poetry

When I was younger I seemed to be interested in poetry but as soon as I got to high school my feelings changed and I still feel the same way about it today and after the reading I realize why I feel this way about poetry.  I used to have fun with poetry in elementary school and middle school because my teachers would make if fun for all of the students.  Each time we would be able to come up a different type of poem then our teacher would have an activity planned around it.  In the reading I realized that the teachers attitude toward poetry effected the outlook that the students in turn had of poetry.  If the teacher doesn't push the kids to become involved and doesn't exposes the children enough to poetry at a young age then there is the chance that they won't appreciate it as much as they grow up.  In high school whenever we were about to start a poetry section everyone would always groan and moan because of all the analyzing that had to be done.  This is where my appreciation of poetry started to decline because I didn't see everything the same way the teacher did and I would be graded down for it.  Soon I began to lose interest in poetry and I'm sure other kids in the class felt the same way.  In the reading it stated that the opinion of the students towards poetry comes from the way in which it is taught and the environment surrounding it.  In high school it was generally a negative attitude and everyone wanted to get it over as quick as possible so this is where I see my outlook on poetry taking a turn.  I wouldn't mind reading poetry that isn't assigned to me and doing it on my own and see if that starts to change the way I feel about poetry.

Ch.4- Poetry

As a young child I disliked poetry very much. Even today I'm not that big into it. Reading this chapter made me realize that the reason I probably have such a negative about poetry is because I wasn't exposed to it very much in school and also because the atmosphere surrounding poetry lessons was never encouraged as much as other subjects from my teachers, and was never made very fun. I agree that there are important things that children can gain from reading poetry such as an increased vocabulary, creativity, and exposure to new writers as well as styles. Aside from maybe a project like a holiday poetry reading here and there in elementary school, I don't remember learning anything in depth or exploring different types of poems until was in middle school. I think that if my teachers in elementary school would have implemented some of the ideas explained in Ch.4 such as reading poems out loud as a class, acting out poems, or including other subjects into poetry such as science, I could have really gotten interested in poetry!
I really like how this book includes lots of examples of good pieces of children's poetry, studies about what types of poetry children like, how it impacts their learning, and also explains ideas on how to implement poetry into the classroom. It's a great step-by-step guide for future teachers. Back to Ch.4, I also made a note of the Joyful Noise book because I thought that sounded like a great tool to use when introducing poetry to a classroom. When I read the section about the different types of poetry, sadly, there were types that I hadn't heard about! I think that really indicates the lack of poetry in typical classrooms and I think that occurs because teachers know it's a difficult subject and assume students will be uninterested. However, thinking about poetry as word play and hearing the different activities brought up in this chapter makes me think that it poetry can't really be that bad. Lastly, I really liked that the authors encouraged teachers to address poetry as a new experience to use creativity and express oneself through words, rather than all about analyzing long, confusing poems, or finding the meaning of every line. This could be because the text book is more centered around younger ages, but I still appreciated the fact that they focused on poetry as another means for getting kids involved in reading, which is really the point after all.

Poetry

I have never been very fond of poetry. I was one of those kids who only liked it if it rhymed or if it was about something funny and easy to read. My main dislike for poetry came from the fact that I have always been bad at interpreting the meaning or the message behind the words. I always just went along with what everyone else said. Through my schooling, poetry was never a big unit in my English classes so I did not have to deal with it for long,  I was always able to just get by. I do believe that poetry is important in a Language Arts class, but it has to engage the students and relate to them. Students should be taught there are ones that rhyme and ones that do not make very much sense. They should be exposed to all types with lessons that will help them interpret it. I think that the two voices type of poetry is a fun and constructive way for students to connect with poetry. 

