Poetry Workshop

Poetry Workshop for Middle School: Activities That Inspire Meaningful Language Learning
by Michelle Ambrosini and Teresa M. Morretta

As I considered the various possibilities for teaching poetry in my own classroom, I found that I had difficulty connecting poetry to the rest of the units, lessons, and skills that I wanted to teach to my students. Although I enjoy reading poetry recreationally, I had the view that many high school students hold: poetry has little value outside of poetry itself, and the skills found from reading and writing poetry aren’t as transferrable as other skills. However, as I have begun to read pieces on the place of poetry within the secondary classroom, particularly in my study of Poetry Workshop for Middle School: Activities That Inspire Meaningful Language Learning (henceforth “Poetry Workshop”), I’ve realized that, taught well, poetry can have a long-lasting and meaningful impact on students as readers, writers, and listeners, and actually can address far more parts of Common Core than I originally thought.

The premise of Poetry Workshop consists of a focused, three- to four-week intensive workshop. Students are invited to read, write, and listen to poetry from a variety of published poets, their peers, and themselves. Most important, students are encouraged to think deeply about their own and others’ works, from an aesthetic standpoint where the purpose is appreciation, and from an efferent stance, reading critically and looking for what makes good poetry good. Ambrosini and Moretta set the stage for this workshop as being effective not only in the teaching of poetry, but also creating a more open, respectful, and constructive classroom environment in which students feel comfortable making academic commentary on works they have read and in writing their own works. The book states that teachers of poetry within the secondary classroom join their students in writing and editing poetry so that students are exposed to in-classroom modeling of the writing process. Poetry Workshop also includes activities and concepts as a way for poetry to be included in units beyond the workshop, so that students are repeatedly exposed to the principles taught in the workshop and poetry does not become an isolated event, taught only out of necessity, but rather an academically enjoyable activity to be integrated into the classroom and teach students how to love the intricacies of language.

To begin the poetry workshop, Ambrosini and Moretta go beyond specific instruction on how to teach poetry, actually suggesting the adoption of a new teaching philosophy. Poetry Workshop commends aspects of direct instruction, the explicit teaching of necessary facts and skills from teacher to student, with that of “whole language,” which promotes authentic settings in a student-centric, rather than teacher-centric, instructional environment. Students within this multi-week poetry unit are exposed to direct, teacher-modeled strategies such as looking for the use of figurative language or structure within a poem, and then they are also given opportunities to reflect, read and create using various aspects of poetry, which method the authors state will allow students to become more confident in their skills, effective in their communication and analysis of future works.

In the poetry workshop, reading is essential, and a wide exposure seems to be the best way to go. Students in the poetry workshop read as many poems as there are skills in the “poet's toolbox”-- a poem for simile, one for metaphor, one for onomatopoeia, another highlighting alliteration. One practice I thought was interesting was the suggestion of using picture books to demonstrate different types of poetry. Because some students see poetry as unreachable or too stuffy and academic, reminding them that poetry can be found in simple, enjoyable, and engaging works that they have interacted with before gives them exposure to poetry in a new light. Reading picture books allows the students to takes works that they are familiar with and recognize the intentionality of the authors’ choices, and realize the process that goes into writing and editing poetry. Once students have read various examples of poetry and are familiar with the vocabulary, they’re ready to start writing.

Poetry Workshop focuses highly on letting students create their own work. Students are encouraged to experiment with styles like limerick or haiku, rhymed or blank verse, with and without prompts. Students practice writing works of their own creation and in response, sometimes as a sort of mimic to the works of others, as a way to build their “poet’s toolbox”, or their poetic repertoire.

