The Forgotten Genre of Poetry

•  The Forgotten Genre of Poetry- Gill

• Write a short summary of your piece, featuring the 'big idea' or 'take-home message' you gained from reading it (about 100-200 words)

            The main point of the article was saying that children in schools are taught that poetry is written by, “great poets” and that the meaning can really only be understood by those who are trained to pick poetry apart and divulge meaning from its intricate words. Therefore, poetry is indeed seen as something negative. Students are not always excited to delve into poetry thinking it is, “hard” and saying comments such as, “I don’t understand what it means,” when in actuality poetry can mean different things to different readers. Various poets understood this and wrote poems for this reason. The author had lots of interesting thoughts on the topic of poetry and teaching poetry that I found very insightful, “I am more concerned that students understand what poetry is, enjoy reading it, feel the desire and ability to participate in writing it, and appreciate what makes one poem better than another” (p 267) Gill focused a lot of her commentary on stressing the importance of helping children understand what poetry is and that it is written by poets, who are everyday people like you and I, to share their experiences.

• Discuss whether and how you would .use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.

     I think poetry is such an amazing way to help children express how they feel, however, I do feel that it is something that many children are afraid to attempt. I would love to try to insert different types of poetry links into my unit. I feel that this could be done within my Genre Unit lesson very easily. The students will be reading historical fiction and therefore they could:

a.) take on the viewpoint of one character and write a poem about how a character might feel at one point in the story perhaps doing this as an “I Am Poem,” 

b.) how a certain setting might look using sensory images this could even be extended by having the students then trade poems with another student and see how detailed of a painting/drawing they could make of the setting based on the poem, etc.

All of these different ideas will allow students to explore the ways that they respond to literature and express their thoughts in a different manner,  “helps children develop new ways of sensing the world” ( 452).

• Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.

       I think as a teacher and a profession I will nee to explore poetry and become a poet myself in order to implement this technique effectively in my classroom. The reason for this is that I think some people, as the article discussed, feel that poetry has to be written a certain way, be hard to understand, have only one meaning, and only be written by certain individuals that are gifted. When in actuality, everyone is a poet. We cannot let our fear of doing what is “right” stop us from using poetry as a means to express ourselves. The influences and pressures of the outside world definitely  stop us from doing so and therefore, by taking time to write poetry on my own as an individual I will better understand the thought process of a new poet; the position I am putting my students in. I think by doing this and seeing the thought process I can better plan my poetry lessons and  relate to the way my students will be feeling and thinking.

Another idea I have of how to implement poetry is as hip-hop. I have a wonderful book of poetry that are poems by famous poets such as Maya Angelou, and famous hip hop artists such as Queen Latifah, and they are all considered poetry. I think by showing students that rap is nothing more than oral poetry I will be able to dispel many negative connotations and feelings that students may initially associate with the topic. This makes poetry more approachable and as the article states, more about expression than anything else.

• Lastly, how have any of the ideas in this module (writer's workshop, assessment, analysis of student work, jigsaw articles) helped you to think about the types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development?  Even if your unit is not focused squarely on writing, what might you need to consider about your students as WRITERS, as you plan for instruction?    I feel that collecting writing samples and looking closely at these samples has allowed me to think about how to assess my students in my upcoming unit. I think it is easy for teachers to judge students writing immediately based on their writing skills, or the student writing the piece and what we know about them. I found myself unknowingly doing this as I looked at their writing samples and was very upset at myself for doing so. Also, I think although we are assessing their writing I found that my students, like all students, express themselves very differently therefore, by giving them various ways to express themselves artistically: through poetry, drawing, dance, etc. I will be better preparing them for expression when it comes to writing by allowing them the chance to explore doing so in other ways.