My poetry reflection
Growing up, I remember dreading poetry in elementary school and beyond. Poetry consisted of sitting in class and having to read poetry selections aloud, analyzing the meaning of poems, and writing my own short poems throughout school. Haiku, free verse, rhyming couplets, and sonnets are the main poem types I remember having to read and write. For me, it was hard to fit words into the format we were required to write or to come up with words that flowed because to me, poetry meant it had to rhyme. I also struggled with finding the meaning in poems. Either personally reading a poem aloud or listening to a peer read it one time, and then having to quickly figure out the meaning, was always so stressful and discouraging. Most of the time, poems are not very literal, take time to analyze and deep thinking to interpret, which was hard for me at the time.
After exploring poetry further in college, my perspective on it has changed. Seeing the support that mentor texts have when writing in general, has really opened my eyes to how beneficial and necessary mentor texts are in the classroom. Especially with poetry, I think if I had these mentor texts to help guide me by showing me multiple examples of what I can write about or having the ability to borrow words/lines from other authors, I think I would have had a better experience growing up. Knowing what it is like to dread the thought of reading poem after poem to only analyze it for the meaning or having to pull poems out of my head, I want to make sure I create a positive experience with poetry in my classroom. I now see the beautiful stories and imagery that poems portray, as well as the inspiration they evoke in students, so I want to make sure my future students look at poetry this way.
When thinking about teaching poetry, I know that mentor texts are going to be the center of my teaching. From the mentor texts that we have explored in class, getting to touch, smell, and read these texts first hand to help develop my own poetry, I feel more confident in how to use these in the classroom. I now know that poetry is more than writing haikus, sonnets, and couplets. It is exploring and reading poems by other authors, borrowing and gathering inspiration from both published poems and peers, and gathering inspiration from yourself and your experiences. Not all poetry has to be about an object or the weather outside like I thought growing up, but there is so many possibilities. So, when teaching poetry to my future students, I may not know all there is to know about it, but I do know that I want students to explore a variety of topics, have fun with poetry, and use mentor texts to do this.
A really good poem to me is one that I can visualize, feel engaged with, inspired, and connected to. To me, good poems just have this way of sounding so beautiful and elegant as you read them. These poems don’t have to rhyme, but the way the author carefully places the words together to create a story that comes to life in front of me is what pulls me in and makes me say, wow that was a really good poem.
When thinking about poetry in my future classroom, I want to make sure I create an inviting and encouraging environment. Most students are not going to automatically want to read, write, and explore poetry on their own, rather, I need to create this environment that welcomes poetry into the classroom. To do this, making sure poetry books are stocked on my classroom bookshelf is a must. It would also be important to explore the school library/talk with the librarian to make sure the library has a good selection of poems as well. It is hard for students to read poetry and learn to write it without books that act as models. Furthermore, I love to use quotes as decoration around the room and on the door, so doing the same thing with some favorite poems or poets would be such a neat decoration for the classroom walls. That way, you are showing students that poems have a place in the classroom, further encouraging this poetry environment. Read alouds is definitely something I see as important in the classroom. So, when reading aloud each day, I would make sure to incorporate poems as well. Read alouds do not have to be long or extravagant things, you could simply read a poem a day. This way, I would not just be reading short stories to students, but a variety of writing. Lastly, something that I would love to do to incorporate poetry into the classroom is to do a poetry exchange/pen pals. Linking up with another class in your school, or even at another school, would be so motivating for students. Maybe for morning work once a week, students could write a poem to be sent to their pal, giving students a reason to write, establishing relationships between students, and encouraging poetry! There are many ways to incorporate poetry into your classroom, but these are a couple of ideas that I see as necessary when creating a poetry environment in my future classroom.
The Power of IMITATION
When writing poetry, or any form of writing, imitation is a useful and effective strategy. Borrowing lines, phrases, or syntactic structures can help you as a writer create brilliant poetry. Borrowing from other writers is a wise strategy to teach students as well. Sometimes it can be challenging to start writing or come up with a topic, but pulling aspects of other authors' work can make it easier. Modeling this to students shows them that even the best writers gain inspiration and learn from one another.
Tractor
The tractor rests
In the shed,
Dead or asleep,
But with high
Hind wheels
Held so still
We know
It is only waiting,
Ready to leap---
Like a heavy
Brown
Grasshopper.
