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Annalise Olson

ENG 495

Prof. Kurt Bullock

03 April 2017

Lazarus Effect: The Death and Resuscitation of Poetry in Education

The rhythmic sound of a jump rope thwacking the pavement could be heard as

two pairs of little sneakers began to jump in a steady rhythm. A chorus of voices rang out

over the boisterous noise of the playground. They began chanting harmoniously,

“Cinderella, dressed in yella/Went upstairs to kiss her fella/Made a mistake/And kissed a

snake/How many doctors/Did it take? 1,2,3,4…” One set of feet got tangled up after ten

jumps and giggles ensued as the chanting ended. Then just as quickly as that one ended, a

new chant began. “Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack/All dressed in black black black/With

silver buttons buttons buttons/All down her back back back…” These rhymes and

repetitions, poems one would call them, were the heartbeat of the playground, thrumming

with life and joy and excitement.

Fast-forward a few years. Groans permeated the classroom as the teacher stood in

front of the agitated students and explained that the next few weeks would consist of their

annual poetry unit. “I am no more pleased with teaching it than you are with learning it,”

scoffed the unenthusiastic teacher. A few chuckles, masked by coughs, transpired and the

teacher began a perfunctory reading of the first poem they would study. “…The woods

are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep/And

miles to go before I sleep.” The students were instructed to analyze the meaning of the
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poem and try to decode it line by line as if it were an equation with a hidden solution.

When the teacher asked for a brave soul to share their thoughts with the class, twenty

pairs of eyes dropped to the floor and pencils began to tap on desks. Finally, one student

hesitantly volunteered and explained that it was about a man on a journey who stopped to

observe the woods and enjoyed the beauty of the snow.

With authority, the teacher responded saying that the meaning is not about beauty

but about death; the summary the student had given about the meaning was too simple.

After being instructed on the meaning of the poem, the students were to choose a stanza

and memorize it that night so that the next day, they could recite it aloud. Poem after

poem, for weeks on end, this cycle continued. The most recently penned poem they

studied had been crafted over fifty years ago. By the end of the four short weeks, the

word poetry elicited about as much excitement from the students as the word homework.

These two realistic pictures of the interactions many students have with poetry

contrast one another. One demonstrates the natural draw to poetic language and the other

exhibits the all to common experience students have with poetry once they leave the days

of the ‘playground.’ Why is poetry often viewed so marvelously at one point in life and

so miserably the next? As a child, I was drawn to poetry like a moth to a light. I loved the

images I could paint and the sounds I could create simply with words. It was magic. I

have grown to truly value poetry as I have experienced more of it. However, I have

noticed that I am mainly in the minority of students who feel this way.

In conversing with and observing my peers throughout my formal English

education, many study, and enjoy, the discipline of English, yet are hesitant when that

includes poetry studies. Many of these fellow students happen to be future educators as
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well. It is disheartening to see an abundance of incoming teachers apprehensive when

approaching poetry. If these individuals who are exposed to poetry in many forms and are

supposed to be experts and advocates of poetry view it with disdain, it is no wonder that

countless students end up experiencing this same feeling eventually. The question is, why

is this the case?

Children are instinctively drawn to poems because poetry is their language.

Poetry is images said in words, imagination expressed, and a pure form of

communication. Poetry is sound and speech and thought and rhythm all woven together.

In an essay by Pauline Peck, an acclaimed writer and poet of children’s literature, she

brilliantly explains how poetry should function, in an ideal world, for learners. “[Poetry]

should communicate; inspire; provoke; inform; tell of things that are, things that were,

things that never will be, things that someday might be. Poetry should express feelings. It

should communicate emotions. Children should feel a poem and they should react to their

feelings” (Peck 9). In this description, Peck explicates that poetry should be a multi-

faceted experience. It should act as a means of connection and communication, not only

knowledge, but also emotion. She calls for poetry to elicit a reaction to feeling. As in the

description of the playground scene, poetry is a natural extension of language for

children. This is also fostered in the way that poetry is utilized in the classroom itself in

early elementary grades.

Poetry should be heard with the ears and not consumed with the eyes. In the early

elementary classroom, poetry is primarily experienced simply through an auditory

experience. It is read aloud to students, not handed out in print. Their schema for

experiencing poetry is feeling the beat of the words, catching the rhyme, and feeling the
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spoken sound of a poem. They are not commonly instructed to pick apart the lines and

dissect the poem for meaning. These early learners are asked to simply experience the

images it creates in their minds and to explain how the poem makes them feel. Poetry is

also entwined in many aspects of their education. If you want a young child to remember

something, make it into a rhyming poem or song. I can almost guarantee that they will be

much more likely to remember it. That is why things such as the days of the week,

months, seasons, and states are taught using poetry. Many of the children’s stories that

they read are written in poetry. If one was to pick up a children’s picture book off the

shelf, the likelihood of that book being an illustrated poem is extremely high. This is

because children respond to and find joy in poetry.

