Entry 11: Bless, Press, Address

After reading through my classmates entries I chose Jeff's entry 7 to address. In this entry Jeff is discussing the poetry genre and goes into detail about he he used to view poetry, and how he views it now after Tracey's presentation and reading the chapter in Tompkins (2012). I chose this entry to address because I feel the poetry genre is one that both captivates and eludes me as far as teaching it goes.

There is the teaching of poets and poems and styles, and then the teaching of crafting poems, I feel it so expansive and overwhelming! Tompkins (2012) and Tracey did a very nice job of narrowing it and making the genre approachable for those of us who feel overwhelmed with it. Tompkins breaks her chapter down into manageble types of poems and includes examples and notes on each. Tracey featured several of these in her presentation and now I feel more comfortable approaching  teaching poetry by focusing on one type of poem and mini-lesson to assist students with poetic devices or craft.

The part of Jeff's blog that really intrigued me to write this post is:

"I look back and think about the writing possibilities poetry offers. Poets are able to capture the world in unique ways and perspectives. they create images other people might not be able to create. Students can take these ideas, make them their own and build confidence as a writer/poet. As a teacher, I can then harness the motivation and confidence poetry builds and scaffold it to narrative writing or descriptive or expository writing."

Jeff's quote above stood out to me a few reasons, one: it reminded me of why I love reading poetry. The way words can be used to describe and create whole new thoughts and worlds is unique to this genre and is incredible. Two: I like how he implies that playing with words and creating their own poems will motivate and enhance confidence in students, and three: he touches on what we all agreed on during Tracey's presentation, that poetry can be used as a gateway to other genres.

I think using poems is a great way  to scaffold writing into other genres and topics. Poems allow the student to get at the creative aspect of a topic and inspire curiosity about a topic, and then they can take that curiosity and run with it into creating a non-fiction book about their particular topic. Let's use the manatee poem that Dr. Jones read during Tracey's presentation as an example. After studying manatees students could create a poem  about them, or the poem itself could be a gateway into studying them. Then the student could learn more about manatees and add that information to what they learned about the poem and create an expository text about manatees.

The poetry genre still continues to intimidate me, however I feel more comfortable than before and I see a whole new way to integrate it into the curriculum.