Poetry

Untitled Slide

• Children have a natural affinity for poetry, even before school: Mother Goose,other nursery rhymes, and childhood songs.
• “Despite its instructional possibilities and sheer pleasure of reciting poems, poetry rarely receives the same attention in our elementary/secondary schools as do other literature forms”

What Happens and Why?

• Negative teaching practices in college result in distasteful poetry experiences for undergraduates.
• These future teachers don’t appreciate poetry, so they don’t put effort into teaching it.

What Happens and Why?

• A teacher whom dislikes poetry and/or an overzealous teacher whom loves poetry can both have negative effects on students.

Summation of children's stance on poetry

• Children like rhyming and no hidden meaning.
• “What they dislike is associated with teaching practices: the abuse of Haiku, a lack of connection with the more abstract form of free verse, and the distaste for figurative language” (94).

Summation of children's stance on poetry

• Teachers tend to fixate on simile, metaphor, and personification which calls for students completing worksheet after worksheet on these three figurative languages.

“With proper instructional techniques children can and do learn to appreciate this elegant verse form” (94).

The keys are to associate poetry with pleasure not work and to allow students to make choices concerning poetry whenever possible. Allowing students to choose their own favorite poem to memorize and the form of poetry that they would like to write in including free form promote positive school experiences and brings about appreciation (95).

Untitled Slide

• Teachers have a responsibility to discover the world of poetry and share it with children to stem the ambivalence toward poetry (102).
• The classroom and school library should have a collection of poetry so there is something for everyone (102).

How to build appreciation for poetry: “the key is consistent, unfettered exposure to poetry by an enthusiastic teacher who begins mixing light verse and more artistic poetry” (96).

Appreciation

• Start with a light, humorous verse (Where the Sidewalk Ends and/or The New Kid on the Block) to facilitate the appreciation of poetry then move on to introducing “more sophisticated contemporary and traditional poetry written for children and adults” (95).

Appreciation

• Poetry is best learned orally. Due to the importance of rhythm in poetry, the teacher should recite the lyrics.
• To instill and restore appreciation of poetry, turn to song. Distributing popular song lyrics in the form of a poem can break down barriers “clearing the way for sharing other sorts of poetry” (96).

Appreciation

• Use choral speaking to share poetry so that children can “play with words and their sounds” (96). Examples for use are (96): Overheard on a Salt Marsh, Joyful Noise, Around on the Monkeys Bars, and Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More!

Appreciation

• For teachers, treat poetry phobia. Poetry phobia “often results from a lack of knowledge and usually disappears with increased understanding” (97). To treat poetry phobia, learn about poetry by reading poetry from Fly with Poetry: An ABC of Poetry by Avis Harley and Leap into Poetry: More ABC's of Poetry.

Appreciation

• Teachers need to share poems that they personally like. Through modelling appreciation of poetry through reading poetry and writing lyrics of their own and sharing them with students, the teacher can “convince children of poetry’s worth” (97).

“To encourage the sharing of poetry with children and to raise awareness of teachers about the quality of the poetry available, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)” (97) established The National Council of Teachers of English Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children.

Poetry has distinct patterns or forms. “The variety of patterns distinguishes one poem from another” (98).

Forms of Poetry

• Narrative Poems (“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”) • Tell stories • Children enjoy (easy to understand)

Forms

• Lyric Poems (“How to Tell the Top of a Hill”) • Melodic or songlike • Descriptive • Focuses on personal moments or feelings or image-laden scenes

Forms

• Limericks (Book of Nonsense) • Humorous • Rhyming schemes and verse patterns are familiar to most children

Forms

• Haiku • 17-syllable poem traditionally expresses something about nature: • 1st 5 syllables • 2nd 7 syllables • 3rd 5 syllables

Forms

• Free Verse • Mostly unrhymed and lacks a consistent rhythm • Philosophical or abstract topics

Forms

• Reversos
• “Read from top to bottom, the poems reveal one perspective or point of view; when read from bottom to top with changes only in capitalization and punctuation, the same verse tells another story” (99)
• Two poems are created using the exact same words

Forms

• Additional Poetic forms • For more forms or elements (52) of poetry, Fly with Poetry: An ABC of Poetry and Leap into Poetry: More ABC's of Poetry by Avis Harley.

Forms

• Concrete poems (99) • “Written or printed on the page in a shape representing the poem’s subject” (99) • Seen more than heard • Usually has no rhyming scheme or rhythm

Formats of today’s poetry

• Anthologies – “books put together by an anthologist to highlight a variety of topics with multiple poets” (101) “bouquets of voices” Joan Bransfield Graham

Untitled Slide

• Collections – • “poems about a particular topic written by a variety of poets” (101) • “Single-topic collections by a single poet” (101) • “Single-format collection with only poems of one type” (101) • Collections of concrete poetry (102)

Untitled Slide

• Single-Poem Picture Books • Useful for giving children a taste of the more traditional and sometimes more sophisticated poet

Untitled Slide

• Verse Novels (102) • Books written in verse not prose • Cross boundaries (written in poetry but classified as another genre) • Children enjoying reading and listening to the rhythmic language

Tunnell, M. O., Jacobs, J. S., Young, T. A., & Bryan, G. (2016). Children’s Literature, Briefly (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.