Using poetry workshops to encourage literacy
Abstract
Encouraging students' creativity can be an effective way of getting them excited about language and learning. An AmeriCorps member in Tukwila, Washington, used poetry workshops to encourage language and literacy development among elementary students. He then used the poems to market the program and recruit additional volunteers. This paper by Washington Reading Corps member Christopher McCann won second place in the 2000 Northwest National Service Symposium, hosted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL).Issue
Most tutoring lessons focus on certain sounds, or combinations of sounds, to build a solid foundation of decoding techniques and sight words, which children will be able to draw from. AmeriCorps member Christopher McCann felt a powerful learning tool that was missing from this equation was creativity and the enthusiasm it engenders. Consequently, he organized poetry workshops to excite his students about words and writing.Action
Before the first poetry workshop, McCann created notebooks for the students. The front cover of each notebook featured a poem by a known poet such as Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Shiki and Louise Gluck. On the first page of each book, he pasted a poem written by a child of the equivalent grade level from a New York public school from an anthology of children's poems titled Wishes, Lies, and Dreams by poet Kenneth Koch. For each subsequent session, McCann added a new poem written by a student. The children were excited about these poems because they were written by kids their age.
The first workshop consists of a brief period of getting to know each other, followed by reading and discussing the poems printed on the front covers and first pages of the students' notebooks. The students then write a collaborative poem that can be written in a notebook or on the blackboard. After reading the collaborative poem aloud, the students spend about 10 minutes writing their own poems. In the last few minutes, the students read their poems aloud.
The collaborative poem allows students to test out some of their ideas with their classmates before committing them to paper. Since no one is entirely satisfied with the result of the collaborative poems, they become excited to write their own poems and have total creative control. The collaborative poem is the crux of the workshop, fostering a spirit of wild creativity and inspiring the kids to work independently.
Context
The Washington Reading Corps provides extra help to elementary children who are having difficulty learning to read. The poetry workshops were presented to classrooms in two elementary schools in the Highline School District in Tukwila, Washington.Citation
McCann, Christopher. "The Colors of Poetry: Student Poets in the Washington Reading Corps." Stories of Service: National Service in the Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, June 2000.Outcome
After spending even as little as half an hour writing poetry, McCann found that the same students who would flatly refuse to read before were asking for books and petitioning him to stay longer to experiment more with language. The students leave more interested in reading than before they arrived to the poetry workshops. Words have become something they understand because they have used them to express their own ideas with creativity and imagination.
McCann compiled an anthology of poetry written by his students to use as a marketing tool for the program. The book shows the young poets as creative and dynamic individuals who have something to teach everyone about imagination and enthusiasm. Through media attention and distribution to business owners, the book inspires interest in the program and increases volunteerism.
Posted On
May 21, 2001For More Information
Resources
Read "The Colors of Poetry:Student Poets in the Washington Reading Corps" by Christopher McCann.
From The Resource Center library:
Stories of Service: National Service in the Northwest