A misconception I held in my secondary exposure to poetry was that writing poetry was kind of a one time thing-- you sat down, wrote out some rhymes or whatever you felt like at the time, and maybe it was good, and maybe it wasn’t. Certainly I believed that practice led to improvement, but I wrongly assumed that practice meant writing new poems. I hardly stopped to consider that poetry could work like any other type of process writing, with revision and editing as a natural part of progressing a poem and making it better. I think I realized that poetry came from emotion, and because of that, I thought that it was from a more untouchable place than, say, a research paper. Ambrosini and Morretta focus on encouraging students to constantly evaluate their work for opportunities to improve, modifying word choice for greater impact, adding and cutting and moving around so that the poem morphs into something the student consciously and successfully created.

Part of that revision process allows students to practice using more advanced vocabulary. The words that Ambrosini’s and Moretta’s students used during the workshop weren’t above middle school level; the words were just used less frequently. Poetry workshop influenced students to take big concepts and put them into short, artfully constructed poems--in middle school! I believe the use of vocabulary in poetry workshop shifted the students’ ways of thinking in ways that it would be harder to change in any other unit. I think that if I were to use a poetry workshop in my classroom (and, after reading, I believe that is a good possibility), that I would teach it toward the beginning of the year, and then build on those essential skills, such as analysis and word choice, as the year progressed. Poetry shifts students’ mindsets on language, and if taught well, influences them toward a potent curiosity and an enjoyment of language that is essential for any student to have a positive experience in an English class. Watching language work in short pieces greatly assists students when they start watching that same language move in larger works, or when they start creating their own pieces.

A large part of poetry writing within the workshop, and possibly one of the most important pieces, comes from conferencing. Conferencing allows students to work with the teacher—a more experienced writer—and with their peers to gain optimal perspective on their work, both what the student did well and ways the student might improve. The authors suggest that students should be able to drive the focus for at least some of the conferences. That is to say, rather than merely receiving a grade or feedback on a piece that a student has written, students should be encouraged to think critically about their own writing, and self-motivate to suggest and implement changes themselves, so that they truly come to own the writing that they have created.

I loved the opportunities Moretta and Ambrosini gave for applying poetry to outside, non-poetry texts. The authors used poetry as a way to assess student understanding of the plot, characters, and emotions of texts such as George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They were able to address multiple standards by having students summarize the main points of each work within a poem that compared and contrasted the pieces, using textual evidence. I loved the idea of using poetry as an assessment; it seems creative and refreshing, and if a teacher differentiates effectively within the poetry workshop, students will enjoy trying out a new form of assessment. And as Moretta and Ambrosini point out, the goal of poetry workshop is to differentiate, for interest by using relevant and engaging texts, for readiness by providing texts of different levels, for the learning environment by creating multiple opportunities for students to share their work in a respectful academic environment. By applying the principles of the book to the activities outlined in it, teachers will successfully be able to motivate students toward a love of poetry.

The goals of the poetry workshop seem to angle towards the idea that students take pride in themselves as poets and as readers of poetry. In the secondary classroom, students often have misconceptions about poetry and its use, but Moretta and Ambrosini point out that poetry teaches applicable use of figurative language, as well as the important ability to convey thoughts and feelings in a concise and impactful manner. Letting students read and write poetry influences better word choice, conscientious use of language, and a more skillful understanding of students’ individual voices and capabilities as writers.

A Different Poetic Use

The power of poetry is often overlooked, even avoided by most of society. It's sad to see that happen since poetry is a source of beauty and power. Poetry also carries with it amazing teaching opportunities, which this article highlights.

There are many things that can be done with poetry. We can teach the use of punctuation as it translates to speech, such as how they make the reader pause. We can use it to show the written use of punctuation as it is a focus of many poems. Another use of poetry is to show a way to allow emotion to enter text.

One thing that always bothered me, and I'm glad that this article referenced it, is when people over analyze the meaning of poems. I'll borrow from the article here as they quote Billy Collins, which covers our point. Billy Collins characterizes the latter as a “deadening” act that obscures the poem
beneath the puffed-up importance of its interpretation. In his poem “Introduction to Poetry,” he writes: “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope/and torture a confession out of it./They begin beating it with a hose/to find out what it really means.”

