Thinking and reflecting on Jesse's read aloud to the whole class makes me realize that even students who are normally resistant to reading do find joy in reading fun, and witty poetry that has a strong sense of rhythm. In this particular case, both Jesse and Nathan were into the process of listening to the read aloud, and were eager to be involved in reading the poem aloud. Poetry is definitely a type of reading material that is less intimidating to readers. The reason why I advocate in this can be supported by Westby (2005). When reading a narrative story, for instance, The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, it requires readers to be active thinkers by doing the envisioning, inferring, predicting, and retelling work because the story itself consists of goals and intentions of the main characters, Elizabeth, Ronald and the Dragon. As students read this story, we push them to think and be aware of the characters' desires, emotions, and actions in an ongoing process as the story unfolds itself. As they read longer stories, students are required to be even more committed to using their narrative content schemata and text grammar schemata to develop understanding. Therefore, thinking back to the last two cycles, this may be one of the possible reasons why the two boys were not completely engaged in reading picture books even though they were their choice, since they were constantly being pushed to read critically.
Miller (2002) asked herself a question, 'in addition to picture books, what type of text is best when children begin to become more adept at making mental images on their own? What type of text bridges whole-group work and independence? The answer is poetry" (pp. 80). After assimilating what Miller said, I began to strongly believe that poetry does have the quality to engage readers to read in a less intense manner. Miller also said that poetry is appealing because they are short and 'thought-provoking'; they allow readers to envision images. The most important point she advocated is that through her personal experiences and observations, she has learned that 'best decoders aren't necessarily the most thoughtful readers, nor are the most thoughtful readers necessarily the best decoders' (pp. 80). Miller has definitely advocated me that poetry has a powerful magic that allow readers to create images to provoke personal interpretations that is an enjoyable process. As this part of the cycle continues, I am going to implement and encourage the use of shared reading and visual arts to enhance motivation and reading stamina.
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2 comments:
You do some deep reflections in this entry, but I want to challenge you on two points:
1) "Poetry is definitely a type of reading material that is less intimidating to readers." - As is, this statement is a huge generalization. Make sure to qualify what you mean: what kind of poetry? Less intimidating how? To which readers? I can point to a lot of older children, both boys and girls, who find poetry (think Shakespeare, Byron, Elliot) very intimidating.
2) When you wonder about students not being engaged in their reading because they were constantly asked to read critically, are you saying that critical reading work does not require the skills you mention previously (i.e., narrative content schemata, awareness of characters' desires, emotions, and actions, etc.)?
Revised Entry
I agree with you Grace. Generalization should be avoided in research. I think what I wanted to say is that a lot of children find poetry that are around a fun, witty and silly topic appealing. In this case, a lot of poetry by Eloise Greenfield involves topics that are day-to-day, authentic to urban children’s lives. When I said that poetry is less intimidating, I really meant to say that poems with these “attractive” traits, that also includes rhyming and strong rhythm. Linking back to the last entry, where Jesse was reading aloud to the class, I don’t think he would feel as comfortable if he was asked to read a picture book or a chapter of a novel to the class. Therefore, this certain type of poetry does have the power to engage students in a less intimidating way. I also believe that the teacher’s modeling and instruction also has a great impact and influence to how the students perceive and react on poetry as well. The way Ms. Jane and I are teaching poetry is to use interactive and shared reading to allow students to be fully involved in the reading process. The reading goes two-way – back and forth from the teacher to the students. When everybody reads together, it creates a friendly and safe environment for read aloud, where mistakes or shyness can be blended in the class dynamics.
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