STRATEGIES IN TEACHING POETRY

JACKIE LOU C. CAMPANERO

RUBY R. NUEVA
Graduate School
Rizal Technological University
I. Introduction
Poetry is a beautiful form of literature that can bring students together to discuss
important themes while also providing them with a strong literacy foundation. Teaching students
how to read and appreciate poetry sets them up well as literate individuals who understands the
beauty and meaning of written language. Concepts embedded in poetry like rhyme, alliteration,
personification and imagery are foundational to decoding comprehension and fluency- the
backbones of good reading. Poetry can be so much fun and there is a tremendous amount of
multi-cultural, interesting and humorous poetry available for young children to enjoy.
Listening to poetry is often largely about the appreciation of beautiful language. Through
reading aloud, students learn about aesthetics or inner beauty of poetry. After reading aloud by
teacher, shared reading follows. It is a great way for students to begin to get more familiar with
conventions of written language and grow as more fluent readers.
However, in most classrooms, poetry often goes like this. The teacher reads the poem
with all the needed emotions and actions that mesmerizes the students. Then she would ask the
pupils about what they think. Students won’t readily answer so the teacher starts lecturing and
telling about the poem and the poet. Before everyone notices it, the bell rings and the students
leave admiring how well their teacher at poetry, but thinking of the opposite when it comes to
themselves. Most pupils won’t simple get it. They leave without imagining new worlds,
different lives. They haven’t engaged the imaginative possibilities of poetry.

II. Frameworks for introducing poetry to the elementary classroom.

As educators, how do we approach poetry concretely and clearly without being
inaccurate or rigid? Can we define poetry in ways that are open and also clear? How do we shift
gears mid-day and signal to our students that we’re heading into the mysteries of creativity?
Before we head into the classroom, there are four frameworks we can use to wrap our
minds around this complex medium and to facilitate a clear, open, and exciting introduction to
poetry for our students. These four frameworks include ways to orient our own thinking before
we begin to teach and practical ways to begin a poetry curriculum with our students that will be
fun and engaging, encourage self-expression, and build myriad reading and writing skills along
the way.
a. First Framework: Art Class with Words
Visual art is just as multifaceted and complex as poetry, yet both adults and young people
seem to be comfortable with its many types. Explaining that the poetry class will be more like of
an art class but with words, will surely arouse curiosity to the learners. Just as in art class, they
may mix mediums, there may be elements of experimentation and play, and they may layer their
words side by side to see how each brings out the particular hues of the other. Their final product
could end up looking any number of ways.
b. Second Framework: Recess for Rules on Language
Let’s acknowledge that almost all learning throughout a school day is filtered through
language: reading and writing, of course, but much of math, science, and other disciplines too.
Language is used to test, rank, and place students throughout their education.
Though a paintbrush or a soccer ball may symbolize free or fun time to some students
already, words are used all day long to test and measure their skills and aptitudes. The challenge,
therefore, is to clarify for students that language is treated differently during poetry time, that
their creative work will not be tested, marked, or graded.
It can certainly confuse young students if most of the day, their teachers insist on
grammatically correct sentence structures only to abandon such rules during poetry time. If we
acknowledge this fact openly, it allows us to chart a clearer course into poetry as a fun and
engaging space of self-expression and creativity.
Equipped with our starter definition—that poetry time is like art class with words—we can
next address the matter of language as an artistic medium.
c. Third Framework: Join in and Make a Mess
No one has all the answers when it comes to art. The elements of mystery and individual
taste with creative works are a large part of why we wish to teach creativity in our classrooms.
The connections you experience in that moment, or in a moment of personal self-expression,
have myriad benefits in addition to simply being a wonderful experience. Poetry can be a great
way to share these reactions to language.
It’s important to allow your students to see you experience and react to poetry. When a poem
or a just a single line or an image delights you, show it. When a poem or an element of a poem
confuses you, express that confusion and share your questions with the class. Allow some
questions to remain unanswered and be okay with that. If you’d like your students to avoid
responding to a piece of art they don’t subjectively love by saying, “I don’t get it,” then model
for them the experiences of questioning, being confused, and searching related to experiencing
art.
Then let’s consider our learning goals carefully. By the end of the first lesson, the students
will have lightly touched on the concept of line breaks, and in a few more exposures to poetry,
they’ll be a bit more comfortable with the poetic line. Next, they move on to stanzas, then
metaphor, imagery, personification, and so on. Young students can become tiny pros with
shocking speed.
Creativity is very nearly magic: it’s a means to unlocking other parts of our brains and
expanding our capabilities of thought and expression. There are few right and wrong answers in
the fields of magic, so let’s be generous in admitting our own wonder and our own multiplicity
of paradoxical ideas. Let’s be generous and honest by communicating first: we already have the
tools, and now we are ready to build with them.
d. Fourth Framework: Language through a Conscientious Lens
As we look at new approaches to teaching poetry, it’s important to consider how language is
used in Philippine society at large—in and out of the classroom. Language is a powerful tool for
upholding oppression or dismantling it within a culture. We use language to showcase the
breadth of human experience, and we also use it to hurt, exclude, and silence members of our
communities. We should check our assumptions about language and which types of expression
we promote or devalue in our classrooms.
Consider our students who speak more than one language at home. Too often, when they
come to school, English is treated as a language of scholarship or creative thought. Although it is
considered as a second language in the Philippines, there are still many children in school who
cannot speak and understand it well, just like as it is a foreign language. We should also
consider our students who have been raised in different mother tongue.
Let poetry be a place where one culture or linguistic heritage is not prized over another—we
can make space for multiple voices, languages, and vernaculars. Question your reading list, and
if it looks like only one part of the population, seek new voices and perspectives to share.

