Introduction
Poetry has gotten a bad rap these days. Most recently a colleague of mine told me that her principal gave her a difficult time about using a poetry lesson for her formal evaluation. I was shocked! She teaches second grade, so I struggled to think of words to ease her anxiety about getting a poor rating on her observation. Then I remembered that poems are a part of our Pennsylvania standardized tests in each grade. That seemed to make her feel better. Once I got over the shock, I lamented that poetry seemed to have lost its appeal in the general public. We were reminded in our seminar, “Poetry and Public Life” with Professor Paul Fry that there are places such as Ireland where every town or inn seemed to have their own Poet Laureate. Maybe if we could bring poetry back to the classroom, engaging our students in the fun of finding and using words that excite them, students could find a way to improve their reading and writing skills and in the process learn a little bit about themselves.
Poetry has a way of bringing out our thoughts and feelings in a way that gets to the heart of the matter. Although children may not have a large vocabulary, they do have the ability to speak their minds without the inhibitions or filters that adults have. That is what makes teaching poetry so exciting and refreshing. Students can become word wizards, which is what I call writers who have a way with words. Bringing out this talent or skill takes time, patience, and practice. It is important that students are given time to cultivate this skill, both by being exposed to good poetry readings and by practicing writing different types of poetry.
This unit will cover public poetry as a form of poetry that speaks to the condition of life. Students will look at poetry that makes a statement about city life – warts and all. Reading standards for fourth graders include explaining major differences between poems, drama, and prose and referring to the structural elements of each when writing or speaking about a text. Introducing different forms of poetry will be a part of the unit, but not necessarily the focus of the unit. Students will read to understand ideas and elements of poems so that they are able to write poetry that does not necessarily copy a poets’ style, but provides ideas for students to latch onto when writing.
This four-week unit is intended for fourth graders (and can be easily modified for fifth graders) of varying reading and writing levels in a large urban setting. Because the unit includes two walking tours and is four weeks long, it does not have to be completed in consecutive weeks, but could be completed in a marking period of approximately six to seven weeks. In 2016-2017, 100% of our student population qualified for free or reduced lunch. Our students are approximately 29% African American, 61% Latino with 9% listed as white or other. Our district’s K-5 Reading Initiative is for all students to read at grade level by the end of third grade. We have seen improvements in the last couple of years and, at the same time, continue to have students in fourth grade whose reading levels span from first grade through seventh grade. This presents challenges for teachers who adjust and modify reading lessons to reach all students. This unit will address some of these concerns in the strategies and lesson activities sections.
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