What is my experience with Poetry as a students?
As you can probably guess from the title, I did not like poetry as a student. I remember poetry being only a segment of writing time for a few weeks. Looking back, it seemed my teachers were not very comfortable with poetry either. Poetry was never a time to express myself but rather a time to fill in words in a formula. I remember learning certain types of poetry that needed to be very specific. The poems needs a certain amount of lines or needed to rhyme in a certain pattern. As a child, I had no time to be creative, I had anxiety! I felt poetry needed to be so specific to be a "good poem".
Another HUGE problem with poetry at this age was never reading poetry. The only time I remember reading poetry was reading examples for the type of poem the class was learning for the students to then practically copy. I never once remember reading poetry in the form of a story or for simple enjoyment. This caused me to never have foundation of poetry and definitely not have a relationship with it. I truly do not remember poetry after middle school besides one teacher in high school. I believe she was trying her best to have us be creative with poems, however by that time I had formed a negative association with poetry. Although I appreciate her willingness for creativity, it was so hard to come up with those ideas alone. There was still no great poems I had ever read to them be inspired in my own writing.
Does this story have a bad ending?
Happily, I have found a different way of thinking about poetry throughout my college time, and not in a academic setting at all. My roommate had this book on the table and as soon as I picked up the book she said "Oh my gosh, you HAVE to read it". The more I looked at the cover it did seem like a nice book. It was called "The Sun and her Flowers" by rupi kaur. As I opened it I realized it was a poetry book and I was immediately turned away by it. However, after being convinced otherwise, I started to read the book. I couldn't stop reading it; I was hooked. I thought of poetry as this annoyance of school or something really sappy people write that I could never relate to. That is why I was so shocked when I related to this book so deeply. I eventually went on to buy my own copy of the book and bought her first book, Milk and Honey to read as well. This eventually lead to me writing a few of my own poems. Although they are private, I am so thankful that text brought me to think so differently about poetry. That word isn't so scary to me anymore.
Poetry In classrooms
Taking all my personal experiences into account, I have to owe my change of heart about poetry all to seeing and relating to poetry through texts first. I realize more and more that within my classroom I want poetry to be seen , heard and read throughout my classroom- not just one unit when I "have to teach it". I had never seen a poetry book for students until the book "brown girl dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson. I connect with this book as an adult and it is relatable to students as well. I must first allow my students to connect with poetry on a personal level. Just like discussed in the book "Awakening the Heart- Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle school" by Georgia Heard, poetry is a lot of the emotional environment in which you use it. With that in mind, I still want to incorporate writing poetry while reading poetry. However, I want my students to never just be thrown into writing poetry without any scaffolding. This causes students to have anxiety about poetry and just like myself, will end up writing poetry that doesn't mean anything to them.
I think that your attitude (at least when you were in school) is very similar to how many students feel about poetry, and while that sucks, I think its good that we future teachers notice that. Hopefully we both can figure out how to teach poetry in an engaging way.
I wish everybody was able to have the same positive experiences with poetry in school that I did! Everyone else seems to have left school with the notion that poetry has so many rules you have to follow and that takes away from its appeal. My favorite thing about poetry is that it can take on so many different forms. Some types of poems have more structure than others. I think that makes poetry more flexible and gives it the ability to reach more students. I've heard Rupi Kaur's books are fantastic, so I guess I need to check them out. Thanks for sharing!
Megan, I agree that poetry can be difficult. I had the same experience of only really being shown examples of poems that I was to write. I had not thought of this until you mentoned it, but it is so true. Students definitely need to experience reading poems, before we can expect them to be creative and start writing them. It is awesome that you have been able to get into poetry in college. Hopefully, you will find some more interesting things to explore in poetry this semester!
Megan, I can relate so much to your opening paragraph, specifically when you say that poetry needed to be so specific to be a good poem. I also always thought this, and that is why poetry has always been difficult for me. I can also connect with you on having a change of heart - though yours seems bigger than mine! My roommate also had the sun and her flowers, but she was reading it. So she told me I should read rupi kaur's book milk and honey, and I really really enjoyed it. I would have read it all in one sitting, but life got in the way. I look forward to reading the sun and her flowers when…