Powerful students, powerful words: writing and learning in a poetry workshop
Abstract
A poetry workshop can present opportunities to integrate students' knowledge and perspectives in classroom contexts, encouraging the use of language for expression, communication, learning and even empowerment. This paper describes how adolescent students respond to a poetry workshop in an English classroom centred on teaching writing that is based on their knowledge from their various life experiences and understanding of events beyond the classroom. Informed by New Literacy Studies and third space theories, ethnographic methods of participant observation were used to document an eighth-grade urban public school classroom where a community member implemented a weekly programme using music lyrics and poetry for an entire school year. Findings illustrate how the poetry workshop encouraged students to contribute to the classroom learning context and engage critically with ideas that were relevant to their lives. Collaborating with a community member and tapping in to the powerful ways of using language to communicate led to important learning opportunities for students in this classroom. Poetic devices such as rhyme, rhythm, metaphor and wordplay enhanced and supported students' own language practices; students used these sophisticated writing strategies as they worked to convey their ideas, experiences and opinions.
As the focus of efforts to improve student achievement are often fixated on assessing and measuring learning through standardised tests, many students struggle with a narrowly defined literacy curriculum that is quite different from how students use literacy in their own lives (Schultz, 2002; Street, 2003). As a result, youth often feel disconnected from literacy instruction and therefore do not engage in reading and writing done in the classroom (Franzak, 2008). This marginalisation can occur because different language practices and ways of knowing are not incorporated into formal classroom learning (Nieto, 2008). This is particularly the case for students who experience a disconnect between their home and school culture and more often than not, find themselves in school settings that encourage narrow language practices and limited learning opportunities (McIntyre et al., 2001). School-sanctioned literacy often excludes students' experiences based on language, culture or identity (Hatt, 2007), which is one reason why students are increasingly citing activities outside of school as having a stronger impact on their learning than in-school events (Gee, 2000).
Poetry writing in the classroom has the potential to encourage complex engagement and integrate knowledge that results from various life experiences since it involves creative language and multiple perspectives (Jocson, 2006; Morrell, 2002; Wiseman, 2007). When students are provided with opportunities to write about topics that resonate with them and use their own ways of thinking about the world, their educational experiences and literacy learning are enhanced (Lewison and Heffernan, 2008; Staples, 2008). Poetry can provide a way for students to communicate topics that bridge their personal knowledge with the school curriculum through metaphor, imagery and creative expression. Furthermore, poetry can incorporate the understanding that comes from being engaged in multiple contexts, cultures and identities, where both the students and teacher contribute to the curriculum and communicate their learning. The purpose of this article is to consider the ways that students write poetry to develop and reflect their deeper understanding about themselves and the world while building on ways of expressing and synthesising knowledge in the classroom. My guiding research question is: how do students participate in a classroom poetry workshop led by a community member that builds on their experiences and knowledge in various contexts?
Related research
This study is grounded in New Literacy Studies which establish that knowledge is socially constructed in a dialogic manner, literacy practices are socially and historically situated (Street, 2003) and they are grounded in the actions of everyday lived experiences (Barton et al., 2000). Gee (2008) described the discourse of language as the way that we incorporate our understanding of the world that often reflects“negotiation, contestation, and ‘hybridity’” (p. 182). Learning is an active process that entails more than moving from one skill to the next; it also involves developing conceptual understanding by connecting prior knowledge with new ideas to build and extend overall knowledge.
Learning that occurs in the classroom is affected by experiences that occur from participation in multiple contexts, such as home, school, sports, church or peer groups. Gutierrez (2008) uses the term sociocritical literacy, which constitutes how classroom practices can build on students' knowledge from their various experiences and perspectives for critical interaction and engagement, to describe learning opportunities that encourage what she refers to as “critical social thought”. Critical social thought can result from negotiating different meanings and evaluating competing perspectives to develop ways of thinking or understanding. Because classrooms have “multiple layered and conflicting activity systems” (Gutierrez, 2008, p. 152), expansive learning occurs as students move within and among their social contexts and are able to build on their experiences from multiple sources. It is this complexity of meaning-making that provides an important catalyst for literacy learning; when students can relate new information to topics that are meaningful to them, their literacy practices support the process of communicating, describing and making sense of the world. Re-envisioning the curriculum to include student experiences involves a shift in power, which requires that literacy be defined, taught and understood so that all students can contribute in the classroom.