III. Teaching Poetry to Kindergarten Pupils

Kids often hear poems with a regular rhythm and rhyme, so include poems to challenge
their notion of what makes something a poem. Selecting poems for these young readers is very
crucial so choose something that they can really relate to.
Early childhood students are often very literal. So let’s encourage them to see outside the
box. For example, using the poem entitled “Rain Can Be Anything” the teacher can probably ask
the class to imagine what else could fall from the sky aside from wet drops of water. They can be
your favorite things! Encourage them to stretch their imagination. This way poem becomes
engaging for them.
Here are some of the ways on how use poetry to the young learners in kindergarten:
1. Choose short and engaging poems.
2. Each poem must come with colorful pictures and interactive activities for students.
3. Read the same poem at least twice.
4. The first time, ask simply to listen.
5. The second time, ask engaging questions (How is this poem different from a story?
What exactly did you like and dislike? What do you think this poem is about? )
6. Since Kindergarten pupils love to move around, reciting the poem with
accompanying action would help a lot to make the activity more engaging and
meaningful.
7. Music and videos can be used too. Most of the rhymes in kindergarten have
melodies and they can be sung. Have students pick a favorite song. (You may have to
do a little screening here.) Next, have them share the song lyrics by reading them as
they would a poem. Engage them in conversation about the similarities they note
between song lyrics and poetry. Have them "investigate" the poetry in lyrics.

IV. Poetry for the Primary Grades

The primary grades in our public school classrooms usually acquire their reading
skills in English during the second quarter, especially for the grade one. Using poetry to
reinforce literacy skills to these imaginative learners would be a good idea as it is
something that they too can enjoy. Later on, they can be encouraged to write their own
simple rhymes or poems.
 Titles, stories and Moods
Title is important as we introduce the poetry to the young learners. The teacher can use a
poem that would be interesting to the pupils like “Crayons: A Rainbow Poem” by Jane Yolen.
The teacher must be very creative in presenting the poem. A customized costume for that
specific day can be utilized, for example a coat or apron decorated with the things found in the
poem. They should realize that poems can tell stories.

Action!
Poems that imply action are very good for the active young learners. It is also good for developing
their English vocabulary and comprehension. After preparing a poem and projecting it on screen, teacher
gives designated action words to the children, which the latter would at out as soon as they word is
identified in the poem. The teacher can model the action to those who cannot read the strips yet so the
pupil won’t get frustrated in the process. Making the pupils read, listen and act altogether would create a
meaningful learning environment and it all can be made in a poetry class.

