Publishing Student Work

I’ve written a bit previously about the importance of having students publish their own work. Recently, I read a report on poetry that really managed to put things into perspective for me about why students who have the ability to publish their poetry in some form or another are more likely to enjoy poetry and be motivated to write more.

Nancy Womack, in her report “Teaching Poetry to Adolescents: Nine Principles Plus One,” discusses the fact that many, perhaps even most people in America today, don’t enjoy or read poetry much. The fact remains that we still study it in schools and that poetry is part of our Core educational standards. So we ask students to read poetry from a bunch of dead guys and drill their heads full of vocabulary that is totally meaningless to them. Really, what job is going to require knowledge of onomatopoeia? (Mine is, but that’s irrelevant). What we as educators don’t want is for students to come into our class, read a couple of poems, write a little analysis of figurative language as described by Frost to symbolize the love of humanity within a snowy field, etc., etc., and then leave. One of the most important things we can give our students is an understanding of why we teach what we teach. One of the best methods to do that by is to have students have their own unique, hands-on experiences with poetry.

Expression through poetry helps students to internalize information. If students are encouraged and influenced to write a piece that they’re proud of, they’ll need to know the methods to get there. Womack suggests keeping student poetry in labeled files throughout whichever unit you choose to teach, so that by the end of the unit, students essentially have a portfolio of work to evaluate and share as they please. Womack keeps a bulletin board in her classroom with pieces from famous authors such as Shakespeare or Milton. As students write work that they deem to be successful, Womack places student pieces on the board for the class to see. Womack refers to this juxtaposition with canonized authors and poets as an “ego boost” for her students. I imagine that this sort of publication would work well in conjunction with parental communication—realizing that your student has had his or her work displayed in the classroom would add a sense of accomplishment.

Womack’s major claim is that students enjoy being, and want to be introspective. If we can remove stigmas and misconceptions surrounding poetry, students will take the opportunities we give them to build meaningful relationships with language. The attention that comes from publishing a piece of poetry is different from other forms of attention, because it relates back to a specific accomplishment, where a goal was set and then followed through with to make a piece that the student was proud of. So giving students time to think and write introspectively, whether with or without prompts, is invaluable.

Something that Womack didn’t mention but I consider impactful would be maintaining the folders of student work, even as students leave. Digitally or on paper, having work written by students can provide a valuable classroom resource for years to come. Students may be more inclined to read student poetry, and because it was written by other adolescents, students may find the works more engaging and relateable to themselves. At this point, students are also reading previous peers’ poetry as a model of simple strategies available to them as writers, as well as being exposed to the kind of ideas that teens may struggle with or encounter but not yet be able to express.

 I think Womack’s ideas for publishing are good; I also think many of them could be updated for the 21^st century.  Using technology that almost everyone has in today’s world, we can record student readings of poetry and publish them digitally. As a teacher, I would want at least my class to have access to the readings, but I also think some of the parents might be more involved if they could see the progress of students, so I would either publish poem readings on a blog or on something like a Youtube channel.

Keeping student records will provide you with easy pre- and formative assessments for poetry and for subsequent units, and it will prove to the students that they have improved, how they have improved, and that they had the dedication to finish a large and complex project.

Womack, Nancy. "Teaching Poetry to Adolescents: Nine Principles Plus One". 1975.

