The Problem and Research Questions
The proposed study is an exploration of teaching practices and student involvement with poetry. It stems, in part, from my own pleasure in experimenting with language, especially through writing. As a child, I enjoyed reading and being read to and the pleasures that come with experiencing words and music put together. In many ways, poetry represents the best of all of these to me. As an adult, I am fortunate enough to extend these experiences into my professional work. I enjoy writing poetry for myself and sharing it with others, and I take pride and pleasure in collecting poetry for anthologies. Finding what I consider to be the right poem for a particular spot in a collection is a real triumph for me. Beyond writing and collecting poetry for children, my work with poetry in classrooms with teachers and students has influenced the shape of the proposed research.
During the course of a year, I visit dozens of elementary school classrooms in which I use a variety of devices to engage children in poetry and related activities. I read to them from various anthologies and encourage their response and participation. I am particularly gratified when the expressions on their faces suggest: "Hey, I didn't really expect to like this." In addition to bringing poetry to students in their schools, I also make presentations to teachers on the use of poetry in the language arts curriculum. My talks with teachers center primarily on immersing children in poetry that appeals to them. I read a great many poems to the teachers and involve them in my presentations in much the same way I would their students.
I talk to teachers about the need to be sensitive to students as they explore what makes a poem appeal to them. Together we probe ways to help students become more sensitive to interesting uses of language and to the various forms and devices that poets use. Teachers search for ways to give students opportunities to experiment with writing poetry on their own in low-risk situations.
Working with teachers, children, and poetry has raised questions about the kinds of poetry instruction that is effective in developing a love of poetry actually occurs in classrooms throughout the country. I asked if the enthusiasm that I observe on the part of teachers and students during my presentations is manifest during classroom instruction. I realized that knowledge would inform my work and make it more effective. This study is a search for a better understanding of the dynamics of poetry instruction in classrooms. I also realize that the enthusiasm and interest in poetry that I witnessed during workshops might be far from the reality of the day-by-day experience of teachers and students. I am also aware that current efforts to reform education may have produced pressures on teachers that conflict with their desire to include poetry in the curriculum.
My interest in learning about children's experiences with poetry in classrooms led me to conduct an informal teachers' survey at a regional conference of the International Reading Association (September, 1998). Although the survey was not designed to yield generalizable data, it was helpful to me in revealing some of the notions about poetry held by the teachers who responded. Most teachers said that they were teaching more poetry each year primarily because this gave their students' enjoyment. Most expressed the need for more poetry resources, including teaching materials and strategies for including poetry in the curriculum. Teachers in the early grades reported spending much more time on poetry than those teaching at the intermediate levels and above. Appendix A contains a more complete description of the survey questions and results.
This survey, coupled with my personal experiences, and reading literary theory, has caused me to further reflect on how teachers situate poetry into their language arts programs. For example, much has been written about the links between oral and written language. As I explored the theory and research about these relationships, new questions arose. Child language researchers make a strong case for the interdependence of listening, speaking, reading, and writing on children's language development. Harste, Woodward, and Burke (1984) characterize this interdependence as a "linguistic data pool" in which everything children learn about oral language is stored and retrieved to aid in the development of written language and vice versa. Because poetry often involves both oral and written language, it can serve as a natural bridge for both forms of communication. My experience suggests that reading, writing, and reciting poetry have the potential to provide valuable support for developing literacy skills. Do classroom teachers recognize the potential for linking oral language and literacy through poetry? How, if at all might that be reflected in the classroom? Thus, the interrelationship between oral and written language provides part of the framework for the proposed study.
Influences on literature-based language arts curricula also contribute to the theoretical framework of this study. Trends such as the increased use of literature in the language arts program, greater emphasis on the writing process with attention to the writing of poetry, and greater attention to student choice in the selection of materials for reading and topics for writing served to spur my interest in what is happening regarding poetry in the classroom.
