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.