Poetry for Junior High

What, exactly, is poetry supposed to do for students? How are they supposed to apply the lessons learned? What can I, as their teacher, do to help my students find interest and relevant application through poetry? Eric Johnson, who currently teaches junior high students, has a few answers. Quantitatively, he says, measuring some of the concepts that students learn, such as appreciation and critical thinking skills, can be difficult. However, the lessons learned from poetry within a concentrated unit have helped his students grow immensely as readers, both in their ability to comprehend complex texts and in their enjoyment of texts they read.
Because poetry is so often abstract, students were encouraged to ask different questions and critique in new ways that stretched their minds and allowed them to apply information in new ways. Johnson specifically cites reading dramas, saying that his students found meaning past the text itself and, because of poetry’s use of figurative language, could imagine written scenes and more fully immerse themselves in the text. From reading and comprehension to appreciation to critiquing of poetic and other works, poetry seems to hold some immense value, even for students as young as seventh grade, and even (perhaps especially) for those students who initially find themselves unwilling to approach poetry.
Johnson begins by acknowledging those students who are anxious about studying poetry, whether due to the medium’s difficulty, level of interest, or because of apparent social norms that might, for instance, dictate that poetry is too soft or girlish to be enjoyed by a class. When he first began teaching, he realized that students’ understanding of poetry was limited to a few very basic conceptions and misconceptions, and that students’ repertoires of poems were simply inadequate for his purposes.
Johnson’s rationale behind teaching poetry is essentially to help students express their emotions through writing poetry and to help them find joy in reading it. Ultimately, he hopes to help students overall feel more comfortable and safe expressing themselves through the written word and to clear up student misconceptions to make poetry seem more exciting and more approachable.
He starts at the beginning of his unit by addressing the necessary question: What is poetry? When students inevitably say that poetry rhymes, the class explores various pieces to understand and contest that concept. After the class comes to a concise definition, it’s time to put it to the test. Each new theory or concept or idea about poetry throughout the unit must be tested or held against example poems. Because poetry comes in so many different forms, students are asked not only about the physical characteristics of poetry, but why poetry exists, both in a case-by-case basis and as a whole art form. Students are invited to explore poems repeatedly, finding new aspects of poetry each time and building on their own previous understandings of poetry.
Students read a wide range of poetry, including poetry of different eras, different forms, and different poets. Students are encouraged to pick their own poetry to analyze as well as using poetry provided by the teacher. Johnson’s poetry often tended toward more classic pieces of poetry with great depth and emotion, possibly operating off the assumption that students’ selection of poetry would be simpler and more contemporary.
One of the things I liked best about Johnson’s article was his overall framing of poetry as compared to prose or other types of works. He encourages emphasizing repeatedly, both implicitly and explicitly, that poetry is about feeling, and that the intense emotion that often comes as a result of reading poetry is part of what makes poetry a respectable and worthwhile art form. Poetry, says Johnson, is meant not only to be read but to be read aloud, so that the meaning can be understood, the emotion can be felt, and that the poem’s purpose can be fulfilled. He emphasizes this by having class members reading poems aloud and trying to show through tone the story or overall feelings the poem is meant to evoke. He differentiates for shy students by having small groups read the poems all together.
Overall, Johnson concludes that the importance of teaching poetry is to push or challenge students in new directions, helping them to understand the capabilities of poetry as a form by having them read, write, and discuss as much poetry as possible within a few weeks. If the poetry unit is taught well to students, it will prepare them to effectively meet the challenges of future units with enthusiasm and greater abilities as analysts and writers.

Annotated Bibliography

Click here to view an annotated bibliography of the different articles in this blog

Parent Poetry Handout

Click here to view a handout for parents on reasons to support students poetry learning and ways to help them at home as well as resources.

Student Poetry Handout

Click here to download a handout for your students telling them why they should learn poetry and resources they can utilize.

Teacher Poetry Handout

Click here to view a poetry handout for teachers explaining how and why to use poetry in the classroom.

Integrating Poetry into Your Curriculum

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/10-ways-use-poetry-your-classroom

Many teachers find it hard to find time to teach a "Poetry Unit" with the many things that they are teaching in their curriculum. Keith Schoch suggests, "consider using poetry within her curriculum, as an integral part of her language, reading, and writing lessons, rather than as an add-on. In other words, I ask her to find a purpose for poetry" (para 1). If you do not have time to dedicate a whole unit to teaching poetry, integrating it in to what you are already reading and extending the meaning of your unit in this way may be a great option. In the article "10 Ways to Use Poetry in Your Classroom", Schoch gives tips on creating a connection for the students in a positive way.

His first idea is activating prior knowledge. Bringing up what students already know and have learned makes it easier for students to connect it to the new knowledge that they are gaining. For example, if you are reading Huck Finn and have covered the background of that time period, you could remind students of the history as you read through poetry from the time period. The next thing he suggests is to establish theme in your poetry. If your 11th grade who is reading Huck Finn is talking about the American Dream you could find poetry that goes with that theme. 
The third way to help incorporate poetry is to explore language. If your school requires you teach grammar (snooze) than why not spice it up by using poetry?

Poetry can also help to focus on facts. Reading text books can become boring. Many poets wrote about things that were happening at that point in history. Explore these ideas with some poetry to make learning more fun. You can also use poetry to set the scene. Before starting a new novel, poetry can be used to set a scene. If you are reading Frankenstein, reading gothic poetry can help show your students the type of writing from the time period to show them how the elements work. Schoch also suggests using poetry to inspire writing. Giving the students the option to write an assignment in poetry or prose gives those with a creative side the ability to open up and show what they know.

The seventh suggestion that this article makes is to use poetry to see new perspectives. Reading about history from one person's point of view is boring for students. Poetry allows them to read many perspectives in a short amount of time alongside a novel or compared to each other. Poetry is also a great way to ignite curiosity. Opening up new perspectives can help students who are naturally inquisitive to go out and look up new things on their own. Poetry can be pleasurable for students if addressed in the right way. Having poetry spread out through the year versus in one unit can make it easier for students to digest and enjoy poetry. The last thing that Schoch suggests is to use poetry to capture character. He feels that having students explain a character or a person through poetry instead of writing a boring report or analysis.

This article shows that there are many ways to incorporate poetry in to your class instead of just in a unit. It an be used in many ways to push learning in a fun and creative way.