Historically, many studies have contributed to our understanding of students' knowledge that results from participation in various contexts, such as Heath'sWays with Words (1983) which provides a rich description of how the larger socio-cultural context that includes literate events from children's everyday lives affects students' language practices. In addition, the concept of ‘funds of knowledge’ (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Moll, 2000; Moll et al., 1992) came from a project where teachers and researchers utilised talents and abilities of those in the community by having them teach skills they used at home or work as part of the school curriculum. In both of these studies, it was significant to recognise how literacy practices outside the classroom affect learning opportunities that are both engaging and supportive of students' literacy needs within school.
More recently, third space and hybridity have been used to describe how integrating different ways of knowing can support classroom connections to children's literacy experiences, including how experiences outside school influence their attitudes about literacy. While third space theories were originally proposed by Bhabha (1994) to explain how hybrid identities are created in a space where multiple cultures meet, the concept of third space has important implications for classroom learning. Moje et al. (2004) use third space theory to understand how learning opportunities are enhanced when they merge the first space of the literacies and knowledge of people's home, community and peer networks with the second space of literacy and knowledge of more formal institutions such as schools and churches. Building on the concept of funds of knowledge (Gonzalez et al., 2005), their study presents the funds of knowledge and discourses used to integrate out-of-school and in-school literacies with content area knowledge. When knowledge is constructed from these different, sometimes competing spaces, students might: create new ways of comprehending, work against certain forms of knowledge and integrate ideas from the different ‘spaces’ to use as resources. Understanding hybridity and third space theory can support classroom connections to children's home literacy experiences, including how their hybrid identities affect their attitudes about literacy (Levy, 2008).
The literary form of poetry can encourage critical social thought and facilitate these ideas of third space and hybridity, with “transformative space[s] where the potential for an expanded form of learning and the development of new knowledge are heightened” (Gutierrez, 2008, p. 152). An example of this is Morrell and Duncan-Andrade's (2002) development of a curriculum where students learned critical essay writing as well as literary terms by analysing familiar hip-hop poetry alongside what can be considered ‘traditional’ English poetry. Using hip-hop, which students identified as a familiar poetic form, as a basis for analysis and understanding other more traditional poems encouraged students to use a familiar genre to develop their analytic thinking skills and build on their knowledge of writing and literature.
Using a workshop approach where students explore self-selected topics while channelling the creative and descriptive genre of poetry has also been a way to integrate hybrid knowledge and perspectives that come from participation in various contexts and create a space within the classroom to integrate knowledge from participation in various contexts. While conducting a poetry workshop with high school students, Kinloch (2005) described how honest and meaningful poetry is written from students' experiences and viewpoints and how the workshop approach provides important teaching and learning opportunities through social interactions in the classroom. She referred to these classroom interactions as Democratic Engagements, which encourage what she describes as interactive significations (such as speech acts and code switching) where students use and expand their knowledge of language to explore and build ideas within the curriculum. Poetry has also been a way for students to reflect on their complex identities and experiences with the world (Jocson, 2006; Wiseman, 2007), as well as an opportunity for expressing how students feel silenced in school settings, particularly related to race, gender and sexuality (Norton, 2008; Weinstein, 2007; Wissman, 2007). When students have various ways of acquiring and communicating knowledge in the classroom, they are able to interact with material in ways that expand their ways of learning and engage with topics that are relevant to their own lives. Poetry has the potential to provide students with opportunities that bring their knowledge from the margins to the front and centre of classroom learning, encouraging the use of language for expression, communication, learning and even empowerment.
Description of the study
The study takes place in an eighth-grade English classroom in the United States at an urban middle school that has 19 African-American students, two Hispanic students and one Asian-American student; nine males and 13 females. The school is located in a historically African-American neighbourhood in a large metropolitan East Coast city. Pamela (all names and locations have been changed in this article), the English teacher who was in her third year of teaching, designed projects and lessons that built on students' experiences outside of the classroom while integrating opportunities to engage with different people and experiences within their community. English instruction in Pamela's classroom was a balance of skills instruction and what she described as ‘service-based projects’, where students would engage in projects in the community that foster learning while also developing awareness and understanding to improve the neighbourhood.
