On Not Betraying Poetry

Abstract

Responding to evidence of a steep decline in the reading of poetry, this article advocates a set of broad principles for poetry teaching that address the aesthetic function and materiality of poetry, and argues for a dialectic relationship in the poetry classroom between thoughtful analysis and interpretive freedom.

An analysis of haiku teaching discourse: From talking about to doing haiku

“…The present analysis shows these two distinctive discourses in haiku-related materials and confirms that the talking about haiku discourse is still dominant as it is strongly developed throughout all forms of oral and written texts (100%), while the teaching by doing discourse can be found in only15% of the written texts. This, indeed, resonates with other studies in poetry education (Farber, 2015;Gooda, 2016). From traditional to modern methods-such as metalanguage instruction (Wilson & Myhill, 2012;Van Lier, 1998), reader response (Rosenblatt, 1938), and textual and contextual approaches (Mattison, 2010)-teachers still share misinformed ideas about what makes a good poem and, thus, mistakenly assume that writing poems and teaching learners to write poems is beyond their ability (Brannon, 2012;Linaberger, 2004).…”

“Every day do something that won't compute”: Student perceptions of daily poetry practice

“…Despite poetry's long‐standing place in English classrooms, it is a source of struggle for many teachers and resistance for many students (Farber, 2015; Sigvardsson, 2020). Research indicates that this thorny nature of poetry—on part of teacher and student—results from “the demands of [a] formalized curriculum” decreed by the omnipresent pressure of high‐stakes testing (Steele, 2015, as cited in Dymoke et al, 2015, p. 19) and from an adjacent, overly analytical methodology (Farber, 2015) that approaches a given poem as if with a scalpel, as if it were not a poem at all. Put another way, our “schooled practices” with poetry encourage us to “ talk about a poem before there is time to be in and with a poem” (Pindyck et al, 2022, p. xii, emphasis original).…”

“…As teachers work out their own poetry baggage, students are caught in the crosshairs. Research repeatedly worries about student disinterest and resistance to poetry (Benton, 1999; Farber, 2015; Sigvardsson, 2020). Lott (1989) remarks that her students had never connected with poetry in the way that she had, would not choose to read a poem on their own volition, and that “their encounters with poetry resembled their encounters with science” (p. 65).…”

Poëzieonderwijs op maat

“…Ook in Engeland en in Amerika speelt dat probleem, maar percentages worden nergens genoemd. Andrews (1991), Pike (2000), Snapper (2013) en Farber (2015) bespreken drie mogelijke oorzaken van die negatieve houding. Docenten gaan volgens hen zelden in op de functie van lyriek, zij zijn sterk gericht op cultuuroverdracht en bieden daarom alleen gedichten uit de canon aan en er is weinig ruimte voor leeservaringen en interpretaties van leerlingen.…”