Time to Learn
After reading the poem to them and with them, pupils should be asked what they notice.
Some may notice the words that have repeated sounds. Then alliteration can be introduced. As
pupils ask questions and make observations, teachers introduce the vocabulary that helps them
explain what they notice. Teachers can make use of activity sheets or graphic organizers where
they can identify rhymes, capital letters, punctuation, high frequency words and others. It would
help if they have an interactive poetry notebook to build phonemic awareness, phonics and word
knowledge.

Art and Poetry

Turn Poems into Illustrations. Art can be used across all learning areas. It is
something also that students really love doing. After listening to and reading the teacher, the
pupils may draw a picture of the scene of the poem. Through their creativity, they may be able to
explain what they have understood from the story and to a great extent, they may be able to
relate it to their own simple experiences.
Have students select a favorite poem and illustrate it. You can use crayons, markers,
paint or chalk. Get the kids talking about their poems while illustrating, or just let them draw.
After this activity invite the class to do a "poetry walk" around the room or drawing space to
share their impressions of the illustrated poems. This is a great, easy way to start exploring
poems and poets while mixing the medium of art in the process

V. Poetry for the Intermediate Level

Agents of Imagination
In the introduction to his book Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry
(2011), poet and critic David Orr suggests that our whole approach to teaching poetry needs
rethinking:
 If there’s one thing that often unites academic treatments and how-to guides, it’s the
implicit assumption that relating to poetry is like solving a calculus problem while being
zapped with a cattle prod—that is, the dull business of poetic interpretation … is coupled
uneasily with testimonials announcing poetry’s ability to derange the senses, make us lose
ourselves in rapture, dance naked under the full moon, and so forth.
He may have a point: students think they need to find the answer to the poetic riddle
and participate in extreme emotional responses that often just aren’t there. Along with
feelings of annoyance, students—particularly students who consider themselves good at
English—are embarrassed when they can’t immediately figure out what a poem means.
Accustomed to having answers on the tips of their tongues, they are uncomfortable with the
way lines of poetry make them feel inept. In truth, great poetry humbles us all.
By sharing our uncertainties with students, we demonstrate that even experienced
readers of poetry puzzle over lines and struggle to understand the poet’s intent. Maybe
sometimes we can allow poetry to bewilder us. Instead of fighting that bewilderment, or
diagnosing our emotional responses, we can let it trigger our imaginations.
Science-fiction poems are ideal vehicles for demonstrating the imaginative nature of
the genre. Students can easily recognize how the writer’s imagination ignites the futuristic
world of the poem. Less obvious is the extent to which readers must employ their
imaginations to animate the words on the page.
In this poem Space Oddity , the class can definitely imagine something and relate to how
the speaker felt as this theme is always a Sci-Fi scene.

Space Oddity
By David Bowie

This is ground to major Tom,

You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose
Shirts you wear
Now it’s time to leave the capsule
If you dare

