Effects of Three Approaches to Teaching Poetry to Sixth Grade Students

BERNARR PAUL FOLTA, Purdue University

Abstract

Research suggests that children in sixth grade are at an important threshold in developing basic skills for interpreting metaphoric language in poetry. However, there is also evidence to suggest that children, because of their dependence on concrete operations, need special forms of cuing in learning how to approach the interpretations of poems.This study investigates the effectiveness of three instructional support systems for cuing sixth grade children in interpreting metaphoric language of poetry. The first support system (Treatment A) involved regular classroom teachers who applied their own verbal cuing. The second system (Treatment B) included external instructional support through given media and the teachers' verbal cuing. The third system (Treatment C) provided internal support through the use of poets. The underlying assumption here is that the teacher who is a practicing poet brings to the classroom a unique set of writing experiences that assist in cuing. A special control group (Treatment D) who received no instruction in responding to metaphoric language in poetry was also used..Subjects in this study were taken from sixth grade classes in three different school corporations in Tippe- canoe County, Indiana. Through a method of randomization and matching within school systems, the investigator limited the number of subjects from 720 to 272 in 12 intactclasses. Each treatment had 68 children and three classes. The independent variable in this study was the method of instructional support. The dependent variables were the raw scores of children's responses to Form B of "A Look at Literature," particularly 11 critical items that dealt specifically with the interpretation of metaphor in poetry.All three poetry-instruction groups were given the same instructional approach model and the same set of 24 poems from which the teachers selected 16 poems for instruction over an eight day period.An analysis of the pre-test scores for Form A of "A Look at Literature" indicated no significant differences among treatments. An analysis of post-test scores showed no significance among treatments in the children's responses to a wide range of reading skills but that there were significant differences among treatments in the children's responses that dealt specifically with the interpretation of metaphoric language in poetry. As a result of the scores for the "11 Critical Items Measurement," the following rank order of mean scores was observed: Treatment C, Poets (highest); Treatment B, Media and Teachers; Treatment D, control; Treatment A, Teachers (lowest). The Newman- Keuls test indicated that differences between Treatments A and B and between A and C were significant at the .05 level. All other differences among treatments were not significant.The findings suggest that children learned more in classes with internal or external support than in classes with no unique system of support. From data supplied by poets and teachers, it became apparent that Treatments B and C provided more experiential types of activities, whereas Treatment A provided more referential activities in approaching poetry. Teachers in Treatment B were given two films, twenty slides, and sixteen transparencies to prime children to interpret images as symbols and to experience tension in the poems through contrasting images. The poets in Treatment C were caught up with the dynamics of interchange in discussing levels of meaning, frequently shifting between the literal, and the symbolic, constantly weaving webs of meaning based on experience. Approaches used by the teachers were often based on referential guidance, with the teachers frequently limiting and sometimes telling the responses.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Language arts

COinS