Poetry Readings

I am not a huge fan of poetry. When I was younger I really enjoyed writing haikus. From the reading, Terry found that it wasn't a favorite among students. This wasn't the case for me. I do agree with the reading in that a student's opinion on poetry comes from how poetry is taught and in what kind of environment. I want to make sure that I really make poetry fun. The reason that I enjoyed haikus so much was because my teacher made haikus fun, and she also had a positive atmospher of haikus. As I began to get older (middle school) my love for poetry declined. My teachers would always have a negative attitude towards it like "I know you don't like it, but we need to do poetry." It became more of a task instead of pleasure. I think it would be a good idea to get students involved in poetry as they have the idea in the book of making scientific poems. This way you have literature intertwined with science. I also never had the chance to read a poem from a book like "Joyful Noise". I really think that the idea of having students read out loud in that kind of rhythm would make poetry a lot more fun! I think that poetry is really important. Poetry does allow students to learn rythm and important literary terms such as alliteration and onomotopeia. These readings made me realize that the environment of poetry is what makes students dislike or like poetry.

Poetry

Poetry in school, is always a difficult subject. Reading about how there's a book called Joyful Noises made poetry in the classroom seem not so bad. Then looking back on my poetry experiences in the classroom the farthest back thing I can remember was when we had to create a book of poetry of our own in middle school. This correlates well with Jodi and Laura's findings that a majority of children do not have enough exposure to poetry.
It wasn't until high school when I had a very in depth exposure to any sort of poetry. There were so many ways in which we learned about poetry that can be taught even at a elementary level. We were given an evelope filled with words and it was our job to stick one of those words down on paper and pass it to the person to the next of us. And it went on like that to create a poem. This was to teach us that poems didn't necessarily have to rhyme. Also, the ideas of learning many different poems that can spark the interest of many different students helped. In the end, poetry didn't seem so scary knowing different tools that helped us try to understand and enjoy poetry.
To sum it up, I feel that poetry makes stomachs turn, and children sick because they've had so much poor exposure to it. With the proper techniques and much exposure to it, and eventually everyone will "recognize that poetry could be found everywhere in teh world around them," and that student's jobs as a poet "is to watch, to listen, to notice and record moments wen poems occur."

Readings

I liked the readings this week because they reminded me of things i forgot i had learned! I totally remember reading poems from the Joyful Noises book so it was fun for me to think about that again, and see little exerpts from that. I made note of the title so i can buy that book for teaching purposes. I remember reading poems with a partner and it was so fun. I think it's a good way to keep kids interested in poetry. I think Ch 4 had a lot of good points; teacher's reaction to poetry reflects on to the kids, kids need a variety, don't have them memorize- let them explore, etc. Since poetry is a tough subject for a lot of people to get interested in, i think these points are important. I also thought the examples of students' poems in the Apol article were really cute.

response to reading: poetry

I don't like poetry but I thought poetry is quite fascinating especially for kids. It is because poetry usually shorter than other literatue. I thougt I liked poetry when I was young. Actually I didn't like reading, so i prefer poetry because of their short length. Moreover, I agree with that idea poetry affects children's life because children could improve reading via rhythm of poetry and feel easier to read through shorter length of script. listening and reading poetry also increase children’s vocabulary and creativity.

I actually really enjoy reading poetry as well, but especially these children's poems that could be used for teaching material with children. I used to dislike analyzing poems too in-depth because i felt like we probably studied it more than the poet even intended.   I like how poetry inspires so much creativity in kids though, since certain poems lack a specific structure and you are free to write what you feel.  In high school I actually worked in a 3rd grade classroom, and a lot of the student's free time revolved around writing poems about me and their classmates.  I still have all of them saved, and the metaphors they used were so funny and cute that it makes me happy to look back and read them.  I agree with Galda and Cullinan when they talk about poems creating sensory images and expressing emotions we never thought about before.  It is one thing to write a story about the way you're feeling, but in a poem since the words are much more thought out and precise, the meaning seems much more obvious and heart felt.  Also they mention good points about what children prefer, and it included contemporary,understandable poems, narrative poems, and poems with a rhyme or sound.  I think it is important to help kids respond to poetry and state their opinions about what theme was portrayed, but not be single minded- because I believe with poetry there is never only one interpretation and that is what makes it interesting!

