The Most Neglected of the Neglected R: Poetry Research We Have; Poetry Research We Need

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The Most Neglected of the Neglected R Poetry
Research We Have Poetry Research We Need

• Janine Certo, Laura Apol,
• SeokJu Yoon Erin Wibbens
• Michigan State University
• LARC Research Symposium
• October 26, 2007

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• . . . and Id like a world, wouldnt you, in
  which people actually took the time to think
  about what they were saying? It would be, Im
  sure, a more peaceful, more reasonable place. I
  dont think there could ever be too many poets.
  -Ted Kooser

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Presentation Overview

• Sources of Data Methodologies of the Literature
• The Poetry Writing Research We Have
• Conclusions/Discussion
• Implications for Future Research The Poetry
  Writing Research We Need
• Discussion, Comments and QA

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A Reading. . .

• The Writer (Richard Wilbur)
• http//www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15487

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A Researchers Definition of Poetry

• Poetry is literary language used to represent
  the writers real or imaginary experiences and
  to create a virtual experience for readers
  (Britton, Burgess, Martin, McLeod Rosen, 1975).

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Sources of Data

• ERIC, Education Abstracts, Proquest
  Dissertations, SAGE journals online
• Keywords poetry, poetry writing, poetic genres,
  genre, genre development, teacher education,
  teacher professional development
• Sources included peer reviewed journals,
  Handbooks, technical reports, books, and
  dissertations.
• Criteria for inclusion poetry writing, the
  relationship between reading poetry and writing
  poetry, a focus on
• K-12 teacher education and professional
  development.

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Methodologies of the Literature

• Qualitative (20)
• Mostly case study, ethnography, collaborative
  intervention or self study.
• A select few researchers used content or
  discourse analysis.
• Methods included observation (field notes and/or
  observational checklists, analysis of
  student-authored texts, and/or self report
  (interviews or questionnaires).
• Mostly descriptive characteristics of the
  research phenomena.
• Much of the literature is lacking important
  details in the historical transitions of
  qualitative research.
• Quantitative or Mixed Methods (5)
• Experimental, quasi-experimental, survey, mixed
  methods

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The Poetry Writing Research We Have Themes that
Define the Review

• Beliefs and Attitudes
• Poetic Genre Knowledge
• Poetry Writing Instruction
• Finding a Voice
• Teacher Education and Professional Development

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Beliefs and Attitudes

• Elementary students have very basic perceptions
  about poetry and what poems do (Apol Harris,
  1999).
• Interest, engagement and enjoyment of poetry
  builds among elementary students with exposure to
  poetry writing and performance (Apol Harris,
  1999 Mentzer Boswell, 1995).
• Seventh-and eighth-grade students who were
  saturated with poetry showed an increased liking
  for writing the genre (Manicoff, 1939).

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Poetic Genre Knowledge

• Elementary-aged children are capable of writing
  poems independently and with teacher-instructed
  attributes (Apol Harris, 1999 Chapman,
  19941995 Kamberelis, 1998 Rodgers, 1972).
• Children appropriate material for their own
  poetry writing from poetry books in their
  classrooms, radio songs, and their cultural and
  popular landscape (Dyson, 2003).
• Urban adolescents use a hybridity of genres,
  including poetry, to provide a way to express
  youth identity (Jocson, 2006).
• Poetry writing can be a vehicle for preservice
  teachers increasing genre knowledge (Rosaen,
  2003).

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Poetic Genre Knowledge (Kamberelis, 19981999)

• Most children composed poems that depended
  heavily on rhyme and singsong meter patterns for
  their poetic effects.
• Children who had a difficult time writing poems
  tended to produce texts that were more like
  stories than poems.
• Young children are capable of producing
  sophisticated poems.
• Genre development is complex and varies as a
  function of generic constraints, task conditions,
  and other contextual variables. Most children
  displayed much more knowledge of fictional
  narratives, less on poems.

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Poetry Writing Instruction

• Methods that encourage poetic writing expression
  among preadolescents include reading poetry, more
  exposure to poetry, ample time to write poetry,
  teacher enthusiasm, emotional climate, original
  thought (not grammar or spelling), visual
  auditory aides, praise, and words as tools
  (Schaefer, 1973).
• Instruction in the musical elements of poetry did
  not cause children to write poetry different from
  children who did not received such instruction,
  but there was evidence that committed teachers
  and a leisurely instructional pace were crucial
  to the success of poetry writing (Duffy, 1968).
• Technology can be used at all ages to
  successfully pre-write poetry, organize
  information and ideas in many ways (Roberts,
  2002), and provide a forum for peer feedback
  while building a sense of self as poet (Kammer,
  2002).