I saw this rope to a chair mentality in college when reading the poem "In the Echoey Tunnel" by Christopher Reid. A nice poem about a little girl playing with her echo in a tunnel, but the whole class (with the exception of the professor, one other student, and me) wanted to analyze it till they found some dark meaning to it. Sometimes a poem is just a lighthearted thing that doesn't need to be deeply analyzed. Can we use poems to teach literary analysis, sure. But we should also consider the option that not all them need be dissected, this is English and not Biology.

I appreciated this article, mostly because it said many things that I agreed with that I just lacked the words to say.

It is certainly worth the read! You can access the original article from The Atlantic here.

Book Review: Reading and Writing Poetry With Teenagers

I read Reading and Writing Poetry with Teenagers by Fredric Lown and Judith W. Steinbergh. I chose this book because I wanted something that would be a helpful guide for teaching poetry since many teenagers fin it to be a daunting task. I wasn’t disappointed. This book was set up very nicely for any teacher—new or experienced—to teach poetry. This book is set up for use as a full poetry unit that slowly progresses in intensity. When I first looked at the book the outside pulled me in because it looked a lot like a bulletin board. The little pieces of poems that I have read pulled me in. When I first opened the book, I was slightly disappointed because the inside wasn’t what I expected for such an interesting cover. As I read through the book, I found that I really liked it.

The book started with a “To the Teacher” chapter. This chapter is important for guiding teachers through the rest of the book. It tells teachers of the authors’ goals of putting together this book. These goals include things such as making poetry accessible, showing a diverse set of poetry to students, and providing students the chance to create their own poetry. The authors then discuss the reason that they have put the chapters in the order they are in. Each chapter has a theme. “This order has a progression of theme and technique that begins with the most concrete and least threatening source material and moves to the more personal and then abstract source material. Also, the techniques start with basic skills for making poems and progress toward more sophisticated tools for the crafting and revising of poetry” (p. xiii). This book would be best used for an entire poetry unit, but you can always modify to fit what you need and teach a chapter in other units. The next part of the “To the Teacher” talks about the different approaches a teacher could take to teach this book—from a full unit to a chapter or two elsewhere. The authors’ also talk about the importance of creating an atmosphere of trust in the classroom. Sharing poetry can be hard, especially for teenagers who don’t want to stand out. The authors also provide a revision guide for you and the students as well as tips for evaluating student work.

The authors have decided on the following order for the themes to progress: nature and environment; animals; sports; childhood, adolescence, and growing up; family and relationships; social and global issues; form and content: sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas; and praise poems and odes. Each chapter includes an introduction, reading aloud, poems for discussion, questions for discussion and analysis, bibliography of additional poems, and writing exercises with student examples. I like that the authors have included these in each chapter. This means that if a teacher chooses to take one chapter at a time instead of teaching the whole unit they still have the same resources available no matter what chapter they are on. I also like that it provides real student examples so that students can see that these activities are possible.

Overall, I find that this book is great for teachers. I think its only downfall is that it is best taught together as a unit. This book is set up nicely for teachers. Its topics are entertaining and are relevant to students. The activities provided are easy for students to understand and to follow. The book doesn’t provide anything for teachers to follow on how to teach poetry structure so teachers will have to go over structure during the unit. The fact that there is many types of poems and different authors is essential because it exposes students the classic authors we think of as well as those that we don’t usually teach. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to teachers.

To order this book on Amazon visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Poetry-Teenagers-Fredric/dp/0825127939 

Works Cited

Lown, Fredric, and Judith W. Steinbergh. Reading and Writing Poetry with Teenagers. Walch Publishing, 1996.

REVIEW: Writing in Rhythm: Spoken Word Poetry in Urban Classrooms by Maisha T. Fisher

When I first picked up this book, I was hoping to find methods on how to teach poetry in the classroom. Unfortunately, that is not what I found. Fortunately, however, I did find that this book contained several helpful ways to use poetry in the classroom. In short, this book won't really show how to teach poetry, but how to teach with it. With that in mind, let's take a look at it. 