Response to Readings: Poetry

I really like poetry. I actually find it quite fascinating. I am not necessarily good at writing poetry or even good at analyzing great poets’ poetry but I find it very beautiful. I was introduced to poetry in 2nd grade where everyone in the class had to memorize poems of our choice every week and recite them to the class. We would get reward points based on the length of the poems we chose. I thought Chapter 4 was pretty interesting. I agree with Cullinan and Galda in which good poetry helps students listen and pay attention to sounds and words and can increase one’s vocabulary and creativity. I thought the Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman was so cool. I have never heard of this kind of poetry in which two readers read at once, one reading the right side and one reading the left side at the same time. I loved the examples shown in this format. I also liked how Cullinan and Galda discussed how people may have developed rhythm in the mother’s womb hearing her heartbeat. On page 112, I loved the concrete poem titled, “Popsicle.” It was very creative and very cute. The article by Apol and Harris was intriguing as well. The 5th grade students’ two voice poems were beautifully written and very creative. I was amazed how Apol and Harris transformed the students’ feelings and beliefs about poetry after the whole poetry project. I believe poetry is important for all students to explore at a young age and open their minds to creative ways of writing.

Response to Readings

I have never been one to enjoy poetry, even from a young age. Since I have not had any interest in poetry, reading Chapter 4 from Literature and the Child provided great difficulties for me. The reading itself was not difficult, it was just hard for me to get into and be interested in what was said. However, I found a similarity to the question that was asked on page 90 "Did you memorize a poem as a child?". I had to memorize many poems not particularly in elementary school, but in the 8th grade, I had to memorize many poems for my Language Arts class. It is interesting because in the text it says that poems do more than just provide a chance for children to laugh or cry, but it helps students remember academic content. I find that it may provide a chance to learn academic content, but when you are memorizing a poem it more so provides a chance for rote learning which through other TE classes I have learned is a very ineffective way to teach a class. Since my interest in poetry does not really exist, I disagreed with the comment that was made by Apol and Harris in their article that states " It would seem natural for children not simply to be comfortable, but to passionately be enthusiastic about poetry". It does not seem natural for me at all to love poetry because I have been shown it from birth. I would agree from all of the examples that Apol and Harris offers to their reader that poetry gives students a chance to express their feelings through a different form of writing. It also does give students the ability to learn about rhythm and rhyming in a more creative manner rather than just reading about the subjects and not actually being able to gain experience. Once again, the comment made about how poetry is like music and how it supposed to make you laugh, cry, and smile proves wrong for me. I absolutely love music and could not imagine music not in my life, but I do not loo at music in the sense that I look at poetry. I understand that rapping is a form of poetry, but I feel that poetry always has an underlying meaning where I can follow rap lyrics and understand what is trying to be said. Finally, in the article written by Gillis focused on "multi-voice" novels which means that more than one narrator tell their stories in the voices of two or more central characters. A perfect example of an adolescent book is the fourth installment of the Twilight Series where Jacob and Bella who are two central characters have separate stories within the novel that are written from their perspective. These stories are alternated throughout the novel and gives you a different inside to a story. It is shown through this article that multi-voiced novesl should be taught with care becuase they are very dificult to read and follow. Books such as Twilight have a set pattern and these voices are not intertwined where the story cannot be followed where as some multi-voiced novels may be in a different structure. When teaching, we should make sure that our students understand who the protagonist, antagonists, settings, linear chronology, and clear beginnings, middles, and ends. I could relate to this article because of the section that is dedicated to "scrapbooks". I love to scrapbook and they are in a way multigenre books becuase they introduce more than a written text. This can be confusing because the meaning of a scrapbook page may only be known to the creator. I agree with the fact that multivoice novels show young readers new ways of writing about their lives and what occurs in the world. It is another way like poetry that students can express themselves through their writing.