So why do students tend to gradually lose this instinctual love of poetry as they

travel through their education? There are a copious amount of reasons as to why this

could be the case. The first is highlighted by the illustration of the ‘traditional’ teaching

of poetry as it typically occurs in upper elementary and secondary education. The

common view is that poetry is something to be conquered. It is routinely explored with

the intent to obtain meaning and knowledge, rather than explored just for the sake of the

journey and experience. Barbara Rebbeck, for instance, suggests that poetry is often

ruined by well intentioned teachers who attempt to draw out meaning from a poem much

like a dentist would an abscessed molar (Rebbeck 1). This analogy exposes the harsh

truth that the traditional view of poetry instruction, meaning over response, has been like

a slow death to poetry in the educational system. Billy Collins, who served as the Poet

Laureate of the U.S. from 2001 to 2003, wrote a poem called “Introduction to Poetry”

which illustrates the battle between experience and meaning: “I want them to
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waterski/across the surface of a poem/waving at the author’s name on the shore./But all

they want to do/is tie the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession out of it”

(Collins lines 9-14). In this poem, he urges readers of poetry to use their senses to

experience a poem, not their brains. He desires for them to experience the imagery, the

sounds, and the rhythm and feeling, not focus on the torturous process of extracting a

specific and determined meaning.

Not only has tradition snuffed the flame of the dying art of poetry, but also the

stereotypes and misconceptions that so often surround it. All too often, students hear the

word poetry and instantaneously associate it with love, feelings, romance, and femininity.

One of the best illustrations of a learner’s perspective on poetry is the book Love That

Dog by Sharon Creech. The novel is written in prose poetry from the perspective of a

young student, Jack, and is his responses to poetry and his teacher. The book highlights

this learner’s yearlong journey in discovering a love for poetry. Unsurprisingly, his initial

view of poetry is littered with stereotypes and misconceptions. The first lines of the book

state, “I don’t want to/because boys/don’t write poetry/Girls do” (Creech 1). Another

misconception that is addressed in the book is that there is a formula for writing poetry.

The teacher in the story, Miss Stretchberry, uses a wide variety of mentor texts to

highlight that there is never a formula for poetry but one can pull inspiration from other

poems and poets. A third misconception addressed in the book is that poetry should be

taught as a unit and left at that. This book emphasizes that Jack’s journey takes place over

an entire school year and poetry utilized from the beginning of the year to the end. Poetry

is a powerful tool for instruction and understanding and should be used in a diverse way,

unconfined to time restraints and an instructional unit.

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A negative impact on poetry instruction that is not typically discussed at length is

the assessment of poetry as well as the implications of the standardized trend in the

educational system. Recent research outlines the damaging consequences that

standardized testing has had on poetry instruction. With so many standards and criteria

that need to be taught in order for student success on the many standardized test they are

subjected to in our current climate, poetry is being pushed to the back burner. Given the

current criteria needing to be addressed for student success on standardized tests, many

teachers have limited poetry instruction because it is not highly emphasized on

standardized tests. If it is addressed on these tests, it is most likely requiring students to

answer questions that require the scrutiny of analysis and the types of questions asked are

typically in essay and multiple choice format as these have been the common way to

assess a student’s knowledge of poetry for generations. Limiting the types of assessments

of poetry also limit the way that it is instructed because the types of assessments used

directly impact how it is instructed.

As a future educator, it is deeply troubling that we have arrived at a point in our

educational system where something as powerful as poetry is on its deathbed. However,

working to restore life to poetry instruction is where this leads. Knowing the causes of the

negative connotations surrounding poetry help to guide poetry instruction and assessment

in a new direction. The best way to bring something back to life is to not further the

causes of death, but to find a cure. Defining the most effective and influential

pedagogical practices for teaching poetry and subsequently, applying them, is the only

way to resuscitate poetry in the classroom.

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Concepts and Critical Analysis of Traditional Poetry Instruction

In order to understand the root of the problem of current poetry instruction, it is

imperative to understand how the traditional outlook on poetry instruction has become

the source of the negative climate toward poetry. Mentioned above is a quote from

Barbara Rebbeck that relates traditional poetry instruction to that of a dentist ‘extracting’

a molar. Rebbeck is alluding to the fact that, all to commonly, poetry is being dissected

for meaning in a way that is painful and unnatural. In the same article that she makes this

reference, “Poetry (sigh!),” she describes a scene in which she shows her students four

lists of poem titles from a recent student poetry contest that she judged with fellow poets.