The first chapter begins with Maisha introducing us to Joe, a teacher in the Bronx. Joe has been doing something with his students, calling them the Power Writers. The point of the Power Writers is to change the world with the power of their words. This is accomplished in several ways. Through something called Joe-isms. Little phrases of his that help the Power Writers remember certain things. They are fantastic! I'm not sure how applicable they all are, but I believe a few of them could be universal. 

The first of these Joe-isms to be introduced was one called "Jedi of words"(18). Being a Jedi of Words is pretty much using not just the correct words, but the best words. It was astonishing reading about how he utilized them inside the classroom and how the students responded to it, of course, the prospect of being called a Jedi helped I'm sure. This idea is something that could be expounded upon in many classrooms to get kids excited about word choice and experiencing something new. This will take a lot of work, but I believe that once kids hop on board with this idea that they will love it! 

In the third chapter, we learn of the backbone of the Power Writers, "reading and feeding" (21). This is another Joe-ism that is his way of saying the students share writing and receive constructive feedback. This is a unique way to phrase it so that the students don't see it as reviewing papers. A major difference, however, is that the students read their writing aloud and the feedback is also given verbally. This slight shift became a way to build classroom community as well as help the students really open up with their writing since constructive feedback was the only form of feedback that was encouraged. 

Joe then introduced another Joe-ism, this one called Bronxonics. This is created to counteract the idea of "standard English" by emphasizing student voice (39). This is a fantastic idea, the whole point is to let students add creativity to their writing by adding words that they use, be it slang or additional languages. Of course, this doesn't mean throwing in a random word here and there, there has to be a purpose to it – and a definition to help those who don't understand it. 

"Catching words" is the next on the list (51). This is a vocabulary tactic which encourages kids to ask about any word that is unfamiliar to them. This is only possible if there is a great community in the classroom. This also allows for students to answer first since they are encouraged to ask their peers first. The teacher will obviously correct this if the definition is not correct.  

Joe always encouraged the Power Writers to sing. Simply put, that just means to put emotion into their work. It's a great way to encourage students to learn to use their voice in incredibly unique ways. Encouraging students to involve emotion in their writing, particularly in poetry, can open many avenues for student engagement as well as a way to connect with writing in ways they haven't discovered before. 

A final idea that Joe pushed out was that of telling the "truth" no matter the circumstance. This doesn't necessarily mean the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; rather, it means being true to one's self. Standing and writing for what you believe in, regardless of if it's popular opinion or not. This can have a wondrous impact on our students as they can truly stretch themselves and find out who they are. 

I did learn a lot from the Power Writers as I read this book, and it is a great book. However, I do not feel that this book was super helpful in teaching poetry but did show some wonderful ways to use poetry to teach several other messages. I've included a list of Joe-isms below with Joe's own definitions. Again, a great tool for English teachers, but not specifically for poetry. I'd give it an 8/10. 

JOE-ISMS 

Literacy/Being Literate	"As long as we continue to produce legions of young men and women who cannot read, write, and think independently, we are a subject people."
Jedi of words	"We sharpen our language like we sharpen knives."
Singing	"Do not deny the emotion in your work!"
Read and feed	"You can really only do the pieces you believe in. Each of you has a piece that you truly believe in. If we are rehearsing, it is not to have pressure. It is to increase the level of beauty. I promise you it's going to be beautiful, but you have to practice."
Bronxonics	"It's our responsibility to teach the full breadth and scope of the language and to never be ashamed of proficiency. And at the same time to redefine that proficiency. . .. Bronxonics is to be real. To be aware that what we speak in each of our respective neighborhoods, at some level, is dialect and worldview."
Catching words	"This is a STICKUP! We're trying to give you something. I want you to collect words and ideas."
Telling the "truth"	"If this class is a battlefield, my tactical goal is for you to keep your dreams alive."