I agree with this article. I think that some of my students have heard the term poetry, but don't really know what it is. I think it would be important to do a unit on different types of poetry. I can introduce poetry to my students and have them try and write their own poetry pieces. This could be a nice unit. I could also introduce books that have poetry in them, for students to read.
As a professional, I think it is important that I read up on my poetry and get more familiar with different types of poetry. I think I would need time to plan this unit until I felt more comfortable with it. Poetry can be a hard and confusion topic to teach and understand. I think this would have to be spread out over a few weeks in order for me to assess students on their thinking and ability to understand poetry. I think that many of my 5th graders would like the concept of poetry. I think that many of them would enjoy writing their own poetry piece or even reading a book on poetry.
I really like the idea of writers workshop. I think that while students are working on personal narratives, a writers workshop style would be very beneficial to them. Students would be able to hear examples of personal narratives, and then have a chance to work on their own. Another day, they could work in small groups to read and discuss their writing. Lastly, even though we share in our classroom already, I know how much my students benefit from sharing their stories. They benefit from hearing their own story out loud as well as hearing what other people have to say and write about.
I love thinking and reading about ways to teach poetry in the classroom! I really enjoy all types of poetry and have noticed the way many students think about poetry is negative. One of my goals as a teacher during ELA will be to try to change my students viewpoints about poetry and think of themselves as poets. I am curious about the ideas that your article offered. What ways did they give to expand your children’s and personal collection of poetry? I agree that it is important to introduce children to the genre of poetry early and often, but I think the most important part it to do so in a positive and innovation way; make sure they understand that they can be poets themselves.
ReplyDeleteI also have seen children confused and turned off by the term “poetry” simply because they don’t have a good understanding of what it entails. I think doing an entire unit about the different types of poetry and allowing them to see how very broad the term is and to find a type of poetry that they feel comfortable with and can express themselves with.
I think that 5th grades can really enjoy a poetry unit involving writing and reading poetry pieces as well! Introducing poetry and teaching in engaging ways is very important especially because of the negative ways that many students think about it. Using songs or raps because rap is poetry, having students act out a poem, do a painting from a poem, etc. allows students a way to explore the concept in a new and meaningful way. My students love to hear their own stories out loud as well! I think this allows them to truly feel as if they are poets/authors. It gives them confidence and allows them to learn from their peer constructive criticism and other’s work.
After doing the jigsaw reading about poetry and reading your blog about this article I have given the concept of poetry lots of thought. I wish that I could simply choose what topics we were able to teach our students but instead our language arts time is dominated by our “genre units” It looks like I will have to find ways to teach poetry along with what we are learning and make cross-curricular connections.