There is a list of poem titles that did not win or place, a list with the third place poems,

one with the second place poem titles, and finally, a list with the first place poem titles.

Then she had her students describe what they noticed about each list of titles. Of the first

and second place titles, the students noticed that the titles were extremely concrete and

about specific topics. These included titles such as “Broccoli Soup,” “New World

Through Old Eyes,” and my personal favorite, “Kudzu the Clown: Freak by Choice.”

Then as they examined the titles of poems that did not place, they noticed that all of the

titles were nouns that often described a very vague idea or concept, such as “Death,”

“Eternity,” “The Beauty of Life,” and “Disillusionment” (Rebbeck 2-3).

Many of the titles that didn’t place represent the idea that many students often

believe that the theme of a poem must be about lofty ideas and philosophical musings. I

believe that this idea has been perpetuated through the types of poems that students are

routinely exposed to in poetry education. In classical poetry, the themes presented are

often similar to that of the first list. These themes and ideas have their place, but when
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students are not exposed to any other types of poetry, they do not realize that poetry is, in

fact, much more diverse. It also makes it hard for students, and teachers alike, to connect

to a poem that is philosophically out of their reach and unattainable in their mind’s eye.

In early elementary school, the climate of poetry instruction is much different

than that of middle and high school. In earlier grades, teachers foster the natural love of

poetic language and creativity because young children are naturally drawn to it. Poetry, to

them, is about rhythm, rhyme, and wonderful imagery because they are not instructed to

think anything differently. But once students reach middle school, they often dread poetry

because they are often expected to focus on the ideas alone, instead of the experience. I

think that this is because the last interaction that their teachers had was similar to this.

Poetry becomes foreign to many teachers because it is not a core aspect of English

curriculums in middle and high schools, so they are often not instructed in their training

on the best ways to teach it. They only draw upon their last experiences from when they

were in school, unless they choose to pursue educating themselves individually on better

pedagogical approaches to poetry instruction. Oftentimes, teachers have had negative

experiences with poetry, so they approach it with anxiety or try to avoid it as much as

they can.

This idea is reinforced by countless studies conducted about teacher attitudes

toward poetry instruction. In the article “Poetry, What’s the Sense in Teaching it,”

Stickling, Prasun, and Olsen compiled some of this research. The findings included

statements such as “Poetry is an area of curriculum where teachers feel most uncertain of

their knowledge; most uncomfortable about their methods and most guilty about both,” as

well as “teachers are anxious that their pupils should produce the model answer rather
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than expressing their own opinions.” They also stated that teachers’ negative opinions

about poetry stem from their own bad experiences, which results in them teaching it less

(Stickling 31). Poetry has been deemed the “most neglected” area in language arts

curriculums and there is also a decline in the amount of reading and sharing of poetry in

classrooms as students leave primary school and enter secondary levels (Miguez 27).

These tragic findings begin to help make sense of why there is such a serious

transition of attitudes and opinions about poetry as students travel through their

education. The irony is that the more students are ‘educated’ on poetry, the less they are

appreciating and experiencing it. It is troubling that a genre that lends itself as the

gateway to valuable skills, a means of connection, and an outlet of creativity is being

stifled by a stagnant and unimaginative pedagogy perpetuated by uninterested and

anxious teachers. However, the state of poetry instruction should not be left to suffocate

further. Instead, it should be the goal of teachers to begin the process of healing the

wounds they have allowed to fester for so long. In order to begin this ‘healing’ process,

one must be aware of the stereotypes and misconceptions that these negative ideas about

poetry have produced.

Stereotypes and Misconceptions

There is a struggle to remediate the countless stereotypes and misconceptions

about poetry in the eyes of students and teachers alike. Many of these ideas stem from the

traditional views and attitudes toward poetry that were previously discussed. There are

four major misconceptions that should be explicitly addressed: The point of poetry is

meaning, poetry is ‘un-masculine,’ poetry is a solitary art, and poetry, as a genre, should
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function on its own. Students often develop and maintain these misconceptions because

their educators have not challenged these ideas. Moreover, these ideas have been

reinforced for current educators by their teachers/professors. That is why some of these

stereotypes and misconceptions are so prolific; there is a cyclical element of

reinforcement that has allowed these twisted ideas about poetry to continue.