This is major Tom to ground control

I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

Here I am sitting in a tin can far

Above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there’s
Nothing I can do
 We can hand out copies of the poem and read it to the class. Then ask students to
read the poem again for themselves, choosing a line that strikes them. Preview the poem and
read it aloud a few times. Tell them that reading a poem aloud a few times can help them get
an overall feel for the language, rhyme, and rhythm of the poem. Pause to talk about the
meaning of some unfamiliar words. As students finish reading, Instruct them to copy the line
they have chosen and then write for four to five minutes about why they chose this line, about
what it makes them think or feel. Give them permission to pose questions along with their
comments.
When most students have stopped writing, organize them into small groups with the
following instructions:
• Have one person in your group read the poem aloud once more.
• Go around the group sharing your chosen lines and your reasons for choosing
them. Visualize the images, clarify words and phrases. When I discuss
visualizing, I ask the students what does the quotation "there are pictures in
poems and poems in pictures" mean. Visualizing is when the author paints a
picture in your head.
• Evaluate the poem's theme, and allow your understanding to grow. Explain to
students that when you make an inference, you are "reading between the
lines." In order to make an inference, you pay close attention to the details in
the poem to make a logical assumption. Does it connect to anything in their
lives?
• Call on individual students to share lingering questions or compelling ideas
that emerged from their conversations, encouraging them to avoid simply
reporting what their group talked about. Urge them to discuss what they see
now that they didn’t see the first time I read the poem to them.
From here, the teacher can lead to the discussion of the poem.
1. What human issues does “Space Oddity” explore?
2. What did the author say about those creatures? Can you point out some sound
devices or figurative language he used in describing them?
3. What emotional response do you think the poet is trying to elicit?
4. Does the poet want us to think about something? Is he trying to tell us what to
think?
5. What details in the poem confirm your interpretation?
Teaching poetry often feels like walking a tightrope. Too much lecturing, and students
are intimidated; too little, and they are lost. I want students to hold a poem in their hands the
way they held their imagined precious object, to feel a poem’s beauty before worrying about
what it means. I don’t want them putting gold frames around poems with the label “Great
Art” but rather to look closely, carefully, lovingly at what is there.
 Students who can and do read poetry possess an ear for language that serves them well
whatever the reading or writing task, from reading between the lines of an email message to
writing a heartfelt note on Mother’s Day. They develop an eye for words with nuanced
meanings and how to employ such words for effect. They also possess a lifeline to some of
the best thinking about what being human means. As William Carlos Williams reminds us,
“It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably every day for lack of what
is found there.”
Again! Again!
Children's poetry and the joys of repetition
Repetition didn’t make the poems tiresome. Instead, the repetition became part of us.
It was entertaining! Joy is vital in our daily lives, and those poems brought us joy. Such a lofty
mission for a mere poem but everyone comes to formal poems naturally, the way a child
comes to language. “Bath, book, bottle, bed” are soothing to children because they know what
comes next. So is “Mary had a little lamb / whose fleece was white as snow / and everywhere
that Mary went / the lamb was sure to go.” The rhythm comes measure by measure, as does
the rhyme. It is a wonderful pleasure for children—for all of us—to be able to predict what
comes next.
A poem can also call us to laughter, to play. What about a ditty such as this:
Shoo fly pie
And apple pan dowdy
Makes your eyes light up
And your tummy say howdy!

Poetry can create a frame that lifts us beyond the ordinary, into the foggy edges of the
realm of human experience. It makes us pause. It causes us to remember.
When it comes to literature, one must ask, is there a special poetry for children?
Subject matter and treatment are always a consideration when it comes to children,
and this is the only important criterion. Is the language appropriate for a child? Is the subject
too mature? Children don’t need to be insulated from crisis or powerful emotion, but age and
individual sensitivities should be considered.
poetry is also large enough to encapsulate everyday experiences—and children’s
poetry does that so well: the wonder of seeing a caterpillar wind its way across the sidewalk,
the birth of a butterfly, the beauty of a pansy, the taste of maple syrup. Children’s poems take
for their subjects every possible relationship, training the heart and the mind to savor and
pay attention in a language that a child can understand.
Pictures enhance poetry for children. The sounds of words paired with pictures are
especially appealing to the child—and also to the one who reads to the child.
 Strategies of Teaching Poetry in High School
INTRODUCTION

Teachers have a mission to fulfil; to open the door which leads to knowledge for their
students. Then another step is required; to make the students interested in discovering poetry.
This could be said for all elements in second language teaching but when it comes to the 'poetry
door', if one may put it like that, it could be extra tricky to make the students step over that
threshold. So, the key is to engage in order to reach all of those students that will pass through
one's classroom. The reward that comes with achieving this task is plentiful; they could discover
new thoughts and horizons, learn about their identity, get a glimpse of history through another
form of literature and unconsciously improve their target language in the process. Jeremy
Harmer stresses the element of engaging students in Upper Secondary courses and how this
sparks other benefits; "Teenagers, if they are engaged, have a great capacity to learn, a great
potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest them".

Elaine Showalter explains how poetry is like a gold-mine: “Teaching poetry offers the
literature instructor some of the most fundamental, immediate, active, even physical ways to
engage students in learning”. Therefore, we as teachers need to make the lessons as interesting as
possible. Holbrook (1967, p.63) defines poetry as “language used for its deepest and most exact
purposes.” He goes on to propose that there is no other medium through which language can be
used as richly and accurately to explore experience as poetry. Indeed, poetry is one of the most
creative forms of expression. It is language at its most meaningful, language carefully shaped
and crafted into its most perfect form. Poetry encompasses all forms of human experience, from
the simplest to the most intimate and complex. It speaks at once to the intellectual and the
“ordinary” man, the adult and the child. To imagine that poetry deals only with great experiences
and great people is to greatly undervalue poetry.

The Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (1965) p. 159) states that “poetry should matter
and be felt to matter, in the community” and that its social function is no less important than its
other functions. Nevertheless, critics of poetry seem to be united in the opinion that poetry is
unpopular among adults as well as high school students worldwide. It is a fact that the majority
of high school students are either indifferent or hostile to poetry. Dias and Hayhoe (1988 p.4)
quote Greeves (1988) as saying that “Poetry has become so rare in schools that it ought to be put
on the endangered list.”

POETRY
What then, is considered to be a poem? The word stems from the Latin word poema
which comes from the Greek word poēma meaning ‘make’. In The Concise Oxford Dictionary;
ninth edition, the word is explained in two ways: “1 a metrical composition, usu. concerned with
feeling or imaginative description. 2 an elevated composition in verse or prose”. According to
this definition, a poem should be a composition that someone makes that can hold a content on
feelings or imagination and have either a strict or a freer structure. But do we easily recognize
poems? Could only one line be defined as a poem? Collie & Slater states that students are
sometimes confused about the forms of a poem; "One question which is often thrown up in the
course of these activities concerns the poetic qualities, ... Is it really a poem? And if so, what
exactly makes it one?... " (243). One wonders then if teachers know - what is defined as a poem
and which qualities is it that makes it a poem? In this study, a range of different ‘poems’ will be
used, where the definition of what constitutes a poem will be challenged.
Spurr (1997:vi) defines poetry as ‘the honey of all flowers’. This implies that poetry
should be appreciated and be enjoyed. Levy (2001:30) also defines poetry as ‘a way of
negotiating experience, of attending to external and internal worlds, bringing diverse worlds into
close relation for arriving at renewed perception’. The quote implies that poetry appeals to all
individuals in all spheres of life. However, the methods through which this genre is to be taught
and learned are not specified in any regulations or policies, especially in the school curriculum.
DISCUSSION
Teaching Poetry in Secondary Schools

Strong (1964 pp. 1-16) observes that while the majority of young children respond very
positively to poetry, adults and secondary school students incline towards varying degrees of
indifference. He lays the blame squarely at the door of schools; more specifically on the
incompetence of teachers and incorrect teaching methods. Strong contends that poetry has, for a
long time, been mishandled and poorly taught by teachers who have no understanding of poetry
and therefore see it as an unpleasant aspect of teaching or by those who, while they may have
some degree of appreciation for poetry, are unable to communicate this appreciation to others.
He identifies some basic errors in the teaching of poetry and their possible effects: Teaching
poetry as comprehension, paraphrasing, learning by heart, and prescribing tastes.

 Teaching poetry as comprehension – one method which has been used in the
teaching of poetry is the introduction - explanation - question format. This method gives the
teacher the role of “keeper of the poem”. He has all the answers and he asks all the questions.
The students are not given the privilege of becoming involved in the poem or in the class, for
that matter. This method offers no motivation to them and fails to elicit any response from them.
At most they may consider poetry lessons to be dull and uninspiring. They are forced to discover
answers to questions on a complex form of writing which has nothing to do with them and which
they do not understand.
 Paraphrasing – Certain public examinations require that students paraphrase
pieces of poetry. Paraphrasing can have only negative effects. The form of a poem is important
to its meaning and so the paraphrase robs the poem of an integral aspect of its being. With its
rhythm, rhyme, imagery and metre taken away the poem becomes empty; a destroyed work of
art, “nobody’s words” and can no longer be of real value to anyone. But even worse, is the fact
that the pupils are given the impression that poetry is only a complex way of saying something
simple; that the poet is deliberately mystifying them with strange concepts that could be very
easily expressed in prose. The result could be strong aversion to poetry on the part of pupils.
`
 Learning by heart – Nothing can have a more disastrous effect on students than
forcing them to memorize a poem before they have reached the stage at which they can
appreciate it. Learning by heart is something that comes naturally if the right poem is selected.
The teacher who introduces his class of eleven year olds to Milton by forcing them to memorize
the sonnet “On this Blindness” runs the risk of turning them off Milton and perhaps all poetry for
life.
 Prescribing tastes – Many teachers try to force on their pupils tastes and values
that have been handed down to them from generations back. They do not have the courage to
develop their own aesthetic values and seek to stifle the pupils’ natural inclinations towards their
own tastes and values. The skilled teacher should expose students to poems that lie within their
range and (for a start, at least) poems they are likely to enjoy and allow them to acquire their
individual tastes.
While Strong’s observations may be valid one must observe that the weaknesses that he
identifies can only be regarded as such when they are taken to extremes. Questioning,
paraphrasing, memorizing and prescribing are all strategies which the skilled teacher can
incorporate into his lessons very effectively, provided that he recognizes the pitfalls to which
they can lead if they are employed in the wrong contexts. In more recent times, these techniques
have been utilized to great effect, in conjunction with others, in the teaching of poetry.

