Creating
Poems for Voices and Ears
March 2000
The
Study
In an effort to allow students to go beyond a superficial encounter
with poetry, Laura Apol, assistant professor in the Department of
Teacher Education , and Jodi Harris, a teacher at Grosse Pointe
Park Elementary School, collaborated using a "choral reading" activity
in a fifth grade class. The activity progressed in the following
way: first, Apol and Harris determined what prior experiences and
understandings students had about poetry; then they introduced students
to a variety of poetic "possibilities" through the reading and writing
of poems; and finally, they asked students to perform a choral reading
of "two-voiced" poems one by award-winning poet Paul Fleischman
and one they wrote in a similar form.
The
Findings
Apol and Harris found in their initial survey that many students
had mistaken assumptions about poetry both its content and its
form. They designed the intervention as a way to counter existing
stereotypes by introducing students to a new form of poetry: poems
for two voices, based on the Newbery-award winning collection of
poems "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices" by Paul Fleischman. The
poems are printed with words written for one reader on the left
side of the page and another set of words on the right for the other
reader. Lines are said in the order they appear, sometimes read
alternately between readers or sometimes in unison, similar to vocal
arrangements. Students read and performed Fleischmanıs poems, then
created similar poems from their own lives, matching their subjects
to the two-voiced poetic form. Through their reading, writing, and
poetic performances, students demonstrated a much deeper understanding
of poetry than they had indicated in the written survey at the beginning
of the project. Their own poems were populated with the characters,
events and observations of their daily lives. Through their poems,
they heard and spoke in the voices of buildings they passed, roads
they drove on, pets they lived with and passions they held. Through
creating and performing their own poems for two voices, students
understood on a much more meaningful level the relationship between
content and form in poetry. They played with the sounds of words
and lines, adjusted volume and pitch to match subject and mood.
They saw how the rhythm and music of poems could move the feet,
hands, and bodies of their audience. One student concluded, "poetry
is like music. It is meant to make you laugh, cry and smile. Itıs
like having a river in your head."
What
It Means to You
Unfortunately, the reaction of many students and teachers to poetry
often ranges from mild discomfort to outright aversion. Many studies
have explored various causes for disinterest, ignorance or misuse
of poetry in the classroom. Perhaps this choral reading approach
could give your students a different perspective on understanding
and enjoying poetry.
More
Information
For further details outlining this poetry project, see Apol, L.
and Harris, J. (1999) Joyful noises: Creating poems for voices and
ears," Language Arts, 76(4), 314-322.
<back
to 2000 ed-Research Reports
|