In the traditional pedagogical outlook, the ultimate goal of poetry is to deduce

meaning and understand the form and language that is used to construct a poem. As

displayed in the previous section, this does not necessarily allow students to get the most

out of a poem. Tom Hansen outlines the typical ‘process’ by which students are asked to

interact with a poem. “ Attempting to make sense of their works, students go symbol-

sleuthing and meaning-mongering in the mistaken belief-which we teachers are,

intentionally or not, guilty of fostering- that a poem, like a math problem, has a right

answer” (Hansen 21). Hansen is not the only English scholar who has made the

connection between a poem being seen as a math problem or a jigsaw puzzle. Janet

Hughes and Sue Dymoke have referenced poetry being seen as a “jigsaw puzzle”

(Hughes, Dymoke 50). Daniel Xerri has also referenced this same sentiment in the title of

an article, “Poems Look Like a Mathematical Equation”. All three of these articles work

to alleviate the focus of this idea from poetry instruction.

If experiencing poetry should not be focused solely on analysis and meaning, then

how is one supposed to interact with it? Poetry can be thought of as a piece of art. When

one approaches a physical work of art, they experience the aesthetic of it as a whole, and

they “live vicariously the total sensory experience it presents.” Although poetry does not

have a physical body, the more one seeks meaning and nothing else, the less we truly
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experience the poem (Hansen 21). This analogy between art and poetry that Hansen

poses, discloses what students miss when the are asked to simply dissect a poem, rather

than experience it for the beauty of the imagery, the sounds and patterns, they aesthetic of

the tone alone. When students get an up close and personal look at these qualities, they

begin to connect and learn from the poem itself. If they are taught to focus on what the

author meant and to anatomize a poem for hidden symbols and meaning, it removes the

deep seeded connection one has when simply connecting to the aesthetic qualities.

Another stereotype about poetry is best defined in an excerpt of Sharon Creech’s

Love That Dog. In reference to poetry, the main character Jack is asked to write a poem

and his response is “I don’t want to/because boys/don’t write poetry/Girls do” (Creech 1).

Unfortunately, this is a very common thought that crosses through many boys’ minds in

regard to both writing and reading poetry. Poetry has often been labeled as a feminine

genre, unlike other subgenres. It has been deemed as “un-masculine” because it relates to

values that include emotions, love, and introspection, which are often, whether true or

not, classified as feminine qualities. The “genderfication” of poetry has brought upon

adverse consequences for male students’ interactions with poetry (Hawkins, Certo 198).

Many themes of classic poetry do portray themes such as these. However, male

poets wrote many of these poems. These themes are also not the authority when it comes

to reading and writing poetry. The themes and tones of poems today are so incredibly

diverse. Educators also must begin to allow their students the autonomy and choice to

choose to read and write about topics that they are interested in and that give them a

voice to express their own personal ideas. By allowing for exploration and choice when

reading and writing poetry, it will allow male students to see that poetry is not just for
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girls. Taking a look at the example of Jack in Love That Dog, the teacher in the story,

Miss Stretchberry employed many different opportunities for choice in what her students

read and wrote. She also used mentor texts that students could relate to. Through the

pedagogy and ideas she implemented in her own personal poetry instruction, she

encouraged Jack to begin to explore poetry, then got him writing poetry. Eventually Jack

came to love poetry despite the stereotypes he first had against it.

Oftentimes, poetry can be seen as a solitary art. I would strongly contest this idea.

I believe this misconception stems from the traditional view of writing and reading

poetry. Typically, when students are asked to respond to or write a poem, they often do it

individually and silently. There is not often much collaboration while writing. When it

comes to response, they sometimes have discussions, but more often then not, the student

is reporting out to the teacher or class, not engaged in critical discourse. In terms of

writing a poem, students are not typically asked to share their poetry with peers as they

would an essay or piece of creative writing. Involving other voices in the writing process

can completely change how students see and interact with the language of poetry. In the

article “Wiki-Ed Poetry” by Hughes and Dymoke, they bring up the idea a workshop

environment, which is often employed in other genres of writing. Poetry should not be an

exception. This allows for an open environment between students to draft, share, and

provide encouragement among peers which makes the way students interact with poetry

much more dynamic.

The last misconception to be addressed is that the genre of poetry should be

studied on its own. When teachers talk about the typical instructional unit of poetry, it is

commonly addressed that they teach poetry as a solitary unit once a year. This theme is a
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trend that occurs in early elementary through high school. This means that students begin

to see poetry as something that doesn’t interact with other genres. However, Nancy

Lubarsky describes a valuable way to use poetry with students in a non-traditional sense.