More recently, Dias and Hayhoe (1988 pp. 4-15) have also recognized the causes for the
unpopularity of poetry that Strong has identified, but they are of the view that such practices are
now largely in the past. They are of the opinion that although there are many factors contributing
to the unpopularity of poetry in secondary schools, the critical theory implicit in the teaching of
poetry in most schools is a prime cause. They classify the literary criticism that affects the
teaching of poetry in three major trends: New Criticism, Structuralism and Post-structuralism.

 New Criticism - This approach is based on the concept of the poem as an

autonomous unit requiring careful analysis. Its emphasis is on interpretation. The main objective
is to train pupils to read poetry by closely examining the internal structure of the poem for every
aspect that would shed light on its meaning. Meaning is believed to be contained entirely within
the text. The teacher is concerned with neither the author’s intentions and context nor the
responses that the poem may have evoked in the reader. As a matter of fact, subjective reading of
poetry is discouraged totally. The teacher assumes the role of guardian of the poem’s meaning
and the students, through her questioning, are guided towards their destination – the one correct
meaning of the poem. Students are therefore barred from exploring the poem intuitively. This
method completely withholds from students the opportunity to develop as readers of poetry since
it forbids them to react from their own responses to the text.

 Structuralism – This approach is no more acceptable today than the New Criticism
approach. It is more scientific in that it requires an understanding of the structures that render
meaning to literary works. It posits that a poem is not a self-contained unit, but part of an
interrelated system of other works. Emphasis is placed on explicit, analytical reading with the
aim of understanding the systems that lend meaning to literary works. This approach also places
the teacher in a dominant role because the students feel unsure of their capacity to approach a
literary work without prior knowledge and understanding of the basic “codes” and “structures”
that are fundamental to structuralism. Clearly, it falls far short of present objectives in the
teaching of poetry; teaching students to develop response to poetry.
  Post-structuralism – While the former approaches have inclined towards the idea
of one correct meaning, this approach promotes the idea that different readings can lead to
widely differing interpretations and that meaning is indeterminate and unstable. In fact, Post-
structuralism postulates that any literary work will yield multiple interpretations subject to the
experiences it evokes in readers. This recognition of the possibilities of varied interpretations
through differing responses is important if students are to be allowed to realize their full potential
as readers. Of the three approaches, Post-structuralism seems to come closest to some of the
objectives of present day teaching of poetry.

TEACHING POETRY

The teaching of poetry calls for total involvement on the part of the teacher and students
alike; the teacher has his role to play and so do the students. The teacher’s main objective should
be to teach students to enjoy poetry. This calls for a certain amount of skill and a great deal of
preparation on his part.

Mordecai (1981 p.1) outlines certain essentials for a good poetry class:

- “The teacher MUST have a good working relationship with the class.
- The teacher must understand and respond to the poem.
- The poem must be such that the students are able to respond to it.
- The focus of the class must be on the poem – not on questions about it or information related to
it (or its author), but on the poem itself.
- The teacher must, at all costs, stop the class or arrange it so that the class ends while the
students are still enjoying the poem and before they become bored with it.”

In order to cover these essentials and to fulfill his objectives the teacher of poetry must
plan every step with the greatest of care. Probably the most important aspect of planning is
selection. What type of poems are children more likely to respond to? Certainly, children relate
more easily to situations that are familiar; they respond more readily to works of their own time.
As Johnson (1989) p.6) so aptly puts it: “Choose poems that help children to understand and
describe their world.” Of course, the skilled teacher should be able to determine at what stage he
should move on to more universal poems.

