The Uses of Poetry in the Classroom

Rationale

Phonetics is the study concerned with the physical properties of sounds and it has three subfields, articulation, acoustics and audition. Poetry can be used to work with all three of these subfields and my unit will be doing this. In this unit the student will be listening, speaking and putting voice to their poetry.

The pattern of poetry is very distinct. Patterns help make the poem what it is. Rhythm will be explored without really stating or going into lengthy detail about it at this grade level. Some words in relation to pattern poems will be discussed. The discussion will be related to meters (iambic, dactylic, etc.). For the early childhood student these patterns help teach pre-reading and reading skills. When I look at the reading curriculum in our school in correlation with poetry, most of the skills can be transferred one to another. The behavior scientists believe that behavior flexibility has a great deal to do with this transferring.

This transferring evolving is considered "associationism." Deliberate association devices through targeted skills will be used in this unit. In behaviorist terms, the poem is the stimulus and the illustration with portfolio writing and reading is the response. This is the associationist's framework for experiencing poetry. I will also be using this in relation to the portfolio writing in response to the illustration. Can the student transfer what is thought of or understood to the illustration? The contextual material around the poem will be seen in the illustration, as in The Chariot of Aurora

http://www.carnegiemuseums.org/cmag/bk_issue/1998/novdec/feat5b.htm (The Chariot of Aurora: A Myth for Modern Times.) (This is just a portion of it—four of the thirty-two panels and some supporting information.)

The skills of fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, phonics and writing will be taught through poetry. I will look at the versification of words and the phonetic characteristics of language, such as number of syllables in a word and line. The length and tone of a word is important. The alliterations of poems will be used to assist in the readiness to read and will be reinforcing the skills needed to acquire a language base. A language base is what our assignment of reading in itself is trying to achieve.