Writing Poetry
Research also indicates that students experience multiple benefits when they produce their own poetry. Producing poetry requires students to think specifically using knowledge of craft and precision with words to communicate specifically within a genre. Smith argues that it is important to establish a "word-rich environment" for students to have frequent opportunities to hear, speak, and write words and concepts that are new to them. 25 Reading poetry and subsequently producing it requires students to think and be selective with diction. This careful selection of words introduces new vocabulary to many students when they share drafts of poems and their final products.
Besides academic benefits, there are also social and emotional benefits for students that produce their own poetry. In one research study of 22 students, teachers hosted a writing club that met before school for one day a week. 26 In this study, students were allowed to produce different types of creative writing which they could not during the normal instructional day due to time constraints. 27 Students wrote creatively and shared their work at a culminating event and with teachers after dedicating tremendous amounts of time to their writing, in some cases 16 weeks on one written piece. 28 The researchers found that what drove student participation in the program was that their natural developmental needs to search for identity and meaning are not being met during the normal school day. This program filled a void that existed in their curriculum. 29 Having an outlet like poetry fills a void that is needed for many students, so much so that students were willing to come to school early to explore their thoughts in writing. Having students draft poetry in class will enable them to experience what these students experienced during morning sessions.
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