Dreams of possibilities: Linking poetry to our lives

ALAN Review, Winter 2003 by Lowery, Ruth McKoy

As an interim middle school teacher in a large urban school district, I was assigned to teach a dropout prevention language arts sixth grade class. The students were predominantly minority immigrants performing below grade level. Many were not excited at the prospect of doing "too much reading" and wanted to bargain about the types of books they could read, the main concern being the thickness of the books chosen. In an effort to engage them in the beauty of language, I integrated poetry in the language arts lessons. At first reluctant; their interests piqued when I emphasized the concise nature of poetic forms. Wow! They would not have to read long pages, they could read "poetry" and that was reading. They were exultant.

I began with a demonstration of how meaningful poems could be in our lives. First, I introduced them to Langston Hughes' poem, "Dreams." Before reading the poem, I asked the students about their dreams for life after middle and high school. We talked about what they hoped to do after graduation. What careers would they like to have? I then asked them to think about their dreams as I recited the poem. After reciting the poem, I asked them to respond to their feelings about the poem. We then shared in a classroom discussion. The students' responses focused mainly on the jobs they would like to have after graduation. Most of the jobs were those that would make them rich so they could buy and do anything they wanted for the rest of their lives.

Using their personal connections to the poem, we created a "dream wall". We placed Hughes' poem in the middle of a bulletin board and then using 3x5 index cards and yarn, we created individual links to the poem. The students wrote their dreams for the future on the 3x5 cards. They were free to revisit the wall and update their dreams. For many, this was a meaningful exercise. They frequently referred to the "dream wall" as a memorable experience. I dared them to dream and to think beyond those dreams to making them possibilities for

More recently, as a teacher educator, in my children's and adolescent literature classes I continue to incorporate the poems of Langston Hughes in hopes of preparing pre-service teachers to teach diverse students. My dream is that they will go out and create effective educational environments that foster dreams of possibilities for all students they will teach, including those students considered at risk of school failure. In the remainder of this article I share pre-service teachers' reflections to "Dreams" in one literature class. First, I begin with an overview of poetry in children's lives. I then describe the setting and present how the pre-service teachers reflected on their dreams after listening to the poem.

Poetry in Children's Lives

Tomlinson and Lynch-Brown define poetry as "the expression of ideas and feelings through a rhythmical composition of imaginative and beautiful words selected for their sonorous effects" (38). Poetry has the power to illuminate ordinary experiences in extraordinary ways (Hade and Murphy, 346). Readers of poetry quickly come to realize the picturesque ways in which they can express themselves while using a scarcity of words. They learn to recognize and value the beauty in words. Perfect (728) determines that poetry validates the human experience thus it helps us to understand ourselves.

Poetry is all around us and inside us. Teachers can orient their students to the beauty that lies within by providing them with a wide variety of poetic forms. Tompkins posits, "As students experiment with poetry, they learn that poetic language is vivid and powerful but concise, and they learn that poems can be arranged in different ways on a page" (50). Teachers can use the poetry to help their students create new experiences. They can empower their students to move beyond simply liking poetry to thinking more deeply about the poem's meaning. As students read or hear poetry recited, they learn to reflect on poetry. This reflective process creates more meaningful personal experiences for them.

Although poetry has the power to generate wonderful experiences in its readers, historically it has been the most neglected genre utilized in schools' curricula. Some teachers do not share poetry in their classrooms because they too had negative experiences in their early exposure to the genre. When I ask preservice teachers to reflect on poetry from their elementary to high school experiences, their responses are often prefaced by groans. Many vividly describe how they had to dissect or memorize different poems. Often, they remember the poems but not the poets' names. They have no positive connection with the beautiful words.

Strickland and Strickland (205) found that teachers today are increasingly more knowledgeable about literature and are willing to expose students to a plethora of literary experiences. These teachers are more willing to engage their students in poetry. Teachers are finding that students tend to develop a love for poetry when they are immersed in reading and listening to poems as pleasurable engagements. Sloan (53) admonishes that in order to create poetry lovers, teachers need to give students what they want. Consistently exposing students to an array of good poetry helps them to develop a sense for poetic forms and soon they are able to identify different types of poems on their own. They are able to create lasting connections with poetry.