“I try to move students away from the concept of poetry as an object that is taken apart,

examined, and reexamined and toward the use of poetry as a critical or interpretive lens

through which other literature may be experienced and understood” (Lubarsky 72). She is

implementing poems as a means for exploring themes and ideas found in a novel prior to

reading or to better understand them as they read through a text. Poems can also be used

as a primary source to learn about different historical events so that students have a

context when learning and reading about them. This shows that poems are extremely

versatile in how they can be used in the classroom. Love That Dog also shows that the

student, Jack, grew to love poetry throughout experiencing it over the course of a year,

not just during a single poetry unit.

Impacts of Assessment Design and Standardized Testing

The best pedagogical approach toward the assessment of poetry has been the

longstanding subject of debate. Although many of the traditional assessment practices in

education have changed since the 19th and 20th centuries, the way that poetry is typically

assessed has not followed suit. Assessment highly dictates the practices that occur in the

instruction of a classroom. The same can be said for poetry instruction. The ways in

which students are going to be assessed reflects how they are going to be taught. In order

to begin transforming poetry instruction, it is imperative for teachers to be mindful and

purposeful in the approaches that they take toward assessing students on poetry.
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One of the most traditional forms of assessment for poetry, primarily in middle

grades and above, is the essay question and subsequent questions that are of similar

though processes. These are usually derived from analysis of the ‘meaning’ of the text or

the elements of poetic language and form. Daniel Xerri echoes this idea. He describes

that the essay question, used as an assignment or assessment, is often interpreted as one

of the only ways to engage students with a poem, largely because of traditional practices.

He goes on to argue that students are often instructed to refrain from adding their own

opinions and feelings about the work and are most often asked to talk about what the

author’s choices mean, or are supposed to mean. Further, Xerri attests to why this

practice can be harmful to the instruction of poetry. He states that the customary essay

assessment often inhibits productive teaching and prompts teachers to teach poetry based

on the explication of a poem, focusing on manipulating the generalizations to fit the mold

of the question being asked (Xerri 1).

Very similar dangers occur in poetry instruction with the use of another common

form of assessment: multiple-choice questions. Similarly, many assessments are framed

in the multiple-choice format. Although this is not the same as an essay question, these at

least allows for explication of thoughts and asks for the use of higher level thinking, the

purpose of multiple-choice is to elicit a specific answer about something that is defined

by someone other than the student being assessed. When these types of questions are

asked, they often inhibit the way poetry is taught because the educators teaches with

these questions in mind. In an article by Brandon Sams, he describes a scenario that he

observed in a high school English classroom. A pre-service student teacher was teaching

a lesson on poetry. He had chosen to use the poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy
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Evening”. After having two students “awkwardly” the poem aloud to the class, he,

solitarily, described the scene to the “mostly silent” students. Then, when he no longer

had anything to say about the poem, handed out a multiple choice quiz that asked

questions pertaining to literary devices such as personification and imagery. There were

also a few questions about the tone of Robert Frost’s poem. After the students had turned

in their quizzes, he quickly asked “So what did you all think of the poem? Did you like

it?” A brief yes, was quickly mumbled throughout the room and then he transitioned to

the next topic (Sams 105).

As I see it, this pre-service teacher has fallen subject to “teaching to the test”

before he as even earned his teaching certificate. This example elucidates how heavily

instruction is dictated by assessment. This connects to a major, but often unidentified,

issue influencing poetry instruction today. Standardized testing is currently dominating

the educational climate. Typically, these types of tests are administered on a large scale,

at the state or national level. The kinds of questions asked are designed to elicit specific

responses- i.e. essay, and multiple-choice. Standardized tests allow for a massive number

of students to be measured against a base standard in order to either show aptitude or

achievement. There are tests such as the ACT and SAT whose assessment mission is to

show a student’s projected successfulness in college. The tests that measure achievement

are often used to determine a school and faculty’s effectiveness. These standardized tests

are given to students from kindergarten up to twelfth grade. This type of assessment

environment is becoming second nature to students because of how frequently they

occur. These tests are done silently, individually, and consistently. This is a glimpse of

the testing environment in a third grade classroom of public school in a large

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metropolitan city. “Students’ voices were possible to be heard, but those were

immediately disciplined by the teachers, who reminded students that they were not

allowed to talk and that they had to raise their hands if they had any questions”

(Kontovourki 144).

There is much debate in the educational community about the advantages and

disadvantages of this type of assessment. The data that they produce has become

indispensible to administrations and states alike. However, I would argue that this form

of assessment has had detrimental impacts on poetry instruction. The curriculums,

lessons, and in class assessments of schools nationwide have become bound by the

content assessed on standardized test. This may be an accurate and pedagogically sound

way to assess other types of learning, but I do not feel that this is an authentic way to

assess poetry; Xerri does not either. “Despite the fact that poetry lends itself to group

discussion, performance, and creative activities, to a large extent the 21st century has not

really resulted in a transition in the way students’ knowledge of poetry is assessed” (Xerri

2). Poetry should not be a solitary, silent experience based on formula and form and

defined meaning. However, when assessments are designed to test in that way, the result

is a dry, and lifeless extension of poetry instruction.