Pamela invited Theo, an African-American community member who worked at a nearby non-profit organisation that provided food and services to homeless and low-income families, to teach poetry once a week in her classroom. Theo was the youth director and also organised a poetry and lyric writing club for high school students at his community organisation; he worked in different contexts to promote poetry for youth in the area and also read and recorded his own poetry and lyrics for performances. This was the second year that Theo participated in this classroom by teaching weekly poetry writing workshops. Theo had relationships with many students in the classroom from his community work; in addition, his involvement in this school fostered new relationships with other students who began to attend programmes at the non-profit agency.
Theo's poetry workshops lasted approximately 45 minutes and took place once a week. Music was often the catalyst for introducing a theme or lesson and provided a model for writing; Theo selected songs or poems from a variety of genres that he felt conveyed an important message. The criteria for poetry writing in this workshop consisted of three main points; students should: (1) draw upon their own experiences to come up with writing topics; (2) use creative language to express their thoughts and ideas; and (3) write and revise their work to be precise and concise using minimal language for the maximum potential. Lessons introduced various styles, themes and language forms using a model piece that acted as a springboard for ideas and could serve as a way for students to organise their own poetry. Students were encouraged to analyse the writing presented and then they could either choose to use the example and craft a similar format or theme or elect to write about a different topic or format. Furthermore, using brief minilessons and individual conferences, Theo encouraged students to focus on metaphorical language and create strong visual images. As they began writing, students were free to move around and work with fellow classmates. At the end of each poetry workshop, students had time to share their poetry with the class and students were encouraged to provide feedback, read their poetry and communicate ideas to each other.
An evening poetry coffeehouse was scheduled bimonthly at the school where students, parents and community members wrote and performed poetry together. The end product from the workshops and coffeehouses was an anthology, which was bound at a local print shop with contributions from students, teachers, parents and community members. Copies of the anthology were given to all students and their families.
Data collection
This study employed qualitative research methods that involved data collection and analysis to create a holistic picture of this learning context. What you are reading here is part of a larger study that focused on many aspects of the poetry programme, including family participation and collaboration with community members.
During this study, ethnographic techniques of participant observation and descriptive analysis (Creswell, 2008) were applied to the classroom setting as I gathered data throughout a full school year. Data were collected from September to May and involved observations on average twice a week, both weekly poetry workshops and regular English lessons. In addition, I held four focus group sessions (Krueger and Casey, 2009) with a group of five students who were identified by the teacher as representative of students in this classroom based on race, ethnicity, academic success and interest in poetry. Four group interviews were also held with other students who were interested in talking with me about their poetry and their experiences in the workshop. Data were generated from three sources: (1) classroom observations and interactions that were recorded through field notes and audio recording; (2) student writing; and (3) individual or small group interviews and discussions that were audio recorded. Classroom lessons, focus groups and interviews were audiotaped and transcribed in order to be analysed.
Data analysis
To determine how students' knowledge was reflected in their poetry, I began by analysing and coding topics that emerged from their writing and used inductive methods to develop categories based on their writing topics (Corbin and Strauss, 2008). There were four themes that emerged from this analysis; students' poetry fell into the categories of families, personal identity, faith/religion and community or current events. Ensuring for trustworthiness through credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability was an important consideration of my research design (Merriam, 2009). By having prolonged involvement in the classroom, collaboration with research participants and varied types of data, I ensured credibility. The research was transferable through thick description and understanding of the context (Merriam, 2009) and dependable through regular observations and using a variety of methods that overlapped. The data were confirmed using methods of triangulation (Mills, 2003); while the poems were the focus of analysis, I also juxtaposed comments from focus groups, group interviews and classroom observations to provide further insight.
Learning from poetry
In this classroom, poetry created a space for meaning-making and self-reflection in the English curriculum, providing ways for students to learn how to use their poetry while engaging critically with ideas and concepts that were relevant to them. In the next section, I will describe how students were able to use their poetry to consider different perspectives, reflect and communicate strengths, and demonstrate areas of strength and topics that need further development.