The use of all forms of literature for reading and writing instruction is growing in many classrooms. Today's elementary school teachers are encouraged to use literature, including poetry, across all areas of the curriculum (Tompkins, l998). It is apparent that many teachers are responding. According to experts in the field of children's literature, there has been a resurgence of interest in poetry in the elementary classroom. Concrete evidence can be found in the abundance of poetry books published in recent years. According to Galda (1993), "the last l5 years have seen a steady increase in the number of poets who write for children and in the number of poetry books that are published for children (p.106). The publication of numerous books and articles about the use of poetry in the classroom is further evidence of this trend. National conferences have hosted a growing number of presentations and expanded dialogue on poetry, exhorting its use in the language and literacy development of students. Poetry for children has taken great strides, introducing children to a wide variety of poetic forms and dealing with an infinite number of subjects (Hopkins, l993). National recognition of poetry for children was enhanced by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for excellence in Poetry for Children. As of l982, this award is given every three years.
The work of reader response theorists, particularly that of Louise Rosenblatt (1938, 1978), represents an important influence on the increased role that literature plays in the language arts curriculum. Rosenblatt's emphasis on the importance of the reader's role during the reading process has helped shape the way that teachers are urged to treat literature and most particularly poetry in classrooms today. Rosenblatt proposes the idea that people read from one of two stances. The first is the aesthetic, in which the reader is primarily concerned with reading for its own sake. The second stance described by Rosenblatt is the efferent. Readers who take this stance are primarily concerned with the information to be gained from the text. The two stances are not mutually exclusive and readers may shift back and forth between the two stances as they read. However, when reading poetry, Rosenblatt argues that the predominant stance should be the aesthetic. That is, literature, and thus poetry, should be read primarily for the enjoyment of the experience of reading. Rosenblatt (l991) expressed the fear that in classroom, teachers may tend to approach literature from an efferent rather than an aesthetic stance, focusing on facts and analysis. At a time when a growing number of teachers are attempting to make use of literature in the literacy curriculum, many find themselves challenged with increased demands to improve standardized test scores. In many instances these demands are coupled with exhortations to emphasize instruction in the basics of phonics, spelling and grammar. Under the circumstances, reading poetry for its own sake may seem frivolous. I admit concern that even at the kindergarten level, the recent emphasis on phonemic awareness (the ability to distinguish sounds within words) has caused teachers to turn potentially joyful experiences with poetry into rhyming lessons. Nevertheless, it seems to me that an excellent opportunity is presented to observe these developments with a special eye toward the teaching and learning of poetry.
Surprisingly, although there is an abundance of writing and exhortation to use poetry in the classroom, there is little research in this area. My ERIC search of the last decade (l987-97) revealed a unanticipated lack of studies describing children's experiences with poetry. A preliminary search of the first 255 of the 470 articles produced 31 bibliographies, 131 articles about instructional strategies, 89 general articles about poetry (e.g. a poet describing how she goes about her work), and only four research articles. The few studies that have focused on poetry teaching and learning in the classroom, reveal interesting and useful findings that can help teachers make decisions about the use of poetry. They also support the statements made by experts in the field of literature advocating the use of poetry in the classroom. These studies help substantiate and focus the common sense and expert wisdom surrounding the joys and uses of poetry for children. Nevertheless, they tell us little about what is actually happening in classrooms where poetry is being taught. The proposed study is designed to extend this knowledge by examining what happens in a fourth grade classroom in which poetry is taught on a regular basis. Through classroom observations, teacher and student interviews, and the collection of work samples, the teaching practices and student engagement with poetry will be examined in depth.
Among the foci to be explored are the teacher's stated purposes for including of poetry in the curriculum: the nature and extent of the experiences in which students are engaged and how these experiences appear to match the goals described by the teacher.
Another focus involves students' engagement with poetry: students' self perceptions of their experiences with poetry; connections between student response to poetry and their attempts to write; and the kinds of student products that result from the poetry experiences provided. I want to observe the ways in which students' experiences appear to illustrate connections between orality and literacy. The questions listed below provide the initial framing for focused observation:
