The Poetry Box: A Student Centered Constructivist Approach to Poetry Lessons in Secondary Education

Abstract

Poetry is often compared to paintings because of its abstract and symbolic nature. Poetry lessons, therefore, tend to be elusive and teacher oriented. As the teacher is expected to present most information about poetry to the students in this conventional teaching style, many problems have been observed. Teachers and students have reported that they were not confident about their preparedness of teaching or studying poetry due to the pressures of having comprehensive knowledge of difficult poems; student engagement level was low; and the education did not lead to authentic learning. In order to counteract this, this research investigated the impact of implementing a constructivist teaching method called the Poetry Box on those three problem areas. This was because constructivist teaching has been known to increase students' role as proactive participants in the learning process and create less stressful lessons. In four ELA/ESL classes in a high school, the participants of the research used the method and reported the implications of the lessons regarding self efficacy, student engagement level, and authentic learning experience. The result of this study indicated that students gained more confidence regardless of their levels of English, began to enjoy writing and reading poems, and developed their English language skills when poetic freedom and creativity were emphasized pedagogically based on constructivism. As students became more active, teachers were less pressured to gain exclusive knowledge of poetry and focused more on their role as facilitators of education, which improved their self efficacy.