EXPLORING AND EXPLOITING POETRY IN THE PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOM



TOPIC 7

EXPLORING AND EXPLOITING POETRY IN THE PRIMARY ESL CLASSROOM

7.0  SYNOPSIS

Topic 7 introduces you to explore and exploit poetry in the Primary ESL classroom. It seeks to develop your knowledge in English language, by improving your knowledge in understanding types of poetry. It also aims to help you further improve your skills in using various forms of poetry and develop your teaching strategies ability in a variety of context.


7.1  LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this session, you will be able to:
  • identify and evaluate the different forms of poetry suitable for the primary English classroom.
  • examine and discuss types of poetry in children’s literature.
  • develop teaching strategies ability in a variety of content


7.2       FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS

  INTRODUCTION
        
 “Lovers of poetry are not born, but made through patient and careful
   nurturing”
                                                                   Russell (2005.p188)

Poetry is one of the two great classifications of writing-prose being the other and is the language of the imagination, of feelings, of emotional self-expression, of high art. Poetry also is a type of literature that expresses ideas feelings or tells a story in a specific form (usually using lines and stanza’s) The first and most important element of poetry that distinguishes it from other genres is its forms.

7.3 Definitions of poetry

there are as many definitions of poetry. These are the different ideas of poetry by poets :
  •  Woodsworth : "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;"
  • Emily Dickinson : "If i read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry,"
  • Dylan Thomas : "what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."
  • Robert Frost : " A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or love-sickness. It is a reaching-out expression and the thought has found the words."

In essence, poetry is piece of literature written by a poet in meter or verse expressing various emotions which are expressed by the use of variety of techniques including metaphors, similes and onomatopoeia. The emphasis on the aesthetics of language and the use of techniques such as repetition, meter and rhyme are what are commonly used to distinguish poetry from prose. Poems often make heavy use of imagery and word association to quickly convey emotions.  Many poems use words to paint a picture in your head.

7.4       Types of Poetry

1. Lyric Poetry

            Lyric Poetry consists of poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now commonly referred to as the words to a song. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and actions. The lyric poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his or her own feeling, state of mind, and perceptions. T.S. Eliot is one one of the prominent names in lyric poetry.


Example of Lyric Poetry
Emily Dickinson’s poem “I heard a fly buzz when I died” is a reflection on what happens when one dies. In the poem, the persona is waiting to die. It seems as though they are expecting something spectacular to happen at the moment of their death. This spectacular event they are expecting does not happen. 

Dying
(aka I heard a fly buzz when I died)
by
Emily Dickinson
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness around my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.


Narrative 

A poem that tells  a story generally longer than the lyrics styles of poetry because the poet needs to establish characters and a plot.

 Evidently the art of narrative poetry invites the skills of a writer of fiction, the ability to draw characters and settings briefly, to engage attention, to shape a plot. The main purpose is to tell a story. 

Narrative poems are very old. In fact, among the world's earliest literature are the 3,000 year-old Sumerian epic and the great narrative poems of Homer, The Iliad andThe odyssey. These are lengthy stories in verse that were originally intended to be recited to audiences (rather than read by them). A hundred years ago, lengthy narrative poems still enjoyed some popularity, and Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is the nineteentd-century verse narrative. However for children, perhaps the most accessible narrative poems are ballads. 

Ballads 
Originally intended to be sung, a ballad uses repeated words and phrases, including a refrain, to advance its story. Traditional ballads used the so-called "ballad stanza" which contains four lines, each with eight syllables and with the second and fourth lines rhyming a,b,c,d tending to fall into 8,6,8 and 6 syllables. 

Limericks 
One of the most popular poetic forms among children is the limerick, a five-line humorous poem, the first, second and fifth lines rhyming and the third and fourth rhyming. Contains one couplet and one triplet. The fun of the limerick lies in its rollicking rhyme and its broad humor. The limerick's form is easily imitated, and young children can have a great deal of fun creating their own.

