S T A N D A R D S  and  G O A L S

Pourquoi Étudier La Poésie?

Why Study Poetry?

I. Communication
II. Cultures
III. Connections
IV. Comparisons
V. Communities

A. Poetry develops pronunciation. The sound structures and the rhythms condition the ear for poetry’s language, benefitting pronunciation and intonation.

B. Poetry develops language acquisition. Syntactic manipulations and specialized vocabulary provide the opportunity to understand poetry’s grammar and vocabulary.

Communicative Acquisition:learning the elements and forms of a language through the functional use of that language, as opposed to a formal study of its grammar

Language Acquisition: a subconscious process similar, if not identical, to the way children develop ability in their native language (Language in Context, Omaggio, p. 29)

Syntax: the way in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences

C. Poetry develops critical reading skills. Decoding and interpretive reasoning of poetic text can foster development of critical reading skills. The students, as the decoders, translate poetic language into everyday language, which means acquiring the basic concepts and terminology of textual analysis. Poetry requires active interaction with the poetic text in order for the reader to understand it. Poetry offers new ideas as it communicates new perceptions, helping the reader to learn more about the poet and the culture.

The study of poetry helps students develop and improve four “Qualities of Thinking” (Dimensions of Thinking: A Framework for Curriculum and Instruction, Marzano Brandt et. al, 1988).

Thinking Skills: focus on how to select information, to gather information, to organize information, to generate ideas, to synthesize by combining information or by connecting ideas, to evaluate reasonableness and quality of ideas.

Thinking Processes: include concept formation, principle formation, comprehending, problem solving, decision making, research, composing, and oral discourse.

Creative Thinking: forming new combinations of ideas.

Critical Thinking: being objective, logical, and aware of one’s own senses.

Textual Analysis helps students discover meaning and insights into:

1. the general nature of the text,
2. imagery and sensory perception,
3. syntax and sentence structure,
4. figurative and rhetorical devices,
5. registers of language and of style (direct, indirect, or free style),
6. tone, mood, movement,
7. speaker’s/narrator’s (usually the poet) experiences, emotions, perspectives/viewpoint on the poem’s subject, poem’s theme.

Textual Analysis helps students to learn how the text of a poem may represent social facts, may relate to a specific historical event, or may include social events or phenomena. Text also may provide insight into values or thought systems which are the basis for character behavior, and illuminate perspectives and viewpoints of the speaker or narrator, including their philosophy on life or their moral or political judgement.

D. Poetry develops a personal creative potential. Written expression and analytical skills are redefined while enhancing the expression of personal meaning. The creative potential for writing poetry in the foreign language may present the opportunity to be more dramatic than writing poetry in one’s own native language.

The Primary Goal of the
Poetry Progressive Integration Plan
is to teach students
that reading and writing poetry
is an enjoyable experience.

The Author:
Judith M. Michaels is a private consultant from Green Bay, Wisconsin.  You can reach her at Judmichaels@aol.com

Different languages — I mean the actual vocabularies, the idioms — have worked out certain mechanisms of communication and registration. No one language is complete. A master may be continually expanding his own tongue, rendering it fit to bear some charge hitherto borne only by some other alien tongue, but the process does not stop with any one man. While Proust is learning Henry James, preparatory to breaking through certain French paste-board partitions, the whole American speech is churning and chugging, and every other tongue doing likewise.
     — Ezra Pound, "How to Read," 1929