Poetry and Public Life

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence”-Robert Frost

Introduction

Reading literature has always been the enjoyment of entertainment for many. Variation of literary experience brings suspense, laughter, fear, hope, and more. Young children, especially at the elementary level, are used to being entertained by these texts. It seems normal and expected by both students and teachers. But then, there is another form of text that has been mind blowing for students in both positive and negative ways.  This form of text is called “poetry” or “poems”.  I say it’s mind blowing because of the unfamiliarity of the text structure as well as the vocabulary usage involved in these poems. How can one call this text entertainment if he or she struggles to comprehend and understand the formal features of a poem? For this reason, this unit is developed to help learners become familiar with poetry and understand the elements of a poem. In addition, the activities in the unit will make poetry reading a part of students’ entertainment and make it fun to begin reading poetry frequently.

As Robert Frost says above, poetry is one way that we learn about our world and our surroundings.  Basically, we learn more about our surroundings by listening to each other’s views. This passage was quoted and explicated by a president of a university when introducing Maya Angelou as a guest speaker. He said “All of us have ideas, experience, and perspectives to bring to the table, but none of us knows so much about life and the world that we have nothing to learn from listening to others. The willingness to listen and to look at things from the perspective of others enriches our personal understanding of life and the world, and is also an essential part of succeeding in today’s global economy.”¹ Poetry is a written text to express ourselves for this purpose in special ways and carries a voice to be heard by the reader. Poetry is a way, especially for people of many ethnicities, to express what they feel and to actually be heard with responsiveness. Everyone needs to take the time to listen and be open-minded in order to hear others through their writings. Many poets have published poems to express themselves and challenge their audience to feel and hear what they have to say. Poetry is becoming more acceptable because it is coming to be more widely understood that it is an unusually expressive medium. As a result, through poems, we are becoming more willing to understand someone’s statement or message. Even beyond understanding there is a willingness to learn about a poet’s attitude, behavior and culture.  Poems are becoming popular for many outside of the Dine nation. In our poetry seminar, it was mentioned that poetry can offer insight into public life in the political setting. For example, a number of poems have been used to convey a message to the president or to address the public of the United States at presidential inaugurations.²

Research shows that students are able to comprehend and perform well on student achievement if instruction is relevant to the lives of the students. Reference to the student’s background and cultural knowledge is one way to increase the student’s achievement.³ Studies indicate that the usage of cultural material builds a bridge to learning, to understanding the concept offered in a lesson.  In this unit, the activities and resources are relevant and appropriate for the students.  The resources provide cultural knowledge, experiences, and prior knowledge which will increase participation and student motivation.  Only then, the students will be able to comprehend the objectives of what is being taught.