Playing with Poems: Rules, Tools, and Games

Audience

Having an authentic audience to read and share work with is important for students. Research suggests that if classrooms are to be spaces for students in which identity can be challenged and refigured through play and poetry, then classroom poetry performances are a powerful opportunity for identity construction and creating authorial voices for their peers. ³⁰ Since students will be writing and sharing their work with an audience, students will produce work that reflects attention to craft and voice. The power of sharing poetry is evident. In making observations for a research study, one researcher captured a student's thoughts about audience and poetry:

Danielle explained why she read her poetry aloud: 'I wrote a lot of stuff that people didn't know about me. When I read it, they understood. A lot of people tell other people about it even though they weren't supposed to, and they make fun of me, but I still don't care.' Danielle wanted her classmates to understand her identity as she reconstructed her history, performing her identity as writer and student. ³¹

Even though this child was subject to an inappropriate response from her audience (and that is something that definitely needs to be addressed before deep and intimate poetry reading and sharing occurs), it is beneficial for a child to be understood. I think to a student that I taught several years ago. Francisco's method of expressing himself was writing poetry. He would often leave a poem on my desk or the librarian's desk expressing thoughts that he had. He found his voice through poetry and wanted us to recognize his growing awareness at the time. He went on to participate in Louder than a Bomb in high school and had a poem published in an article in which he advocates for students who are undocumented. ³² In elementary school, the audience was teachers that he knew cared. Francisco later realized that he had important issues to advocate, and poetry became what he used to address a wide audience. Having an understanding audience is powerful and can dramatically impact students in a positive way when they are adequately prepared to share with an audience.

To better frame the importance of being understood and what recognition means, it may help to think back to what Fisher and Frye concluded about recognition (as part of the TARGET acronym) and what Smith alluded to in her poem. Students want to be recognized as individuals who possess unique talents, skills, and abilities. Recognition should also be a key element in developing tasks for students. When thinking about the types of learning activities that we ask of students, it is critical to think about the larger implications of the work that students produce. ³³ If teachers believe that students can change the world and that the work they produce can impact the world positively, then it is critical for teachers to be thoughtful about the products that students are to produce share with a larger audience. In order for recognition to occur, the reach of student work has to go beyond the eyes of one teacher. It should allow for students to express and think through some issues that are personally meaningful on a grander scale; sharing their work must also occur. As demonstrated in Danielle's observation, it is critical to create safe opportunities to share, the operative word being "safe". While teaching this unit, much work must be done to create a classroom culture that allows students to share their work safely without the risk of being put down or bullied.

In order to have this type of reach, I have thought deeply about the process and product of this unit. Students will work to produce multiple drafts of poems across a couple of genres and themes. They will submit poems that they believe best reflect their ability and success based on their growing awareness of poetry as a genre. Students will be taught ways to give feedback that is positively framed during the unit while they share drafts of their work. In addition, in order to amplify student work and give their efforts the recognition it deserves, select students will act as editors to add poems to a blog that will be read, maintained, and commented on each week by students. Comments in the blog will be required, but the blog is also moderated by me. Comments will not be able to go live unless they have been vetted to ensure they are appropriate. Students will have the chance to have their work shared with a larger audience within the school community and enjoy the satisfaction that goes along with having a piece that is published.

Technology, specifically different web 2.0 applications, has unlocked access to larger audiences that students need for their work. Students of the 21 ^st century are accustomed to constant connection through numerous platforms; their writing "uses the mediums of instant messaging (IM), text messaging (texting), Twitter, and email, as well as shared electronic documents and postings on blogs and social networking sites." ³⁴ Since students are accustomed to writing for an audience, it is critical that this unit have an audience and reach beyond just the teacher. Websites such as Tagxedo, DomoAnimate, Wordle, and Glogster are just some of the recent 2.0 applications that have promoted student poetry and writing to larger audiences and increased student motivation. ³⁵ For the purposes of this unit, I plan to use Blogger as a venue for communicating student work. It is hoped that this will provide the recognition and motivation needed to make this unit engaging for all students.