Standardized tests also cover a massive range of content not just in English, but in

math, science, and social studies as well. For this reason, teachers will often address

poetry in brevity for the sake of making room for all the other content that students are

assessed on. Betsy Miguez has written on this same idea. She affirms the idea that many

teachers often see poetry as a “peripheral activity” where standardized tests are concerned

(Miguez 27). If it is addressed in the classroom, it is quite often addressed in a way

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similar to both the descriptions of Sams and Xerri. The testing ethos of today’s education

system truly is influencing poetry instruction in ways that are both shocking and possibly

destructive. However, as guardians of the profession, it is up to current educators to begin

to repair a broken system through reevaluating and breathing new life into poetry

instruction and the ways that it is assessed.

Transforming Poetry Instruction

One of the incredible things about poetry is that the ways in which it can be

utilized for instruction are endless. In order to truly transform poetry instruction, it is up

to educators to start using their creativity and knowledge of pedagogy to teach poetry in a

way that steps away from the mundane, traditional approach that clearly is not effective.

A significant way that poetry can be used with young children and in early elementary

grades is to scaffold them toward literacy. The language patterns and rhymes that

compose poetry not only appeal to children, but also can help them to expand their

knowledge of language when exposed to them. According to Sandra Lennox, exposing

young children to poetry helps them learn sequencing, memorization and speech patterns.

It gives them opportunities to learn how to articulate words and builds their phonological

awareness. Through reading poetry aloud, children’s listening skills and oral

comprehension are challenged. Poetry instruction also helps them add to their vocabulary

through the exposure to new words, not common in conversational language. Poetry

promotes expressive language use in children and helps them develop imagery

formulation and expressiveness (Lennox 21).

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These skills are beneficial for children in all aspects of education and in life.

Poetry can be used as a tool, in a sense, to further the development of these traits in

young learners. The main challenge is: how can teachers implement poetry in a way that

encourages the type of learning that Lennox outlines? One way is to provide multiple

opportunities for exposure. In an interview with Sue Lareau, an experienced second grade

teacher in her twenty sixth year of teaching, she discussed a strategy that she uses in her

classroom to give students this type of exposure to poetry. She divulged that although

they have a major poetry unit toward the end of the year, she incorporates at least one or

two poems a week into the curriculum. She will often read the poems aloud, focusing on

how they sound and feel, and then have her students read them to themselves or to a

partner. She chooses poems that connect to the topics they are learning about or that she

knows her student will enjoy. Some of the specific benefits her students have attained are

feelings of success when they can fluently read a poem out loud, an increase in the use of

poetic language her students use in their narrative writing, as well as growth in students

previously struggling with comprehension. When her students reach the point in the year

where they are participating in a full-fledged poetry study, they have greater success with

writing creative and imaginative poetry because of the amount of exposure to poetry they

have had.

Oftentimes it is difficult for students to truly connect with poetry because they are

not comfortable or familiar with it. A strategy that can take students from a place of

anxiety to appreciation and mastery is through studying one poet’s body of work in

depth. This approach was discussed at length in the article “Mindful Poetry: Making the

Strange Familiar.” This type of study takes place over the course of one whole language
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arts unit. Although many teachers would argue that they do not have space in their

curriculum to dedicate this much time on one single author or poet, the goal of this

strategy is that through the meaningful, in-depth reflection of one poet, students would

gain skills that translate into other genres and disciplines. Robillard, the main author of

this article, maintains the thought that poetry is personal. “There is something intimate

and comfortable about sinking deeply into one writer’s work, discovering the shapes and

patterns of language, and becoming increasingly comfortable with melding his or her

words into one’s understanding and experience with poetry and, indeed, with the world”

(Robillard 84). We want students to be comfortable, familiar, and connective to the things

that they are learning. In allowing for these types of in depth introspections, we open up a

doorway of inquiry and connection for our students. Robillard, Bach, and Gulden further

the previous statement by explicating that the goal of poetry instruction should be to

“resonate, define, affirm, and reaffirm” our students’ individual places in the world

around them. When they are given the space to slow down and “savor” one poet’s body

of work, they begin to understand and appreciate the potential of “language and lyric”

(Robillard 84).