A different learning approach: “This curriculum is different; we don't just go by the book”
Students were encouraged to consider multiple perspectives and interpretations during the poetry lessons while focusing on complex ways of expressing their feelings and ideas. They described the workshop as “different than their other classes because Theo and Pamela care about what we think”, and that “we can write what we want rather than other classes with teachers that just go by the book”. Over the year, poetry workshop topics focused on developing and reflecting students' identities and encouraged students to question their assumptions about the way they viewed their world. For instance, Theo taught one lesson on the concept of ‘Miseducation’ and focused on how information can be portrayed or presented incorrectly, particularly related to history and life lessons. He connected Lauryn Hill's (1998, track 14) song Miseducation to Carter G. Woodson's book The Miseducation of the Negro (Woodson, 1933/2000) and discussed how:
“Miseducation could be something you were taught that you weren't taught the full scope of it, it could be something you thought was true and you were led to think one thing when it was actually another. Miseducation could come from media images. It could be a kid that just stays on the block and doesn't see what this city has to offer and so they get in their mind that what they have to do is be on that block … It can be intentional, it can be unintentional. It can deal with your mind; it can deal with your body”.
As Theo instructed students to question and consider ideas in the workshop, he built on his experiences as an African-American male, father and community member to extend and challenge students' writing. In focus groups, students explained that they appreciated how they had opportunities in the classroom to consider their own racial identities as well as their personal knowledge experiences. Topics were open-ended; Theo repeated in many lessons that “there is no right or wrong” and wrote in a handout that “there is no wrong way to finish each story beginning” and in focus groups, students explained to me that they, “like that there is no right or wrong and that it is less structured than other classroom lessons”.
Vanessa was a student who often used her poetry as a platform for communicating ideas that she was not able to convey by speaking directly with others. In a group interview, she explained that, “It [poetry] helps because some things you can't say aloud to certain people, you can write it down in a poem. So, it helps you, too – getting problems off your back”. For example, in the excerpt from this poem that was written in response to the Miseducation lesson, she addresses how she feels pressure from goals and decisions placed upon her:
“The stereotypes are running my life
Bringing much confusion or strife
I'm stuck in a world where image is everything
If you don't have the items then you're an item of inferiority
It's hard to be a child in this material world
Adults setting so many goals its outta control
They want you to be what they could not
And get an education with the power of love
I've haven't forgot
But the pressure isn't helping us at all
In fact the pressure is making us fall”.
Vanessa was one of many students who saw her poetry as a way to take action and convey what she wanted in the world. Her writing was passionate and complex; in the poem she uses two main poetic conventions that emphasise her ideas. First, she relies on repetition of selected words, such as item and pressure, which draw attention to important concepts of her poem. Her repetition and use of the word item in the line, “If you don't have the items then you're an item of inferiority” demonstrates how she used multiple meanings of the term to express her feelings about an overemphasis on materialistic and superficial things. Vanessa employs sophisticated word choices to describe how people can be disregarded or judged based on their material belongings (hence they become ‘items’). In addition, her use of rhyme and rhythm in the first and last two lines of the poem created a parallel structure within the introduction and conclusion of her poem, a strategy that drew attention to the beginning and ending, particularly when she performed her poem orally.
For Vanessa, poetry provided a way that she could communicate with adults and peers about topics relevant to her life while poetic conventions enhanced the way she was able to make her views known. Vanessa said that, “we are the future and we need to be heard. We could change some of these things so it would be easier in the future. Because everybody else would know more about it”. Poetry gave her opportunities for expression; being able to write and then read her work in a public forum provided her with a purpose for expressing her ideas and a community to hear her work.
Many of the students appreciated having a space to address topics that evoked strong emotions and feelings within the space of the classroom. Phillip was a student who used his creative language to express his emotions and consider how they affected his decision-making process. A poem he wrote provides an example of how he described his feelings as ‘powerful’ and affecting his life choices:
“Feelings are powerful enough to drive people insane
They put pressure on you in the wrong places
And make you do things that you wouldn't do in other cases
Anger could make you get enraged
Like a wild lion trapped in a cage”.
Phillip's use of the wild lion simile and the personification of the angry trapped lion demonstrate how symbolic language can extend his ideas about emotions. Phillip explained that he did not express his feelings often in his daily life among his friends and family, but felt that poetry did provide a release of feelings and emotions. Explaining to me that “You can express your feelings through poetry”, he valued how the poetry workshop changed the dynamics of the classroom because students' ideas were valued. “It's not like a regular class”, he told me, “Other teachers just go by the book. I'm encouraged here and I like to read my thoughts about the world and current events”. Phillip was glad to have a space within school to express his feelings and in focus groups he expressed how poetry helped emotionally and therefore academically.