Example :
                       There was an Old Man with beard,
                       Who said, 'it is just as i feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!'

By Edward Lear 

Concrete 
In concrete poems the words are arranged to create picture that refers to the content of the poem. The form of a concrete poems does not emerge from the poem's words and images; it is pre-determined by the visual image the poet has decided to create. In this way, concrete poems explore ways in which the visual form and the arrangement of words on a page interact and affect the content and meaning of a text. Concrete poems are not necessarily read left to right, as traditional poems are; instead, they can be approached in numerous ways, with the meaning primarily derived from the forms of the poems themselves. Many visual poets now use computers to manipulate music tracks, animation and colour, creating hihgly original - sometimes strikingly beautiful - works that combine text, sounds and video.

Haiku
The Haiku, which originated in Japan several hundred years ago, has become one of the most popular forms of poetry in the world. a haiku creates a heightened awareness of the meaningful, but fleeting moments found in nature. A haiku must be short, no rhyme and rich in imagery. Haiku has three lines where the first line with 5 syllables, line two and 7 syllables and line three with 5 syllables. 

Example :
An old silent pond.....
A frog jumps into the pond
Splash ! silence again

Free verse
The twentieth century has popularized free verse usually establishes its own intricate patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Free verse is much more demanding on the poet than most readers suppose, and it requires the same thoughtful choice of words and sentence patterns as the more rigid stanza forms. The line depends on the rhythm of the language. There is no set patterns or structure and doesn't rhyme or have a specific rhythm. However, it is acceptable if there is some rhythm. Often used to express " deep thoughts" or "deep emotions".

Example :
the wily winds blew down barren landscapes.
Free yet contained by natures forces.
Caught in the middle,
A pioneer
Heading west, west, west.....





Task 1 : 
Read any books on Introduction to children's literature and find other definition on what is poetry. What is your own perception on what is poetry all about?
Discuss in groups of four.



Task 2 :

Serve the internet for more information on types of poetry.
Find examples for each of the types of poetry.


 Task 3: Tutorial Question
In group of three, based on the examples given, find other types of poems   and identify the types of poetry .



Task 4:
 Create your own poem on Haiku and Narrative.










7.5   Forms of poetry
       The form of a poetry is its structure or shape, the way its elements fit together to form a whole; Form is the design of a poem described in terms of rhyme, meter and stanzaic pattern.

1.  Closed form
A closed form (or fixed form) poem looks symmetrical; it has an identifiable, repeated pattern, with lines of similar length arranged in groups of two, three, four or more. A closed form poem also tends to rely on regular metrical patterns and rhyme schemes. Sonnet is one example of closed form where the poet can write a sonnet with an unexpected meter or rhyme scheme, add an extra line or even extra stanzas to a traditional sonnet form.

2.   Open form
Poet who writes in open forms usually seek no final click. Such a poet views the writing of a poem as a process, rather than a quest for an absolute. Free to use white space for emphasis, able to shorten or lengthen lines as the sense seems to require, the poet lets the poem discover its shape as it goes along.

3.   Thematic Form
Certain forms of poetry are grouped together according to their themes.

4.    The couplet
Is a two-line stanza usually rimed. Its lines often tend to be equal in length, whether short or long. Any pair of rimed lines that contains a complete thought is called a couplet, even if it is not a stanza.
                         Example:
                                      Blow,
                                      Snow!


5.   A tercet
A tercet is a group of three lines. If it rimed, they usually keep to one rime sound, as in the following jingle:
Julius Caesar
The Roman geezer.
Squashed his wife with a lemon-squeezer

6.  Quatrain
A stanza consisting of four lines. Quatrains are used in more rimed poem than any other form. They come in many line lengths and sometimes contain lines of varying length, as in the ballad stanza. More often, poets rime the second and fourth lines of quatrains, as in the ballad, but the rimes can occur in any combination the poet chooses.
 Example of two quatrains from Tennyson’s long, elegiac poem.
                                     Be near me when my light is low,
                                          When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
                                          And tingle, and the heart is sick,
                                     And all the wheels of being slow.
                                     Be near me when the sensuous frame
                                          Is racked with pangs that conquer trust;
                                          And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
                                     And Life, a Fury slinging flame.

