Background Information
Merriam Webster offers multiple definitions of poetry. They include "metrical writing, writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm, and something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression." 6 Sonnets are defined by Merriam-Webster as "a fixed verse form of Italian origin consisting of 14 lines that are typically 5-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme." 7 I share this because as a teacher of second grade students, I know that sonnets are a type of poetry; however, I had to look further to see what made them special enough to have the unique name of sonnet. There are three types of sonnets. The Petrarchan or Italian sonnet typically relies on the rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA CDECDE. The Shakespearean or English sonnet typically relies on the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Spenser, who influenced Shakespeare, employed the Spenserian sonnet, which relies on the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. There are also poems defined as sonnets that do not use the rhyme patterns described above. Other vocabulary related to sonnets includes iambic pentameter, which describes the number and type of feet in a line, and volta, which is the turn of thought in the sonnet. Jennifer Ann Wagner, in the introduction to her book, A Moment's Monument, describes sonnets as a "poetic form that had enjoyed its original heyday several hundred years earlier." 8
Poetry has its roots in oral tradition. Early poems were passed from one person to the next, one generation to the next. It is the earliest form of literary expression, and paved the way for newspapers. Historically, many poems were short stories, bits of information that could be relayed from one group to another. "Poetry is about conciseness, echoes and resonances. A poem can suggest things by putting two words near to each other or giving a thought-provoking image." 9 Aristotle describes the genres of poetry as epic, comic, and tragic and more recently poetry has been described as epic, lyric and dramatic. 1 0 During the 20 th century, poetry has often moved from more traditional forms to free verse. Earlier forms of poetry represent religious movements, cultural information, the history of politics and wars, and the organization of societies. It predates literacy, and was originally used to aid memorization and oral transmission. 1 1
In Teaching Great Poetry to Children, Kenneth Koch shares strategies he used to teach children in grades 3-6 how to appreciate and write poetry. He "taught reading poetry and writing poetry as one subject. Students would read the adult poem in class, discuss it, and then they would write. Afterward, they or he would read aloud the poems they had written." In his book, Kenneth Koch offers leading ideas of what to write that go along with the poems he required students to read. He shared with his students a variety of poems on a variety of topics and then gave them the opportunity to respond in various ways. "I didn't want a poetry idea which commanded a child to closely imitate an adult poem. I wanted my students to find and to re-create in themselves the main feelings of the adult poems." Kenneth Koch encourages teachers to use great poems in instruction with children. "To save the whole poems for later means that some important things will be lost, permanently. When a child has had few experiences, he may begin to anticipate finding more of them in poetry and want to read more of it, rather than being cut off from it, as so many schoolchildren now are." 1 2
Students need to learn and understand the vocabulary associated with poetry. There are a variety of types of poetry forms that students can read and write, and it would be beneficial to teach students not only how to comprehend the poems, but also what name and meaning is associated with the type. I will list some very short forms here. Couplets usually rhyme and express a complete thought. Tercets add a third line with the same end rhyme to a couplet. Quatrains are found in a variety of poems and are made up of four lines that usually rhyme with an abab or abba rhyme scheme. Haikus are Japanese-influenced poems that contain three unrhymed lines and usually have 17 syllables arranged in lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. They usually describe a scene in nature or a seasonal reference. A Limerick is a five-line poem that is made up of three lines (1, 2, and 5) with three accented syllables and two shorter lines (3 and 4) with two accented syllables. Riddle poems describe a person, place, thing, or idea, and see if the reader can figure out the reference. They usually have a rhyme scheme of abcb or aabb.
The teacher may also wish to enumerate poetic forms that are normally longer or more complex. Pindaric odes are poems of celebration and follow no regular rhyme scheme and often but not always no stanza pattern. Acrostic poems are descriptive poems. The first letter of each line must form a word or phrase, usually the subject of the poem. Concrete or Emblem Poems are also known as shape poems because the words in the poem are arranged on the page to show the shape of the subject of the poem. (They could also be abstract poems that do not represent what they're about.) Epitaph is sometimes a short poem, usually rhymed, with a play on words that draws on the tradition of verses that adorned tombstones in days of old. A persona poem is a poem written from the point of view of the speaker of the poem, who is not the author. A poem of address is one in which a speaker addresses a person or object designated within the poem though not necessarily named. Ballads tell a story and are written in quatrains with a rhyme scheme of abcb or couplets or six-line stanzas. A list poem uses details and precise language to show the reader what the poet has noticed about a thing or situation. 1 3
There are many more types of forms, but these are the ones that I will introduce my students to throughout the year for the purpose of this unit. By teaching students the names of the types of poems they are studying and sharing with them a definition and example of the type, I will be providing them with a foundation on which to grow in their future years of studying poetry. If children learn something at a young age in a way that makes sense to them, it will be easier for them to understand it in a more difficult context. For example, if students learn about what sonnets are and see what they've learned applied to several sonnets that are developmentally appropriate to their level of understanding and vocabulary, then when they study William Shakespeare later on in their educational careers, the format of a sonnet will be familiar to them and they can focus on the content of the poem. It is also important to teach students a variety of types of poems, because as they begin to fall in love with each format of poetry, they can use it as an option for different responses they contribute to the class. As a teacher who values engaging all students in my classroom, I think I should provide students with choices of how to respond and to share their learning and understanding. By learning and understanding poetry, students can apply it to projects they are expected to complete in school. Instead of creating a poster or PowerPoint or story about something they are studying, they can write an original poem about their topic. This is an excellent way to assess how well they know and understand poetry, and also how much they enjoy it.
In addition to the vocabulary and definitions of types of poems that students will be learning, they also need to learn and understand different types of figurative language. This supports the National Common Core learning standards for second graders because they need to be able to describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem or song as well as demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings. 1 4 Students will learn various types of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, repetition, and rhyme. A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the words like and as. Metaphors are comparisons of two unlike things that do not use the words like and as. Personification is giving inanimate objects human qualities. Hyperboles are wild exaggerations. Alliteration is the repetition of beginning sounds. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds anywhere in a word. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds somewhere within words. Onomatopoeia is words that sound like what they refer to. Anaphora is the repeating of words or phrases. Rhyme occurs when endings of words sound alike. Students will learn the vocabulary words associated with figurative language as well as their definitions and examples of them. They will learn these by reading examples of them in the context of stories or poems, then create a definition for them, and record the definition as well as an example in order to illustrate their understanding. Students will also be responsible for identifying the types of figurative language when they discover them within the poems and the stories they read.
Comments: