I really enjoyed both the Christensen chapter and the short article about poetry in the classroom. I realized when reading these that I was never asked throughout my entire K-12 career to write a poem other than a haiku. I can remember feeling that teachers were scared to assign poetry writing because "not everyone likes poetry." I really wish I would have been pushed more to explore poetry writing in my own school experience. In the Christensen chapter, poetry became therapeutic and connected the students in ways that other types of activities could not. I especially enjoyed the part of the chapter where Christensen talks about how poetry writing improved her students' grammar tremendously. If my students were struggling with grammar, my first instinct would be to look for some handouts or worksheets to help them practice. Using poetry is an unconventional solution to getting students to understand grammar in context, which is one of the most important and valuable tools they can have as writers and lifelong learners.
I also loved how the article described poetry as "the space between language and experience," and the example she gave of how simply telling her husband the story of the elderly couple could not accurately convey her experience. I had never thought of thinking about poetry this way, but it really captures why poetry is so important. Simple language does not always do a sensory experience justice, and that is where poetry comes in. It can make a person feel something as if it happened to them using metaphors, imagery, etc.
I had the same experience in my K-12 experience. We rarely wrote or even talked about poetry unless it was the last quarter of the school year. I think that the genre holds more importance than it is accredited as having, like the space between language and experience. In my field assignment, my cooperating teacher recognizes that poetry does not hold much standing in the curriculum and does not want his students to fear it and have bad perceptions. To combat this he assigns a daily poem for the first assignment and sets time for discussion about conventions and the questions asked/given. As a student who fears poetry, I too found these readings interesting and helpful as a future educator and I hope to follow in my CT's footsteps and bring poetry back into the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a shame that poetry is not taught more in K-12. As Christensen shows us, it is a great way to bring classes together. I also agree that it is great how she uses it as a tool to help work on grammar. Our kids should be engaged in reading, writing, and listening of all kinds if we want their skill-set to be diverse.
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