Both Vanessa and Phillip used their poetry to communicate and wrote with an awareness of the audience they read to in class and at coffeehouses. It was significant that they both counted on ‘being heard’ as they composed their poetry. As students draw on their own ways of knowing, literacy practices can merge the knowledge that students possess with literary knowledge that reflects complex ideas and poetic conventions. For these students, it is important not only to make meaning of texts, but to also consider how language works and how it can provide students with a way of expressing and acting in the world.
Strength and power: “God gives me strength”
Some lessons in the poetry workshop specifically encouraged students to reflect and communicate their own strengths. For instance, Theo taught one lesson where he guided students to “be thankful for what you got” after playing a song by the same title by William deVaughn (1972, track 1) and having them list non-materialistic items that they feel fortunate to have. Yolanda described her ability to write and reflected how she gradually gained confidence during the poetry workshop. In seventh grade, she was uncomfortable reading her poems to the class because she was nervous to perform; however, she eventually worked up the confidence to read aloud during her eighth-grade year. When Yolanda shared and discussed her poem with me during a poetry workshop, she explained that she initially doubted her writing abilities but explained that her peers had made her feel more confident. To reflect this, Yolanda wrote:
“My writing moves so fast today.
I believed that I could write good poetry anyway.
At first I wasn't into poetry because I did not know what I was missing.
Now I see that it is a great way to bring out your feeling.
Now I believe if I write I can do anything because God gave me the strength to pray.
Since God gave me the strength to pray, I now believe I can write any day”.
In her poem, Yolanda describes how she is able to compose quickly due to the fact that she is “able to write good poetry”. Using description of how her “writing moves so fast today” she is able to contrast her past experiences with how she knows now that she can think of and develop topics, use her poetry to communicate, and reflect on her own writing progress. In addition, she recognises how her belief in God gave her strength to write and perform her pieces. An important aspect of learning an artistic craft, such as poetry, is that workshops take on authentic purposes; students are writing to perform their poetry to an audience and publish their work in a book. Yolanda was one of many students who gained confidence as she worked to improve her writing and then was able to use her poetry to communicate. Providing students with opportunities to engage with and write about topics that resonate with them can connect life experiences to classroom participation.
Students used their poetry to describe themselves in powerful positions and quite often their poetry reflected their growth and understanding of themselves as individuals. Kenny was a student who used his poetry to do this; he was well aware of his personal strengths and how his choices in life affected his opportunities and outcomes. In one poem, Kenny wrote:
“I'm thankful for my education and intelligence
Because I'm drug-free
My endurance, body, feelings and self-esteem is the winning ticket
Without it, I will not be able to do what I do
I would not be able to be what I am!”
Using an analogy to winning the lottery with a ‘winning ticket’ to describe how his choices will lead to positive results, Kenny's poem projects a positive self-identity and shows how he is aware of how his choices will affect his future. It was significant that Kenny was able to articulate very concrete aspects of his identity that provided him with a ‘winning ticket’; as we listened to him read this we could see a young man who was able to recognise and articulate his strengths. Because of the personal nature of the poetry workshop, the topics reflected important identity work for students.
For adolescents who are learning about how their choices affect their lives in many ways, many students expressed to me that they needed a space within the school curriculum to explore these ideas and that they appreciated the opportunity to write and discuss with their fellow students.
Identifying needs: “what tests your faith?” and other unanswered questions
A theme that often emerged in students' writing was how they maintained positive views and what they attributed as the sources of their strength, such as their faith and family. Students expressed their appreciation for people, often other family members who had helped them when their parents had not been able to care for them in ways they had hoped. In one lesson, Theo played the song ‘Test of My Faith’ by Petey Pablo (2001, track 2), which describes how certain life experiences have been ‘tests’ about the choices one makes. Students' writing demonstrated that they were aware of many kinds of decisions and influences that could affect their lives in negative ways. In their neighbourhoods, they described crack houses, drug deals, poverty and violence; however, poetry provided an opportunity to consider positive outcomes and places to find strength. Their pride in various aspects of their identities was evident, such as how they were “thankful for their courage and I'm happy for having an African-American heritage”, and “I wake up feeling proud of myself”. For instance, one student wrote, “I am thankful for my mother and father because they give me that kind of love that no one else could give me. Not even me”.