WHAT ARE THE RESOURCES OF TEACHING POETRY?

Academically, Perez and Holmes (2010:378) indicate that, “the best teachers ... evoke
emotions”. This quote means that the teacher empathises or identifies with learners in classroom
situations in expressing ideas, by engaging and motivating the CLD students to work in small
groups. Sharing curriculum content through asking relevant and meaningful vocabulary, help
these learners participate with others in a less threatening environment. These learners’ images or
memories are stimulated and hence they learn more.
The social theorists believe that true learning occurs when the learner actively transforms
and does not conform to the world. This means that, learners in this framework of thinking are
able to assimilate, internalize and integrate new information. Also, second language teaching
strategies, especially in literature and poetry in particular in this study is informed by task or
genre – based approach, (Gee and Bridget, in (Turuk, 2008:253–254). In this context, language is
linked or connected to a communication tool. Teachers adopt second language integration to the
text. Vygotsky refers to the approach as ‘fossilisation’ (Zimmerman, in Turuk 2008:254). On this
premise, teachers teaching without requiring or invoking reflective thinking could retard the
learners’ potential or capabilities. Therefore, Vygotsky’s concepts of ‘zone of proximal
development’ and ‘scaffolding’ promote communication as well as second language acquisition.
Informed by Bloom’s taxonomy (Shir et al., 2012:91-92), uses of the cognitive skill is
divided into: “knowledge, comprehension, application analysis, synthesis and evaluation in
learning”. In this context, students use networks to discuss and share their poems assisted by
their peers and teachers, also guided in outdoor settings.