Task 1 :
Browse the web-site and find more on forms of poetry.
Suggested web site: http://www.hstreasures.com/articles/poetry.html


Task 2 :
Choose 3 forms of poetry and match to the poems that you are familiar with.

 7.6    Strategies of Teaching Poetry to Children

1.      Reading Poetry Aloud to Children
·         Poetry should be introduced first and frequently to children in an oral form. Most poetry is best read aloud. Moreover, children's oral language is the basis for their later acquisition of literacy.
·         Teachers need to practice reading the poems ahead of time and frequently. Keep in mind that poetry should be read for its meaning and enunciated words clearly. Pay attention to the poet's punctuation and slow down your normal reading pace to give full value to each sound.
·         Some poems need to be performed and dramatized. Using your voice to make special effects, such as variations of volume, pitch, and speech rate, and even a dramatic pause.
·         Brief encounters with one to three poems at a time are best. Too many poems in one sitting may overwhelm students or make the reading tedious.
·         After reading the poem, be sure to announce the name of the poet so that children discover the writers they especially enjoy.
·         Some poems warrant discussion. Children can take the opportunity to tell how the poem made them feel or what it make them think about.





2.      Choral Poetry
·         Choral poetry consists of interpreting and saying a poem together as a group activity. Children enjoy this way of experiencing poetry because they have a participatory role in the activity.
·         Short, humorous narrative poems are good first choices.
·         Options for reading a poem chorally include unison, two- or three-part, solo voices, cumulative buildup, and simultaneous voices.
·         Poetry selected and arranged for dramatic choral readings on a particular theme infuses an interesting variation into choral poetry.
·         Incorporating action, gestures, body movements, and finger plays can produce more interesting and enjoyable presentation.
3.      Learning to Write Poetry
·         Children need to be very familiar with poetry of many kinds before they should be expected to compose poems.
·         Teachers often start the writing of poetry as a collaborative effort. The class brainstorms for ideas and then composes the poem in groups or pairs.
·         Children's poetry follows no absolute rules; perfection of form should not be a goal. They should be reminded that poetry is a form of communication and that they should think of an idea, feeling, or event to write about in their poems.
·         Teachers can encourage children to compile personal and class anthologies of their own poems or their favorite poems.
·         Teachers can encourage children to model the works of professional poets by attempting imitation of a whole poem or of specific techniques.
·         Teachers can read aloud many poems of one poetic form, and then analyze the form to reveal the characteristics of its structure.

           
            Task 1:
Find further information on how to guide the students in learning       poetry from the web-site.



Task 2:  Individually create your own poem by following the strategies given.
   *      See some poetry writing websites for children:


             Task 3: Tutorial question
              Discuss on the teaching strategies that you can implement in making the     
              poetry lesson fun and interesting.
                  
Module writer:
 Balkkis binti Hj Abdul Aziz






References :
    1. Donna E.Norton (2003)Through The Eyes Of a Child,An introduction to Children’s Literature 6th edition, Texas A & M University
Pearson Education Inc.

    1. K.J Kennedy, Dana Gioia (1995)Literature, An Introduction to fiction, poetry and Drama, 6th  edition,,Harer Collins College Publishers

    1. Kirszner & Mandell,Literature: reading, reacting, writing, sixth edition, Thomson Higher Education, Boston, MA02210-1202

    1. Nancy A. Anderson(2006), Elementary Children’s Literature. The Basic for Teachers and Parents (2nd edition)USA: Pearson Education Inc









2 comments:

Ruth said...

Surf the Internet. The word is 'surf', not 'serve'. :)

Unknown said...

@Ruth what is your name
Do you know about the little blue boy
I want the synopis and the moral of this book......

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