In the same way, using topics from students' experiences can also alert teachers to specific needs and concerns. As an extension to the ‘Test of My Faith’ lesson, Theo encouraged students to consider how they could set goals for their upcoming educational experiences, specifically related to how they would be leaving middle school for high school at the end of this school year. Theo told them, “your lives are going to change. And those changes are going to bring stress, some of you may be looking forward to it and some of you may be thinking about it and totally afraid”. He went on to describe that it might be difficult to make choices about school attendance, change schools, deal with conflict among family or friends or manage more responsibilities that come with growing up. Theo asked students to consider what their life held in the near future and describe what they wanted to accomplish between the end of junior high and high school and even after high school.
During this poetry lesson, many of the students had difficulty developing ideas about what they wanted to write, which was not a typical response from students. Leon was one of the students that stared at a blank page for a while and then asked assistance. When Theo asked Leon to think about how he was tested and what the future might hold for him, Leon was flippant and jokingly replied that his teachers ‘tested’ him because they kept contacting his father about his poor grades. Both Theo and Pamela were concerned with the lack of response and reflection exhibited by the students and realised that many students were challenged to think of goals related to selecting a high school, whether they would work to graduate with a diploma and consider what lies beyond high school. An example was Juan who tried to imagine what the world held for him and wrote:
“Am I going to succeed?
Be the person that everyone needs?
To meet and greet
Or am I going to be the one gettin' beat?”
Juan's poem evoked images of a crossroads where he could have either positive or negative outcomes; both teachers were alerted to the idea that he did not seem sure of what his future held. Even when pushed to consider his future goals related to his occupation, schooling or employment, Leon, Juan and many of the other students were either resistant or unsure. In a junior high school that fed into a high school where almost half of the students drop out, students' descriptions of their futures were a cause for concern. The poet and teacher both made efforts to be accessible to students, provide information about high schools that students could apply for which would have an academic focus that might interest them or build a skill that would help them with their future occupations, and also advise students about opportunities they may have overlooked. They also discussed their concerns with students, encouraging them to consider some options beyond eighth grade and continued with poetry topics that related to future outcomes as well as providing students with information about goal setting and careers. Because of the nature of the poetry workshop, the relationship between teachers and students was quite different; there was a personal component that guided the poetry lessons. This is an example of how allowing personal response through poetry can guide the teacher to supporting students overall, extending beyond the specific grade objectives to larger educational needs.
Conclusion and implications
Adrienne Rich (1979) describes poetry as “above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe” (p. 248). Collaborating with a community member and tapping in to the powerful ways that language can be used to communicate led to important classroom learning opportunities for students in this classroom. Poetic devices such as rhyme, rhythm, similes and wordplay were utilised to enhance and support students' own language practices and students used these sophisticated writing strategies as they worked to convey their ideas, experiences and opinions. Vanessa's passion was emphasised through repetition and complex word meanings, Philip and Yolanda used comparisons to describe their feelings, and Leon's and Juan's descriptive writing (or lack of writing) pointed to emerging ideas that need further development. The poetry allowed for creative manipulation of emotional and social topics, while integrating and expanding students' language.
Creating spaces for critical thinking was a significant aspect of this poetry programme, which is particularly important to adolescent students who feel that the school curriculum is devoid of relevant information (Hull and Schultz, 2002). Using current events, family experiences and future aspirations, students were able to question and consider multiple perspectives in their poetry. Topics that emerged from students' poetry writing provided students with opportunities to focus on their strengths, question their understandings and communicate a desire for change. Responses to topics also demonstrated ideas that might need further discussion, scaffolding and reflection. The learning dynamic in this classroom, which allowed for interpretations and contributions from students as well as community members, is an important aspect of inclusive classrooms (Nieto, 2008). Having opportunities to consider and integrate relevant topics in a supportive climate is an important way to create a third space or hybrid places of learning in the classroom. Students support each other and are encouraged through the classroom teaching and learning as they build on their own literacy practices. Furthermore, important learning occurs for students to develop their voices as they question their experiences and consider different perspectives through the creative and expansive language of poetry.