PROBLEMS ON TEACHING POETRY

It is left to the discretion of the teacher which genre to choose from (drama, novels and
short stories). Most teachers deliberately avoid poetry, as is the case in this circuit. Other
teachers have false perceptions of poetry. They treat it as an inevitable bore, abstract and
mystifying (Chemwell et al., 2005:25). They see poetry as only a recitation which is a waste of
their time. These teachers have clearly denied learners the opportunity to explore and love
poetry. (Kilfoil, 1994:131).
A similar scenario was found in Kenya where poetry was regarded as nightmare for both
teachers and learners (Eur, 1984:1). Poetry was unpopular and used only for recitations and was
not even seen as a serious course. Eur (1984:1) indicates why English poetry is characterized as
being deviant and distorted in English language acquisition. It was said to have no practical
function at all. Poetry was considered to be too impractical upon which to build communicative
literacy, for instance, in listening, speaking, reading and writing as the basis for language
learning and acquisition. English language teaching incorporated in poetry is a shift and effective
way of learning in order to contextualize poetry.
However, there are hurdles that the teacher needs to overcome or work around. One of
those are the fact that you need your students to be engaged in the task. Another is how your
students regard poetry and what types of connotations are connected to it socially and culturally.
Brian Parkinson & Helen Reid Thomas write about two examples of students who feel
intimidated by poetry and the study of poetry. The first is a Swedish student with this view; "...
in his country poetry was upper class and he was working class, ...” (53). The second is a French
student who has narrowed down her knowledge to older poetry in her own language and she was
writing her own poems but in an old-fashioned style. This caused her to resist poetry from recent
centuries and modern linguistic analysis. Elaine Showalter also brings up the fact that teachers
experience hardships with teaching literature and poetry; “Teachers lament that students find it
difficult and intimidating” (62). Finally, students are more familiar with novels and short stories
since they usually have a limited experience and knowledge of poems, usually due to the fact
that teachers in the previous grades might have only touched upon this form within literature
(Parkinson & Reid Thomas 53).
ISSUES IN THE CLASSROOM
Savignon (1991:285) indicates that language teaching is inextricably bound to language
policy. He further pointed out that negotiation of meaning offers improvement for classroom
practice of the needed skills. Therefore, the classroom itself should be a social context where
learning is negotiated. Thus, communicative language teaching also requires grammar to
complement negotiation on meaning, as with poetry in this study. However, most learners have
had unpleasant experiences with poetry as seen even in EFAL learners and English First
Language classrooms. Eur (1984:2) warned against “accumulation of awful memories of being
forced to analyse what a poem really means”, extending to form, structure and theme of such
texts. This makes it possible to acknowledge the benefits of the interactive cognitive, effective
and reflective needs of the learners in this study.
Sometimes failure is inevitable. This comes with the profession; not every lesson is going
to turn out fine or according to plan. The reasons for this could be many (you or your students
are having a bad day for instance), but then one should be confident that they have learnt
something useful from the lesson although it might not be the things you aimed for. The lesson
plan should then not be totally discarded but rather tried out on another day with other students
(Koch 333). To avoid further failure teachers need to assess and evaluate both themselves and
how they present the material to their students. Are we giving them a fair chance? As Peter
Griffith points out; “… suppose, though, that it is the first book without illustrations that the
pupil has had to cope with, or that it is printed in small type in the interests of economy, or even
that the book is falling to bits because the school cannot afford to replace it, or that it is shared
with one or more other pupils” (3). Also, it is not only the material that can affect the outcome of
the lesson. Teachers must take the learning environment into consideration together with the rest
of the factors: “It is Tuesday afternoon, the mower is making one of its occasional visits to the
grass outside, the class next door is getting noisy, the book is being studied for a new
examination, and the likelihood that an exam pass will lead to future employment in the vicinity
is remote” (Griffith 3). However, the advantages can outweigh the potential disasters that can
occur since "...poems offer a special kind of reward…" (Collie & Slater 14), and the format of a
shorter text and a poem is beneficial for teachers since both novels and films will be more
timeconsuming and thus require more lessons. Collie & Slater states as well that this material
breaks off from other regular material used in L2 studies; "...literature, which speaks to the heart
as much as to the mind, provides material with some emotional colour, that can make fuller
contact with the learner's own life, and can thus counterbalance the more fragmented effect of
many collections of texts used in the classroom" (Collie & Slater 2). But in order to tap into the
advantages of teaching poetry, one needs to reach the students and engage them in the material at
hand. Showalter mentions a power that comes with teaching poetry but how it is dependent on
engagement; “The potential power of teaching poetry depends on active student engagement
with both poetic language and meaning”
CONCLUSION
Teaching poetry is like sharing a love for something good, beautiful and creative. As
learners develop the skills in understanding poetry, they enhance critical thinking,
imagination and self-reflection. There could be various ways on how poems are discussed in
class as there are many points to consider such as pupils’ background, reading and
comprehension level and individual differences. Therefore, creativity and flexibility in the
part of the teacher is very important, aside from the passion and love and poetry. Though it
might be thought as less of a requirement for others, but as teachers in an English class, the
pronunciation and diction are something that should be considered in teaching poetry. In
every strategy, the teacher is always prompted to read first the poem as part modeling. It is
must be basic that we teach the correct way on how to bring words to life in a poem, may in
English or in another language.
The methods of teaching poetry to English First Additional Language (EFAL) learners
are not stipulated in any policy document. This means that teachers do not have guidelines on
what methods to employ when teaching poetry. In addition, poetry teaching and learning is also
an option in the grade 10 curriculum. Therefore, the study sets out to look into methods which
encourage learner’s voices to be heard (Von Groenewaldt, 1999: 244). Some methods used to
teach poetry have been rejected. For example, Williams (1978: 38) rejected the idea of teachers’
second–hand comments, notes and prepared answers for examination purposes. Such methods
were criticized as stereotyped and anti–educational in the sense that teachers impose their own
ideas as the absolute truth without acknowledging the learner’s opinions. Poetry lends itself to
self-expression and different interpretations. Therefore, the methods teachers use when teaching
poetry become important.
The results showed that the design has an impact when it comes to engagement. The main
finding in the study was that students prefer less complex poetry that does not belong to canon,
since most of the students marked the first part as the best one. Therefore, the most vital part
when designing poetry lessons is to carefully select the ‘right’ material for the students in
question. A secondary aim with the study was to observe potential benefits with sociocultural
learning according to Vygotsky’s theories. The study showed that all classes engaged in pair-
work that had a positive outcome on both their experience of the lesson and their learning where
more than half the students marked that they had learnt something new during the lesson.

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