We've all had experiences regarding how we learned poetry. In my first reflection of poetry, I discussed how I was given vocabulary words related to poetry and read several poems that to me were very difficult to interpret. My teachers literally threw us into poetry and were asking questions like "why did the author do this?" We would all stare and say, "I don't know."
All of this led to the dread of poetry. The sighs, rolling of eyes, harsh "ughs" that filled the classroom. What teachers didn't do is show the endless possibilities of poetry and how anything could become poetry as long as it means something to us. With this, it doesn't mean throw students into the holes and throw poetry at them to get them reading and writing poetry. Over this semester, I have learned the importance of providing models of poetry. By having students read a poem and look into what they observe in the poem makes the idea of poetry seem relatable to students.
Poetry is about recognizing and paying attention to our inner lives- our memories, hopes, doubts, questions, fears, joys- and the image is the hook we find to hang the poem on (Heard, G., 1999, p. 66).
Georgia Heard (1999) discussed the importance of using "Poetry Toolboxes" to help young readers analyze what poets do in their writing that they can borrow in their own writing. She defines that there are two aspects of these toolboxes being looking at techniques that effect the meaning of the poem, and techniques that effect the music of a poem (p. 65). I have never heard of making these separate categories for understanding poetry, but I think it would benefit students to interpret how poets create their poems.
*WARNING* do not give students these poetry vocabulary with definitions and have them memorize these techniques!
Teachers need to find poems for students that they can get excited about, relate to, be passionate about to understand how poets use these toolbox strategies.
Here is a padlet of engaging poetry books that teachers can find poems students will enjoy to read: https://padlet.com/bethfrye/poetryRE5130
Teachers can use guiding questions to help students find what poets did in their poems regarding the "Poetry Toolbox" techniques. This gives students direct examples of these poetry vocabulary words and can use the same techniques when they use poems as mentor texts. With direct examples, teachers can use these models to help guide their teaching in each of these vocabulary terms.
Example Activities to Introduce Poetry Toolbox Techniques:
Another option for understanding line breaks and rhythm is playing this video of Jason Reynolds discussing how he wants his readers to read his poems.
View: 0:39-2:12
"Sharpening our Outer and Inner Visions: Poetry Projects"
Georgia Heard, 1999, pp. 91-118
It is one thing to let students go on their own to write poems about objects, but the result is going to be ordinary words describing their object. Georgia Heard (1999) describes the importance of observational poetry. Having students draw, label, write what their senses are experiencing as they are observing an object brings an ordinary object into a poetic object.
"The proper METHOD for studying poetry... is the method of contemporary biologists that is careful first-hand examination..." (Heard, G., 1999, p. 93).
I love the idea that Georgia Heard explains about sharing the importance of observation by Frederick Franck. The quote describes to students that the most intricate details of an object could be overlooked if they don't carefully observe and take into account for all the small details. By having students bring in an object, or allowing them to go outside to find an object to analyze, students can learn the benefits of observations.
"Transforming Observations into Poems" (Heard, G., 1999, p. 97)
Reflections and thoughts: What are you thinking about as you observe?
Lists: Describe and list the details you notice.
Metaphor and Simile: What does your object look like or remind you of? Spin a few metaphors or make an extended metaphor.
Question: What are you wondering about?
Feelings: What feelings do you have about what you're observing?
Memories: Does it remind you of anything in your own life?
The Larger Picture: What's the larger context? Where did the object come from?
This week, I completed an observational poetry session in which I spent time outside finding an object (dandelion), sat down and drew the object, labeled details of what I was seeing, feeling, smelling, and hearing at that moment. Now I am going to be honest, when I was first approaching the flower I immediately thought, "Duh this is easy, I know what a dandelion looks like I can draw it without even looking." I WAS SO WRONG! It was interesting to do this because as I was doing this, I learned that my typical drawings of a flower if I just think of it is bare and lack details. In the images below, you will see that the stem isn't bare and smooth, but rather fuzzy and hairy. The outer layer of the yellow petals all have three ridges, a detail that would be missed. There are very small curly string-like petals sticking up from the center. Along with this, there are layers of petals.
Now I can tell you this, without these specific details that I found from my observational time, I would have not been able to put the imagery, simile, metaphors, and personification into this poem. I learned that through this, I would most likely need to guide students through a think aloud regarding observing an object. I would first have them read "safety pin" by Valerie Worth. From this poem, students can discuss what they notice about the poem and how they can find meaning in the poem (Poetry toolbox). With a whole class annotation of the poem, I would then have a guided writing time to have students explore an object in the classroom and make a whole class poem about this object using strategies that they noticed from Valerie Worth's poem.
For example, I could give each student a paper clip, rubber band, or dice and we could list observations we are finding and draw our object as a class. By leading them into observations, it allows them to closely analyze objects and find the poetry in each object.
Poetry Mentor Text
This week I read Forest has a Song by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater. Wow I am amazed by this book!
Every single poem has so many poetic lines that could easily be used within a classroom to discuss aspects of a poetry toolbox. This text could serve as a mentor for observational poems regarding the use of senses. In several poems, she uses metaphors, personification, alliterations, similes, and imagery to show different parts of the forest.
Please view a literacy cast where elementary school aged children "chat" about their observations of the poem "Invitation" by Amy Ludwig Vanderwater:
View: 24:42- 30:02
Through student's observations and notices of the poem from this book, they were able to be "meaning makers" in identifying several aspects of the poem using tools from the poetry toolbox!
Just by watching students be engaged by the poem, they noticed the dialogue of the forest calling to the girl, imagery, and metaphors that were found in the poem.
Overall Reflection of Poetry
With the world changing so quickly in the last couple of weeks it was overwhelming to think that the main part of the course I thought I needed the most was going to be cut short. I was nervous that I was going to leave without fully knowing how to teach poetry. I can gratefully say that I have a better handle of understanding how to teach poetry to all levels of elementary school. One of the main concepts that I have taken away is the benefit of exploring and providing students poems that relate to them. By being introduced to several poetry books, I have learned the benefits of using a "Poetry Toolbox" to help students notice aspects of a poem without enforcing poem vocabulary like I had in elementary school. By using poems as mentors, it allows students to borrow the structure and similar approaches to making their poems have meaning and music within them.
Along with this, I have benefited from the poetry literacy casts every week! I have learned and observed what students say about poems and the importance of having students share their poetry everyday. It validates that poetry is everywhere and supports the writing community. It also taught me how to incorporate the poetry toolbox as finding "meaning makers" and/or "word wizards" in regards to analyzing a poem.