change for the next week depending on the students if one week they are acting a little wild and have a hard time settling down, maybe the teacher could bring in a poem about being calm or things that are calm so if students get rowdy, you can refer back to the poem.
Awakening the Heart
Above I wrote about my own experience and thoughts about poetry and thoughts I had before reading Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard which is a book that looks at poetry in elementary and middle school. After reading the first three chapters, I have so many ideas for how else to incorporate poetry into my own classroom.
Having a fish tank with poems about the fish all around the tank. Also, keeping clipboards nearby in case more inspiration hits students when looking at the fish.
Poetry Apron: “Fran had sewn six pockets onto an apron, filled the pockets with her favorite poems, then hung the ‘poetry apron’ on the wall. Kids were invited to take a poem out of the pocket and add it to their poetry anthologies, but they had to replace it with a poem they liked” (p. 7)
Listening poetry center: I have my students at a read aloud center where they can listen to books being read. I didn’t even think about the possibility of changing it up a little and having students listen to poetry.
On page 22, she talks about the poems in the bathroom at Columbia University. I thought that could be a great and easy thing to do at any school and maybe put the poems in like a plexiglass type frame on the back of the door and each week there could be a new poem put in there for students to read. Each week a different grade level could put one in there, kindergarten teachers could find a rebus poem and then fifth grade could find one by one of their favorite poets.
I also started thinking about if you want poetry to be everywhere maybe each year the school could have a poem mascot that gets put on the front or backs of their shirts. Then, every time someone wears a school shirt people can see and read the poem and may be more out to looking at other poems on their own. Also, I have been using my Cricut to make shirts, so I could even start doing this in my own school and have some different shirts with poems on it that I wear on Fridays or other jean days. Students always ask what my shirt says whenever I wear one to school with writing. It would be an easy way to get them to see poetry and see that teacher are excited about it and they can get excited about them too.
I also thought that a school poetry slam would be fun. Students could write their own poem to read or read one by someone else they enjoy. This could happen in place of a talent show, but there will not be a will, and it will be people coming together to enjoy poetry and there could be food and drinks after as well.
Some of the ideas that she had that I really loved and are important to keep in mind are:
“Every student needs to know that the classroom is a safe place where every voice is respected” (p. 3)
“Poetry is already present in the classroom before we formally introduce it. Listen to your students talk, and find the seeds of poems in their natural, everyday voices” (p. 3).
“One of the reasons to invite poetry into our lives and into the lives of our students is to meet our invisible guests – grief, joy, anger, doubt, and confusion. We read poetry from this deep hunger to know ourselves and the world” (p. 19).
“Kids need to become friends with poetry as well. They need to know that poems can comfort them, make them laugh, help them remember, nurture them to know and understand themselves more completely” (p. 20).
The big thing that she wrote that really resonated with me and as I read it, I just felt like angels around me saying “Yes, don’t do that” and I feel like she was speaking to my experience here was:
"The traditional way of introducing poetry is to begin by interpreting and analyzing a poem – dissecting its meaning and structure – which is meant to give insights into the heart of the poem. Unfortunately, it never does. Instead, it only alienates many people from the world of poetry” (p. 21)
In chapter three, Heard included a poem called “I Wonder??” I really liked the thoughtfulness, yet beautiful simplicity of this poem and it inspired me to create my own. Below you can see the one she included in the book on page 55 and you can also see mine that I wrote in my writers’ notebook.
Serendipity!
I did have a little bit of a serendipitous moment this week as I was reading from Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She had been talking about when she published her book, she said that the 100thperson to email her will get a pecan pie. One of the people who was the 100thperson to email was a Ms. Hamilton from Orlando, Florida. I am Ms. Hamilton who is also from Orlando, Florida. I just thought that was a neat thing that I read about in this book that I was like what a second, is that me. However, now I am going to text all the Ms. Hamilton’s who are in my family who lived in Florida at that time to see if they were the ones who got that pie, because how awesome would that be!
Serendipity x2
Also, while I was reading some of the poems from All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth, I had read through the first couple of pages and then decided to get a snack which happened to be raw carrots, a favorite of mine. Then, I got settled back down into my reading spot and kept reading the next couple of pages with my carrots. After I got through a few pages, I then read the “Raw Carrots” poem in the book. When I saw what the title was, I almost chocked on the carrot I had in my mouth because I gasped at how funny it was that I happened to go get some raw carrots to snack on while reading this book and then came to that page.
Also, this poem has really got me thinking now at how other animals taste buds are because they are different, but I never thought before that carrots may taste different to horses than they do to me. My dog gets carrots as treats because he is an English Bulldog and the vet said that the other treats we were giving him were too high in fat and not the healthiest for him. So, the suggested we give him carrots to help him lose weight. They also wanted us to give him green beans with his dry food because they are also supposed to help him lose weight. However, now I just can’t stop thinking about how carrots and green beans may taste different to him than to me and I wonder how they taste to him. He seems to love carrots because he runs to the fridge whenever we ask him if he wants one, but he is also a Bulldog who will eat anything. It is times like these when it would be really awesome if dogs could talk and tell us.
References:
Heard, G. (1999). Awakening the heart. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Worth, V. (1994). All the small poems and fourteen more. New York, NY: Square Fish.