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Poetry Writing Instruction

• A sense of, and preparation for, an authentic
  audience for poetry motivated high school
  students to write, revise and perform poetry
  (Kammer, 2002 Jocson, Burnside Collins, 2006).
• High school students who read their written
  original poems improved their oral skills, had
  increased comfort with oral communication, and
  had a sense of improved self-esteem and
  self-image (Kassab, 1984).

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Finding a Voice

• Poetry writing allows students to provide a way
  to express youth identity (Jocson, 2006).
• Poetry writing can be a vehicle for exploring
  preservice teacher identity (Rosaen, 2003).
• Fifth grade boys equate poetry writing with
  expressing their feelings (Damico Carpenter,
  2005).

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Teacher Education and Professional Development

• Prospective teachers are not required to take
  courses in or demonstrate poetic interpretation
  or skill (Stiles, 1965).
• A majority of middle and high school teachers
  believe teaching poetry writing is important, but
  report 94 separate worries with regard to
  teaching poetry (Benton, 1984).
• Human and material resources organized in a
  collaborative intervention between
  university/expert and urban youth can create an
  extended idea of material resources and pedagogy
  (Jocson, 2005).

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Poetry in America Report (Schwartz, Goble,
English Bailey, 2006)

• The survey focused more on reading or listening
  to poetry, less on writing poetry.
• Parents and teachers are influential in early
  poetry experiences.
• Users were more likely to have studied the
  reading and writing of poetry in every grade
  level than were nonusers.
• Users were more likely to experience a range of
  poetry activities (reading, reciting, memorizing,
  writing) in school than nonusers.
• Poetry users reported more positive experiences
  in school than nonusers.
• When teachers were mentioned as early influences,
  high school teachers were mentioned more than
  teachers at other levels.

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Conclusions and Discussion

• There were many qualitative studies of poetry
  writing. Qualitative researchers should make the
  data collection and analysis procedures more
  public and include strategies to monitor internal
  validity and researcher subjectivity.
• It is arguably challenging to engage in research
  about poetry because of the intrinsic
  characteristics of poetry.
• No general set or sets of structural
  descriptions have been written for poetry that
  are comparable to the kinds of text grammars
  created for stories and informational texts.
  (Kamberelis, 1998, p. 21)
• The dearth of poetry in the curriculum may
  explain the lack of poetry writing research and
  instruction.

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Conclusions and Discussion

• There are negative experiences and limited
  perceptions of poetry across the ages.
• Research suggests that enjoyment, engagement,
  interest, genre knowledge, and a sense of voice
  identity may increase with more experiences in
  poetry writing and exposure to poetry.
• There is accumulating, suggestive evidence about
  what constitutes good poetry writing instruction,
  but the results should be considered with
  caution.
• Variables studied in the literature are mostly
  affective less research is focused on how to
  improve the quality of students poetry writing.

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The Poetry Writing Research We Need

• We need further research on how to develop
  teachers who have the knowledge, skills and
  dispositions to become excellent poetry writing
  teachers.
• We need research that connects teachers poetic
  genre knowledge with their ability to support
  student development in this area.
• We need research that examines the impact of
  professional development on teachers instruction
  and ability to scaffold, and to provide
  appropriate experiences for children. We need
  research that captures rich descriptions of
  teachers approaches to writing instruction in
  poetry, but also measures that report childrens
  growth (Donovan Smolkin, 2006).
• We need an update a new content analysis of
  basals and texts prompting poetry writing.

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The Poetry Writing Research We Need

• We need to pursue research lines that capture
  and/or measure environments and contexts that
  motivate students to write poetry.
• We need research that captures what students can
  do with poetry writing across the grades.
• We need research that documents and describes how
  students engage with all the recursive facets of
  the writing process, including revising their
  poetry (independently, through peer writing
  groups (face-to-face and online), and through
  student-teacher conferencing).
• We need research that documents what kinds of
  feedback and assessment are necessary to support
  and evaluate poetry writers.
• We need research on how to support all childrens
  poetry writing, including students with special
  needs, different learning styles and different
  cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
• We need research integrating textual and
  contextual analyses, social and cultural
  experiences with poetry writing grounded in life
  histories.

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A Reading

• by the presenters

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• THANK YOU!
• . . . and Id like a world, wouldnt you, in
  which people actually took the time to think
  about what they were saying? It would be, Im
  sure, a more peaceful, more reasonable place. I
  dont think there could ever be too many poets.
  
• -Ted Kooser

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Works Cited

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• Benton, P. (1984). Teaching Poetry The rhetoric
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• Britton, J. N., Burges, T., Martin, N., McLeod,
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• Chapman, M. L. (1995). The sociocognitive
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