The Uses of Poetry in the Classroom

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 05.01.03

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction/ Overview
  2. Rationale
  3. Objectives
  4. Strategies
  5. Section Three
  6. Lesson Plan Format
  7. Teacher Bibliography
  8. Student Bibliography
  9. Notes

Making the Relevant Connection: The Middle School Student and Poetry An Understanding and Appreciation of Poetry to Inspire the Poet Within

Maureen A. Lynch

Published September 2005

Tools for this Unit:

Introduction/ Overview

I teach 7th grade students Language Arts in a very large, very diverse middle school in Charlotte, NC. At my school, we are preparing our students to be lifelong learners who achieve academically, behave appropriately and contribute positively. This is our mission. These are our ABC's!

Because I teach in a diverse school, I have a diverse classroom with students from varying backgrounds. My unit is designed for my 7th grade and can be adapted for any academic level and any middle school grade level. My lessons are designed for seventy to eighty minute classes and the entire unit can be spread out over three to four weeks.

In writing this unit, I would like to share a poetry plan that not only can include all Language Arts objectives but also promote the concept of lifelong learner which is one of the cornerstones of the Middle School concept. Studying poetry in the middle school will allow the student to develop an appreciation and understanding of poetry, in hopes that they will still want to read poetry beyond their school years. My poetry unit will be student centered, allowing the students to learn about the medium of poetry while learning about themselves. In my poetry unit, the teacher serves as a role model and guide as well as instructor. It is the cooperative effort on the part of the teacher and student that will best enhance the success of this unit.

The emotional nature of the Middle School student blends well with the emotional nature of poetry. Very often through poems, emotionally developing adolescents can discover much about themselves. Poems allow students a freedom to express themselves in a non- threatening manner. The safety of poetry is what is so welcoming for the middle school student. Middle school is an ever changing and challenging time for the students. It is an emotional time for the students, and they are very often confused. Through poetry, I believe the student can begin to understand their changes as well as their emotions, thus clarifying some of their confusion. So along with the learning the state requires, the students learn about themselves.

I think there is a "poet" inside all of my students. They just aren't aware they are and can be poets! Their poetic side is waiting to be discovered and inspired. In order for this to occur, the classroom must be welcoming, allowing the student to experience many types of poetry and allowing the student to write many kinds of poems. The welcoming classroom is very much the model of both Georgia Heard and Kenneth Koch. I plan to model a part of my unit on how they inspire the "poet within" in their welcoming classroom.

The poems must also make sense to the students and be relevant to them. By sharing a wide variety of poetry, students can become more familiar with and more comfortable with poetry. The connection to the poetry and the relevance of the poetry grows as the familiarity and comfort levels of the students grow. My unit will encourage the teacher to read as many different poems written by as many different poets as possible

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I want the students to read and hear as many poems as possible so they can find their own style of poetry. The student should read and hear traditional poetry as well as contemporary poetry. They should experience serious and humorous poetry. From this wide variety of poets and poems, the student can "connect" with one or more poet or poem, opening the path for the student to understand and appreciate poetry as a medium.

Both Heard and Koch emphasize the variety of the poems as well as the variety of the poets the students should experience. According to Heard and Koch, the welcoming atmosphere, the variety and the relevance all blend to create an educational experience that will be not only challenging for the student but also rewarding. I have used these ideas in my past poetry units and know they will work with this poetry unit. Perhaps it is my own enthusiasm for poetry as well as the ideas of Heard and Koch that make for a successful poetry classroom. The blend of all the ideas and poems and writing create some of the most rewarding times in my classroom not only for my students but for me as well!

A poetry classroom should be one that is encouraging for the student to explore and experience poems. The classroom should foster their ideas and allow those ideas to grow and expand. My unit will have three parts that will let the student learn, grow, and also to understand and appreciate all forms of poetry and poems in stages. Although my unit is in three parts, the parts are not wholly separate from each other and can overlap and work together.

The first section of my unit introduces the student to the immense variety of poetry. They listen to several poems. I like to read several poems at this point, such as "If," by Rudyard Kipling, "Scaffolding," by Seamus Heaney, "Alone," by Maya Angelou and "Journey," by Nikki Giovanni. Also, I have several poetry books on hand and sometimes will choose one randomly. At the start of the unit, students may also contribute poems to be read. We begin reading several poems, discuss them and begin to interpret them. The student begins to discover the language of poetry and the importance of the words used in poems. They begin to see with poets' eyes and hear with poets' ears. They start to see the poetry in their everyday lives and their everyday activities. They begin to think like a poet and are on the way to finding and becoming aware of the poet within. The variety of poetry they read and hear lets them start to relate to the kinds of poems and poets they prefer. The students must "test" many poems and poets before they can find their preference. The variety of poetry read and poets studied is essential in finding their likes and dislikes in poetry. Once they begin to relate to the immense variety of poems, they can begin to become poets!

The second section of my unit comes after the successful completion of the first section. Individual classrooms, as well as students, will take varying amounts of time before the first section is complete. The second section is when the students begin to write their own poetry. They base their poetry on the model of some of the poetry from the first section. Any one of the poems the students have read or heard can be used as a model to start writing their own poems. They can take the idea or the vocabulary or the theme of the poem to create their own. The modeling of other poetry helps with the student's ideas. So often the students say they can't think of anything to write about. With the modeling of poems, they are given ideas that can become the starting point for their own writing of poetry.

Student writing is also encouraged by using stimuli. Students can write poems based on music, artwork, sounds, topics or everyday objects. These stimuli can be teacher generated or student generated. The music, though, should be instrumental.

With the reading of poetry and the beginnings of writing poetry behind us, we come to the third section of my unit. The third section is the culmination of the first and second section. The third section is where the students produce their own poetry book. This book includes original works as well as their favorite poems and poets. The students will also include a narrative of their personal journey through the labyrinth of poetry. The rubric for this product is very specific. Class time should be given for the third section of my unit as well as homework time. The book is created over a period of time. Again, the amount of time will vary from student to student and from class to class. During this time the teacher should work with the students, being sure to complete all parts of the rubric. Even after the book is completed, turned in and graded, the student should know that their poetry is an ongoing process.

I think the greatness of poetry lies in its personal nature, and in how it can mean so many things to so many people. It is this personal aspect of poetry that makes it so successful in the middle school classroom. At a time when the middle school students have so many questions, perhaps poetry can give them some answers. When the student sees how poetry can become personal, they will enjoy and appreciate all that poetry has to offer them. It is my intention that my unit gives the student this very personal and meaningful experience with poetry to carry with them throughout their educational life as well as beyond.

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