In order to foster this goal of poetry in a classroom, the planning of this type of

unit needs to be extremely mindful and intentional. In planning, one must avoid shallow

interactions with the texts as well as the tendency to act as the ‘authority’ on the poems

themselves, because as we have seen, this is what creates negative attitudes toward

poetry. Students should be given the power to take control of their learning and become

their own authority on the subject. Another major component in the success of this kind

of instruction is what poet is selected for study. The example that is used in the article
 Olson 20

above is the work of Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet from the 20th century. What lends

Heaney’s body of work to this unit is that the themes of his poems are complex but

rooted in history and approachable language. His poetry also was grounded in the past,

but in more recent history, not too far removed for students to connect to.

The kinds of activities that would take place in this unit include comparisons of

poems, annotations, personal commentaries, and small and large group discussions.

Students are given space to explore outside resources, such as music, videos, and other

literature, that help them understand the context of some of his poems. It is not until the

end of the unit that students are really required to write an analytical piece on his poetry.

Before they even reach that step, they have interacted with their own personal thoughts

and opinions on his work and are also encouraged to include them in their analysis essay.

What makes this a transformative way to teach poetry is that the teacher becomes a

facilitator for inquiry based learning and exploration of the poems, rather than the

authority on meaning. It also allows students space to read “slowly and up close, orally

and silently, individually and together.” There is a ritualistic element to this style of

poetry instruction “that makes the academic familiar” (Robillard 88), ultimately easing

the anxiety of poetry instruction for both students and teachers.

The mentor texts that are selected are another factor that can either boost the

success of poetry instruction, or derail it. In researching the traditional approaches to

poetry instruction, there was a sentiment expressed among students and teachers that the

poems they read in school were difficult to understand and often felt out of reach. The

poems that a teacher selects to show students should be intentional and approachable.

Complexity is warranted and encouraged, but students should be able to connect to the
 Olson 21

language of the poem. In Love That Dog, Sharon Creech chooses to use a wide range of

mentor texts that are used in the story and presented to the main character, Jack. A few of

the poems that were used include “Dog” by Valarie Worth, “Stopping by the Woods on a

Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost, “Street Music” by Arnold Adoff, and “The Apple” by

S.C. Rigg. Each one of these poems is very unique from the others listed. The teacher in

the novel, Miss Stretchberry, selected each one to serve a specific purpose. “Dog” was

used to show her students how concrete details can create vivid and specific images of

the world. “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” was to expose her students to

the idea that the word choice one uses influences the tone of a poem. In “Street Music,”

the font and shape of the poem flows and stops like the sounds of a city would,

demonstrating that the way a poem looks changes how you experience it. The last poem

listed, “The Apple” is a concrete poem that is written in the shape of an apple and she

allowed her students to create their own shape poems using this example. The point to be

made is that the students interacted with each poem in a completely different way and

none of these ways included the standard poetry analysis that is so often mentioned.

There is often the misconception that once students leave early elementary, they

should be exposed to more ‘sophisticated’ examples of poetry and much of the rhyming,

sing-song poetry that students love, is no longer present in poetry instruction. I fear that

students begin to dislike poetry because they hardly ever are encouraged toward that type

of poetry as they continue through school. Mike Lareau, a fourth grade teacher in his

twenty-eighth year of teaching stated that “[students] react well to the rhyming, silly

poetry that many are exposed to as children. They struggle more with the 'old-fashioned'

poets or with forms that are not so familiar” (Lareau 1). If this is the case, then teachers
 Olson 22

should continue to incorporate the kinds of texts that students are drawn to, not just stop

completely. There is a soothing and entrancing aspect to rhyme and rhythm that makes

poetry unique from other genres and that should be preserved in poetry instruction with

the mentor texts teachers select to use.

Along with the idea of mentor texts, having mentor poets for students is

imperative. “Most children, unfortunately, do not know [or acknowledge] there is such a

thing as a real, live poet, poetry for them being so many words on so many pages in so

many books” (Slaughter 162). When students connect with a specific author, it usually

allows them to better relate to the novel or story because they have the idea in their minds

that this is coming from a real person. They often find themselves reading more text

written by that same author. The same applies to poetry. When students begin to

conceptualize that the poems they are reading are written by a poet, they will hopefully

start to gain ownership over the poetry that they produce because they recognize

themselves as the author of a poem. Again from Love That Dog, the prominent mentor

text that was used in the novel was the poem “Love That Boy” by Walter Dean Myers.

The main character Jack really connected to this specific poem. Because of his love of the

poem, he desperately wanted to meet the poet who wrote it. His teacher encouraged him,

despite his apprehension, to write a letter to Walter Dean Myers inviting him to speak to

their school about poetry. Jack was blown away by the idea that an actual poet would

come and take time to read his poems to some children. However, that experienced

completely motivated and shaped Jack’s view about poetry.