(Worth & Babbitt, 1994, pg. 17)
(Janeczko & Sweet, 2014)
As I was reading this book, I was memorized by the illustrations on each page. Each page was so colorful, elaborate, and very representative of the words in the poems. The poet's words came to life on each page! Flipping through each page, my heart jumped when I saw the names of some of the poets I remember reading in school like Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, and Robert Frost. Below are some of my favorite pages from this book! p.s. I love how the letters of each season were incorporated into the pictures.
As I was reading Awakening the Heart, I began to think back to my poetry reflection. The first three chapters of this books discussed ways we can incorporate poetry into the classroom and how to help students find poetry inside them and around them. Thinking back to my reflection, I also valued some of the important aspects of a classroom poetry environment that this book hits on. I talked about the importance of having poetry on the walls of your classroom, having students write poems and/or give poems to peers, making poetry personal, and how you as the teacher need to model reading and writing poetry. One idea from the book to further develop a poetry environment that I really liked was the living poetry museum. This involves setting up poetry or inspiration around your room for students to explore and write about. From having students bring in objects like shells, old bee hives, or rocks to place around the room so they can gather inspiration and write observational poetry, to writing poetry about things in the classroom like a fish tank, to an area to listen to poetry tapes, to a place where students can draw or paint what a poem inspires in them, poetry is all around (Heard, 1999, pg. 5).
Lastly, thinking back to my poetry reflection and my experiences with poetry growing up, the part about how to read poetry without disinteresting students or pushing them away from poetry was very helpful and eye opening. I learned that you should not just read a poem and then have students analyze it for meaning, rather, there are three layers to unpacking poetry in an effective way. First, have students read poems in a nonthreatening environment. The Living Anthology Project is a fun way to do this from the book. Having students first find areas in their school where poems could go (ex: water fountain, lunch line, bathroom stall) and then reading poems and finding the perfect ones to fill these areas (Heard, 1999, pg. 22). Furthermore, the next step in unpacking poems is to help students connect personally with them (Heard, 1999, pg. 34). This is a great time to incorporate poetry pen pal exchanges where students find and give personal poems to peers. The final step in a poetry experience is to then figure out the mechanics of how a poem is built. This is when you analyze a poem for similes, repetition, rhyme, etc. that typically poetry exploration only consists of (Heard, 1999, pg. 45). Overall, I think this book does a wonderful job of providing input to teachers on how to teach poetry in the classroom and make it interesting for all.
Where Poetry Hides
Poetry hides
in the bookshelf
with books stacked to the sky.
Poetry hides
under your hat
in your eyes.
Poetry hides
in a bottle
on the beach of an unknown shore.
Poetry hides
in the world around your phone.
Poetry hides
in a summer
picnic.
(Inspired by page 49 in Awakening the Heart)
Sea Turtles
Tide's rising
Ground’s cooling
Sea turtles are Sea turtles are
hatching out hatching out
tiny flippers
such determination
crawling
to their new home
Sea turtles Sea turtles
swimming swimming
gracefully
Sea turtles’ Sea turtles’
body body
hard
protecting them
from the ocean's friends
might strong might strong
it holds them near
never leaving
a guardian friend a guardian friend
flapping
glidding
exploring the sea exploring the sea
from the shallows
to the ocean floor.
(Inspired by "Grasshoppers" pg. 3 in Joyful Noise)
My "Purple Flower Moment" Inspired by Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal:
Useful links:
Sources:
Fleischman, P. & Beddows, E. (1988) Joyful noise: poems for two voices. New York, NY: Harper.
Heard, G. (1999) Awakening the heart. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann
Janeczko, P. B. & Sweet, M. (2014) Firefly July: a year of very short poems. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Rosenthal, A. K. (2016) Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal. New York, NY: Dutton.
Worth, V. & Babbitt, N. (1994) All the small poems and fourteen more. New York, NY: Square Fish.
Hey Madison! I enjoyed reading your blog post this week. For a lot of us, I think poetry was an experience throughout elementary and high school that seemed daunting and almost forced at times. I love your reflection, but one idea I may use from you is the idea of having one morning work throughout the week be either writing or sharing a poem with someone in the class. I haven't heard of that and I love that idea! Along with this, I loved reading your "imitation/borrowed" poetry that you included.