Although it is not realistic for all schools to host a poet similarly to that example,

it is something that could be an incredible opportunity for students. If that is not an

 Olson 23

option, there are countless videos and recordings of poets reading their poems aloud that

are accessible for free through the Internet. One way to have students connecting to a

mentor poet is to show them a video or play a recording of the poem read by the poet that

wrote it. An activity example is to have each student in the class report their favorite

poem or poet. Then, as a class, watch the video of that poem being read by the poet and

have the student who chose it, introduce the poet before hand.

In regards to writing poetry, it is detrimental for teachers to model this for

students. We wouldn’t expect our students to be readers themselves if we were not

readers, so we cannot expect our students to be poets if we are not poets. One of the ways

that best lends itself to writing poetry is the workshop model. The workshop model can

look entirely different from classroom to classroom. In Kristen Green’s first grade

classroom “we read some poetry, we make a class poem based on the poem we are going

to write that day and then the kids can go off on their own and write that particular

poem. The gradual release method of instruction is important especially at a younger age”

(Green). The level of scaffolding her students need is much greater than that of middle

school or high school learners so the kind of writing workshop varies with the level of

student. However, the concept is still similar. In a study done by Angela Wiseman, she

observes the implementation of a poetry workshop with middle school students. The goal

of this specific workshop model was that “students explore self-selected topics while

channeling the creative and descriptive genre of poetry” (Wiseman 71). This allowed for

students to “integrate hybrid knowledge and perspectives that come from participation in

various contexts and create a space within the classroom to integrate knowledge from

participation in various contexts” (Wiseman 71). In this workshop, students studied hip-
 Olson 24

hop lyrics, a form of poetry, and used their learned knowledge to critically evaluate and

write other kinds of poetry.

Although both of these descriptions of a poetry workshop are completely

different, they both work to build a community of poets in the classroom. Building a

community of learners, and ultimately poets, among the students in a classroom allows

for the kind of learning and connection that you cannot accomplish through analyzing a

poem individually and calling that poetry instruction. When learners are given autonomy

and choice in the poems they read and write, we allow them space to form bonds with

poetry and with others because of poetry. Poetry, in the workshop model specifically,

creates a shared experience between teacher and student as well as peer-to-peer. Students

are given the opportunity to read, write, stumble, experience, and learn together. This

creates a classroom culture that celebrates poetry instead of despise it. It also creates an

environment where learners feel comfortable, safe, and brave enough to take risks with

the poetry they read, write, and share. In the article “Rewriting Struggles as Strength:

Young Adults’ Reflections on the Significance of Their High School Poetry Community”

by Logan Manning, he speaks of a poetry workshop class that was taught by high school

teacher, Mrs. Warran. He expresses that in this class, “poetry was presented as a space

with the potential for self-actualization. Mrs. Warran created a participatory literacy

community where a teacher-as-poet collaborated with the youth poets to construct a safe

space to share and reflect their writing” (Manning 291). Included in the article were

testimonials from students who remembered the experiences from that class long after

high school ended.

 Olson 25

The common thread that wove all of the stories together was the idea of relational

poetry. The experiences that Mrs. Warran created through poetry linked these students to

her, and to one another. Many of these students were categorized as being part of

marginalized groups, but when they stepped through the doors of the workshop, they no

longer felt defined in the ways they commonly did out in the world. Poetry, and its

connective power, brought them together and gave them each a voice. This, in my

humble opinion, should be the ultimate goal of poetry instruction.

The current state of poetry instruction in the classroom shows signs of lifelessness

and decay. However, it is not through miracle healing that its transformation will occur.

Educators like Mrs. Warran, and the others mentioned above, hold the resuscitative

power to raise poetry from the dead. If the transformative practices mentioned, and others

like them, become the new norm in classrooms across the country, more students will

begin experiencing and reaping the fruitful benefits that poetry can provide a child’s

education.
 Olson 26

Thesis Bibliography

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Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Print

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Green, Kristin. "Poetry Observations." E-mail interview. 17 Feb. 2017.

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 Olson 27

What?" Practically Primary 19.3 (2014): 21-24. Web.

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Significance of their High School Poetry Community." Research in the Teaching
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Miguez, Betsy B. "Bring Back the Poetry." Teacher Librarian, vol. 32, no. 4, 2005, pp.
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Strange Familiar." English Journal, vol. 104, no. 4, 2015, pp. 83-89. Web.

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Times."English Teaching 12.1 (2013): 101,n/a. ProQuest. Web.

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Poetry Workshop." Literacy 45.2 (2011): 70-77. Web.

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Education." International Journal of English Studies 16.1 (2016): 1-17. Web
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